After two days in Yellowstone National Park we left Wednesday morning (early to avoid some of the traffic) to go to Grand Teton National Park just south of Yellowstone, so we had time to see a few more things on the way, among others an exhibition in the Grant Village Visitor Center about the big forest fires here in the summer of 1988, which burned many of the Lodge Pole pines in the park. When we drove into Grand Teton NP the landscape changed. Here were fewer trees, the valley was flatter, and there was a view of the Tetons from almost everywhere. There were also several lakes, the biggest of them Jackson Lake, which we drove along for a while. We stopped for lunch at the Signal Mountain Lodge by the lake. We had to wait about 20 minutes (which of course I spent shopping Christmas ornaments in the inevitable gift shop), but it was worth the wait as we got a table on the deck overlooking the lake and the mountains – and the food was nice, too.

Afterwards we drove the narrow Signal Mountain Road up onto the mountain for more views, and then along the smaller Jenny Lake south to the Moose area, where we saw some historical buildings, Menor’s General Store (Menor’s slogan was: My partner is mean, but I’m Menor!) and the Chapel of the Transfiguration.

Further south out of the park and into the town of Jackson Hole, where we had booked what turned out to be a complete apartment in a large motel with own restaurant, hairdresser salon and liquor store (so you didn’t have far to go for your evening beer!) and large stuffed animals in the reception! The evening was spent at the Snake River Brewing Co, where both the pizzas and the beer were great.