Old Faithful is still there

The next day we drove to Old Faithful.  I want to say it was like an hour or hour and a half drive from our campground, and it is one of the closer things to the South Entrance.  It's a pretty boring drive, so we spent the time looking for wildlife to no avail.

It's kinda like DisneyWorld when you get over there - there is a long access road to the huge parking lot and lots of people.  As we drove toward the parking lot, we could see OF was erupting right then.  Of course.  The next time predicted was 88 min. +/- 10.  Luckily there are lots of other geysers, hot springs, etc. to walk around and see.  There are 2 rows of benches, and they started filling up, so we sat down and waited after we had seen all the other stuff.  Finally water started gurgling up and then kabam!

Heart Pool or something - I think it looks more like the US.

Finally, wildlife!

Everybody filing out after was just like Disney, too.

Yep

We drove to another area north of OF with hydrothermal? geothermal? (I don't recall) features, but the boys had seen enough.  We made the long drive back to our campground, had lunch and a longer naptime than planned, and then headed on a long drive back down south to Jenny Lake in Grand Teton for a hike.  We started about 5:30 or 6, and of course you are supposed to avoid times when bears are most active, such as late in the day.  This was a 2.2 mi. trail (out and back, so 4.4) along Jenny Lake to a waterfall.

We hadn't been going too long when Ben, who was leading the pack, said, "oh my gosh." I was bringing up the rear and looked up and all I could see was brownish fur.  So, I had a small panic attack before I saw it was something else (besides a bear).  We still are undecided on what it was because of the color.  Chuck says fox, I say young wolf.  Whatever it was, it was not scared of us and started coming toward us on the trail.  Chuck had to scare it off down into a ravine.  There was a couple just sitting on the other side that we had just walked by.  Chuck started yelling at them and they waved at us.  Then they saw the animal coming and the guy jumped up and moved up onto a rock.  I did not get a great pic as I was scared for my life. Not really, but it was freaky how it really wasn't scared of us.  The animal had brownish fur with a little red, and its eyes were amber colored.  Still can't figure it out with the power of Google.  The fur color just doesn't match anything.  Whatevs, we survived.

Just look at this menacing creature

Made it to the Hidden Falls, that were kinda hidden - mostly because part of the trail was closed and they didn't have the alt. route marked well - and then up to Inspiration Point (well, it's possible only Chuck made it that high).  Sadly, when I was googling animals in Grand Teton, I found a news story about a man being found dead at Inspiration Point the day after we were there.  According to his girlfriend, he had gone hiking the same day as us.  We were there late and saw several people, but I don't remember anyone alone around there.  Kinda freaky.

Chuck on his way up to Inspiration Pt.

Not actually Hidden Falls, though someone told me it was.

The real Hidden Falls

The boys & I watched a pika building a nest while we waited for Chuck.  It went by us 5 or 6 times, taking the exact same route each time.  I have about 10 pics of where this pika was mere seconds before.

We turned around and started heading back.  Caught up to a guy and then 2 other guys.  I felt a little bear-safer in the larger group, but we eventually left them behind.  One of them yelled something, and we looked in the lake and could see an otter swimming along.  Then when we got to the last bridge before the parking lot, we saw another strange animal that we also can't identify.  It was fast so I didn't get any pics, but we got several good looks at it.  The closest thing I could see was a mink, but again, the fur didn't look quite right.

We had planned on swimming in String Lake (which was supposed to be warmer) after the hike, but by then the sun was behind the mountains, so I passed.  Didn't stop Zack though!  He went way out into the lake and was only waist deep.  It was colder than he let on, because when he got out his feet and legs were bright red.  We decided to go back to the bridge where it was more like a river connecting String and Jenny and he and Ben both waded across.  They said it was warmer than the lake.  Zack then got dared by Chuck to go all the way under.  He did it, and it was hilarious.  Luckily I remembered beach towels and a sweatshirt, because that was a long, chilly ride back in the open Jeep.
 

See Zack out there? 

Before dunking his head

Just unbelievably majestic mountains

On the ride back we saw a herd of elk in the trees on both sides of the road.  One of them even crossed behind us.  Then we pulled off on a side road where a bunch of cars were and saw a moose.  Grand Teton kicked Yellowstone's butt on the wildlife sightings.