Greetings from Gros Ventre Campground in Grand Teton National Park......

Our first week as campground attendants has been a very pleasant one. Boss and coworkers are patient, gracious folks who've gone above and beyond to make us feel welcome and help us try to remember the campground office routine. Weather has been not so pleasant as almost four consecutive days of rain brought more rain than we can remember in our other five summers in the Rockies combined. But, campers are a hearty crowd and soggy wet tents and gear hasn't seemed to dampened their good nature. One camper, Jim Mauer, who has stellar photography talent, graciously shared ten of the following photos with us so you could glimpse some of the magnificent beauty of this magical park.

Low hanging clouds shroud Teton Range

Teton relect beautifully in many surrounding lakes

Wyoming skies are daily unique and amazing

Jackson Lake Dam on the Snake River

Bison constantly cause traffic jams
and sometimes stroll right through
our campground. This is also
what Wild Bill and I sometimes feel
like after many miles in the Wee RV.

Moose are in the campground almost daily

Osprey nest

Bear sightings are becoming more
 frequent in our campground so Park
Service requires us to give every camper
the "bear aware" talk about proper food
storage.

Pronghorn antelope 

Moulton Barn, said to be the most
photographed structure in the park,
is part of an old Mormon settlement
near our campground. 

                                                              Thanks, Jim!


Most of the campgrounds and lodging facilities in Grand Teton National Park are managed by concessionaire Grand Teton Lodge Company, who employ over 1000 people each season to staff these properties. Each year they host a mid-season dinner for all employees and we arrived just in time to attend this year's dinner with a Hawaiian luau theme. Thought you might like to see the male half of our campground staff modeling their island fashions. Check out the "cutie" far left with his flowered parasol. Thankfully they ran out of grass skirts before he arrived!

Yesterday was our day off and we did a beautiful hike to 
Bear Paw and Trapper Lakes. What was supposed to be eight miles round trip turned into eleven and we were both
ready to get our boots off when we got back to the trail head.
Here are a couple of shots Bill made along the hike.

More later.........

Greetings from Jackson Hole Wyoming......

We clicked off 9417 miles on day 41 of our Alaska trek as we rolled across Idaho and into Gros Ventre Campgound in Grand Teton National Park. This is the place we worked for two summers and quickly fell in love with the Grand Tetons and fabulous Rocky Mountain weather in that area. Our former boss (from Harriman, TN) is managing the campground again this year and we intended to stop by for a visit with him and his wife, maybe camp a couple of nights so we could hike some of our favorite Teton trails, then probably ease on back toward Kingsport next week. But.......three of the campground staffers had to leave tomorrow and we were invited to stay and work as their replacements, so we start tomorrow and will work as campground attendants in our old jobs through Labor Day week, heading home Sept. 6th. We were a bit unprepared for working this summer, but I'm actually looking forward to being off the road and staying in one place for awhile. We have a good wi-fi connection right at our campsite so hopefully on our days off Bill will take more good photos to share with you. 

Meanwhile, I'll show you some scenes from Idaho and the most weird place we've visited on this trip. These are lava fields and other volcanic leavings that spread out over many miles and truly look like something from Star Wars.

                                            COWBOY COUNTRY

Unknown young bicyclist refused to
move so Bill made photo anyway!

Bison graze along road to campground

Gros Ventre Campground office
our job site for the next few weeks

Greetings from Pendleton, Oregon..... 

We have certainly spun the odometer since my last opportunity to do a "real" post. Hopefully you got a grin out of the quickie sign post. We didn't tarry long in Vancouver because it was a cold rainy day with horrible city traffic. Deciding to cross the border, and heading to beautiful North Casacades National Park was a good choice. From there we drove to Seattle (which I loved!), put the Wee RV on a ferry to Bainbridge Island, and had a rendezvous with Blake and friend,Jessi, who are traveling on the west coast this summer. We were able to camp together a couple of nights and spend several days exploring incredible Olympic National Park's high mountains, surreal rain forest, and marvelous beaches before they headed on to California and we ferried over to Canada to check out delightful Victoria Island. Returning to Port Angeles our next journey was to Mt. Rainier National Park. When we left Mt. Rainier this morning at 6:30 AM it was 58 degrees, and when we arrived in Pendleton, Oregon at 6:00 PM it was 104 degrees. That was definitely a major shock to our poor old body thermostats still set on Alaska cool temps! 
Here is a sampling of some of the incredible things we've seen recently.....

Going from this typical evening stop.... 

....to rainy, hectic downtown Vancouver
was out of our comfort zone!

North Cascades National Park was a

much better fit for us

                                    SEATTLE AREA

City view from Bainbridge Ferry

Sailboat on Puget Sound

View of distant Mt. Rainier over
bridge looking from Ferry

See if you can identify what's covering
the walls in this "unique" Seattle alley.

The walls are completely covered in 
ABC GUM
(AKA: Already been chewed!)

YUCK!

                            

Blake, Jessi, and Bill
people watching at
Seattle's famous Pike
Place Market

Market musicians

Place your fish order and the guy out front
throws it to the guy in back for wrapping. 

Fabulous huge mixed bouquets for only $5

They sell everything from ordinary
to exotics
veggies & chocolate pasta

Seattle street art

The original Starbucks

Space Needle 
Thankfully line was hours long and we
didn't have to go up

Starfish in water at edge of Puget Sound

A wonderful refuge only a 30 minute
ferry ride from the chaotic city pace

                             

The most diverse and beautiful park we've
ever visited

with

                                       
                      Spectacular beaches on west side

Surreal rain forest in middle

                        

Giant Sitka Spruce

Enormous ferns

Huge cedar tree in Grove of Patriarchs
with trees 1000 yrs. old and 200' tall

Marymere Falls

and

Spectacular High Mountains

Ski Patrol cabin we passed while hiking
on Hurricane Ridge. They had a contraption
like a ski lift that could lower a stretcher
12,000 ft. down the mountain. I'd prefer to
take my chances just staying at the top!

More views from Hurricane Ridge

ON TO VICTORIA, BC

Victoria Harbor view

What an exciting city!

The grand Empress Hotel overlooks the harbor

International Buskers Festival brought

these fire dancers and all sorts of other

street performers to Victoria.

One of many unique scenes on Victoria streets

WOW of the day was definitely Buchart Gardens,

a National Historic Site of Canada that covers

55 acres with an amazing mixture of exotic shrubs,

trees, and flowers. No photo can accurately capture

the beauty of this place that is visited by close to

 a million visitors annually.......and we see why!

                                                               
                     On to majestic Mt. Rainier National Park

Headed now across Idaho to Jackson Hole, WY