Thank You, Theodore Roosevelt: Day Three

 Day Three: Floatin’ Down the River

For today, I had planned ahead and booked a float trip down the Snake River.  No rapids or anything crazy like that, a promised leisurely 1 ½ hour float where we were likely to spy wildlife as well as view the Grand Tetons all the way down.

Now I am not a fan of hyperbolic language.  In fact, I previously blogged about it (see).  However, isn’t it so nice when a planned event exceeds expectations?  And in this case, our guide, Jim, was the major contributor to this.

If you’ve been on any sort of guided tour, you’re aware that the guide can be the make it or break it to your enjoyment of the event.  Perhaps you’ve endured the guide who clearly would have been happy to be anywhere but there; who kept looking at the cell phone; whose disinterest in the job led you to provide this non-monetary tip at the end of the journey: “You might want to consider another line of work.”

To our good fortune, Jim was none of these.  Visibly passionate about the wilderness; knowledgeable (when Dan commented on this aspect of his guiding, Jim humbly replied something to the effect of, “Well, I don’t want to answer ‘I don’t know’); good natured and he conversed while masterfully steering the boat!  He offered deep dive answers about most every topic the 9 boat floaters posed.  Jim also told great stories about his own work adventures, one involving a mother moose and calf illustrating the power of a mother protecting her baby and another about encountering three wolves on a snowmobile trail in Yosemite (his winter job is guiding snowmobile trips through that Park).  I was especially impressed with his knowledge of this area’s geology; it’s rather daunting to know that when the volcano Yellowstone sits on blows, it’s pretty much so long, it’s been good to know you.  (We’ll go there anyway.  In one of those events, probably best to be at ground zero and get it over with.)

Wildlife encounters included an osprey, bald eagle, merganser ducks and yes, more moose!  A mother and her calf were munching along the banks of the Snake and we also came upon a bull moose wading up to its shoulders to keep cool in an inlet.  Moose are excellent swimmers and can dive down (get the visual of a diving moose) to eat aquatic plants.  They eat aquatic plants because they are full of salt, which the moose stores for the winter.  (Thank you, Jim).

On returning, we wandered around, searching for a marked trail that allegedly would allow us to hike next to the Snake River but after three or four false starts, and considering yesterday’s wander, we instead chose a couple less adventuresome activities, walking through the Visitor Center and then driving down to Mormon Row.  From what I can find with spotty inner net service, 27 Mormon families clustered their homesteads in this area in the 1890s and it was abandoned early in the 1900s, but stands as “one of the country’s best representations of an early 1900s farming community.”  The area is pockmarked with prairie dog holes and I did see one little critter scampering from one hole to the other.

All in all, a most enjoyable day ending again with dinner with a view.  Oh, and another moose sighting. Nice.

The weather has been warm (probably hot to most), dry and sunny.  Maybe a bit challenging when hiking but oh, so lovely.

 

                                       

This is Mary.                        This is Kelly Reilly, who plays Beth.

 

This is Dan.                        This is Cole Hauser, who portrays Rip.

Just so y’all don’t get us confused.

Tomorrow we head out to Yellowstone.  I will answer the burning question that might be on your minds if you’re a fan of the television series Yellowstone, especially since I’ve been posting photos on Instagram and Facebook channeling our inner Rip Wheeler and Beth Dutton (show characters):

No, we’re not going to the Chief Joseph Ranch, which stands in for the Dutton Ranch, aka Yellowstone on the show.  From what I saw on the map, the ranch is substantially out of the way of where we’re staying and also our final stop of the trip, Glacier National Park.  Rats.  If you’ve never watched the show, click on the link above to the Chief Joseph Ranch.  The main house is something to be seen.

Before we left, I showed video (bideo according to Jameson) clips of Old Faithful to a couple of the grands.  They were duly impressed.  Sloane asked if I could bring that home (answer: no) and Beau inquired what would happen if you were standing on top of the geyser when it blew.  Naturally I told him anyone would be scalded to death because the geyser is so hot, but he was mostly interested in how far it would throw you.  He has a penchant for being thrown in the water.

Thanks for traveling along.