The first worlds out of Terri’s mouth in the morning were
“I need to go to the clinic.” I wasn’t going to argue, but she managed to
take a shower and we all managed to get to our final breakfast at the Lake Lodge
Cafeteria. From there it was directly to the clinic near the Lake Yellowstone
Hotel. Fortunately it was just after 9 AM and she was one of the first
customers.
Even so she was queued behind someone else for the X-Ray
machine. She sent word for us to pack, so Rosie and I went back to the cabin and
finished packing, loaded the car and checked out. It wasn’t long after we got
back to the clinic that she was discharged. The diagnosis was what we expected:
a bad sprain. She was placed in a knee immobilizer and given crutches. The bill
was over $300, which didn’t seem too high to me, considering the
circumstances. Hopefully insurance will reimburse some of it!
The real problem was figuring how to get her in the car.
She needed the whole back seat of our rental and had to sit sideways. We managed
to cram the two large suitcases into the trunk, but there was still “Lucas”,
containing our overnight stuff. Terri had to use that as a backrest. Rosie had
to sit up front. The clinic gave us a bag of ice for swelling, and I had found
Motrin at the general store for her to mainline. We headed out of the park.
(Have I mentioned we have named our suitcases? “Bill”
is the hard cases suitcase, i.e. Bill the Pony from “Lord of the Rings”.
“Rover” was the soft suitcase, with its name marked in red nail polish so we
could find it easily at the baggage claim area – it seemed an appropriate name
for a suitcase! “Lucas” was the brand of the overnight bag.)
We drove out the way we came in: through the South Entrance. This time I got to see what I missed coming in during darkness. What I discovered was a lake shadowing the road for a while. Ahead we could see the looming and magnificent Grand Teton mountain range. Our goal was to spend the afternoon going through those mountains before checking into our hotel in Jackson. With Terri in the back seat I wasn’t sure we could do much site seeing.
We exited Yellowstone. Terri played navigator from the back seat. It was a beautiful clear and sunny day, unlike when we had arrived. The road followed the eastern shore of Jackson Lake, which reflected the mountains in its beautiful cool and clear water. Jackson Lake drains into the Snake River (which eventually ends up in the Colorado River). Terri directed me to a visitor center at Colter Bay Village. She didn’t want to get out, but I went briefly into the visitor center and snapped a few pictures. We had heard there was a tram ride somewhere around here that would take us to the top of a mountain, and I needed directions. I got a map and was directed to a place called Teton Village, just outside the park and northwest of Jackson.
At Jackson Lake Junction we turned into the Grand Teton National Park itself. We followed Teton Park Road that continued to shadow Jackson Lake as it curved toward the west. Looking up at the mountains we could see the glaciers and spots of snow near the tops of some of the taller peaks. Mount Teton, at 13,770 feet, was the largest of the peaks and soon appeared directly in front of us. Terri directed me again to get off on a one-way road that took us around the edge of Jenny Lake. It was a cool little road that wound through both woods and fields and seemed surrounded by nothing in particular but wildlife. It seemed to go nowhere and turned into a gravel road for a while. But eventually it emptied into an exit road that led to Teton Village, only a mile or two down the road.
Teton Village is about eight miles north and west of
Jackson. It is one huge ski resort and features not just the longest tram ride
in the continental United States, but various ski lifts that will take you all
or part the way up the mountain. I dropped Terri and Rosie off in front of the
ticket office and searched for a parking space. It took some time the find one.
The lot was jammed, perhaps because new condos were going up nearby. It sure
wasn’t because it was ski season! Moving was painful for Terri in her crutches
but she really wanted to take the tram ride if possible.
The tickets cost us $45, which seemed as steep as the ascent in the tram. But we were here and it was the last day of our vacation so we weren’t going to let money deter us. It was difficult for Terri to get up a story to get to the place where we would get on the tram. There was no elevator but a sloping walkway was available. We also found it advantageous to wait until she could be first in line because she would need to sit down. The trams ran every ten minutes or so and held about 45 people.
Looking up at Mount Rendezvous was a bit awing. The trams
went at a 45-degree angle or more. Looking down over Teton Village we could see
that this was a place that catered to a fairly well moneyed crowd. There were
lots of little boutiques and snobby restaurants, along with the first Starbucks
I had seen in Wyoming. Reputedly Vice President Cheney comes here with an
entourage during the season.
The tram ride was neat and a little scary. There were places where we were three hundred feet or more above the ground. Going through each connecting tower caused a little jolt. You felt a little lighter and wondered if you were going to plummet. We saw a number of observation towers. We learned these were places where during snow season charges would be fired from special guns into the snow to reduce the likelihood of avalanche. It was about a 12 minutes ride to get to the top but it seemed to go much faster. It was pushing ninety degrees down in the village but when we arrived at the top is was in the fifties and the wind was very brisk. We were all cold because, of course, we never bothered to think about bringing a sweater.
The view from the top was spectacular. I didn’t regret the cost of the tickets. The Snake River Valley could be seen in amazing detail to our east. To our west, north and south were plenty of mountains in the Grand Teton range. We could see the many ski trails. They seemed so steep we couldn’t imagine how anyone other than expert skiers could ski on them. There were also a couple houses built into the mountain. I talked with the guide at the summit and she said she didn’t understand how people could live in them during the winter. The roads to get to them there were so steep and snow covered that it is unlikely even an SUV could scale them during the winter. Maybe they had personal helicopters!
I asked the guide if Terri, due to her injury, could get priority seating on the way down. She was kind enough to oblige so we were first on the tram going down. The ride down was in some ways scarier than going up because you sometimes couldn’t see what was coming. There was one spot where you went right over the side of a cliff and could not see anything ahead. When we arrived back at the base we actually felt good to be in hot weather again. It was too cold up there on the top!
It was already pushing five o’clock. It was time to check
in to the Painted Buffalo Inn in
Jackson. It was right across the street from the Dollar Rent a Car, where we
would catch our shuttle to the airport in the morning. We were traveling on
unfamiliar roads but we found the hotel easily enough. Needless to say unloading
was a bit of a hassle. We had booked the “Family Suite” at a pricey $149 for
the night since it was all that was available. It was in the back of the hotel
on the second floor, so Terri had to painfully make it up the stairs and into
the room. And since it was quite a way from the parking spaces I had to haul our
suitcases quite a way. I got my exercise that day!
Our room was huge! There were two full bedrooms and a
living room with a bed, plus a kitchenette and two bathrooms! The only downside
was it sat above a restaurant and massage parlor. The noise from the restaurant
could be annoying at times. Terri by this time was exhausted and needed to
convalesce. This left us to puzzle through the logistics of how we would eat and
consider how we would get to the airport in the morning with an injured party.
We decided Terri could not go to a restaurant, so we’d
have to eat in. I had a magazine of Jackson Hole restaurants and found an
Italian place half a mile away. I placed a takeout order and brought the food
back. The portions were enormous! Even with my large appetite there was no way I
could finish my Chicken Parmesan. I only made it about half way. But it
certainly filled us up because we were hungry.
I also wanted to turn in the rental car before we were
charged for an extra day. That was how we justified the cost of the room. I took
care of that quickly after we ate, but I was given no assurance that we could
get a special pickup for Terri for our trip to the airport in the morning. I
couldn’t see her crossing a busy street with crutches on, even at 6:45 a.m. I
decided to work the logistics of that in the morning and take it as it came.
Curiously right across the street was a cinema. It had only
3 theaters but Rosie noticed “Winged Migration” was playing. Terri could not
go anywhere but didn’t mind vegging out in front of the TV. I reviewed the
movie elsewhere. There is no plot other than to watch all sorts of birds migrate
from north to south and back again. If you want birds’ eye views of birds in
flight this will be a movie to appreciate. I’m not sure how they got some of
those shots. I was glad to see the movie even if I was something of a zombie
when it was over. I hadn’t slept well the night before and I was dead tired.