Along The Way

Whenever we take a Road Trip we always see stuff that's not actually related to our destination.  So it was today.  The photos below have captions.

As you know, our goal was the Squirrel Meadows Guard Station.  Getting here is easily half the fun.  The road above has two names: The Flagg Ranch Road and The Reclamation Road.  One hundred years ago in 1911, horse and mule drawn freight wagons carried 100% of all the materials needed to construct Jackson Lake Dam over this road.

Not far from Squirrel Meadows is a large, lily-covered area called Indian Lake.

That's where the loons live.  At some point driving out here you slip into Wyoming but there's no sign to let you know.  The only way we deduced we were in The Cowboy State was by realizing it wasn't Idaho that paid for the sign!

There's another great little lake nearby called Bergman Reservoir.  The photo below is what Susun saw out of her lens.

Bergman is actually fed by a small stream that empties out of Indian Lake.  The Bergman shoreline has some spectacular views of The Tetons.

Roaming around east of Ashton is a stark contrast between primeval forests and developed agricultural fields.  Seed potatoes and beer barley are the two main crops.  Just imagine all the beer this barley field will make.

Ashton is still steeped (or stewed) in its own history.  Many old landmarks dot the landscape and stand as mute monuments to many a story lost in the dust bin of history.

The lay of the land in this neck of the woods is defined by where water flows.  Falls Creek shown here is the major player in shaping how people travel the landscape.

Back in 1911 this was a busy main interection as supplies flowed to Moran, Wyoming.  Today, it makes a great spot to stop for a soda form our cooler and a couple of photos of the Teton Range.  This one shows the building afternoon thunderstorms over in Western Wyoming.  As we drove home, it became much darker and foreboding over there.  The picture below is a telephoto from the same spot.  There's no camera on earth that could ever do justice to showing the Tetons in all their glory.

Our final stop on the way home was at Chester Dam.  We've been wanting to gander at this dam for many years dating back to 2004.  It's quite the vicious low head structure.  Last month, a drift boat went over this dam and was totally destroyed.  Luckily, its occupants reached the safety of shore before their boat met its demise.