Road Trip!: June 3-Signal Mountain Campground

Today we were up and out earlier than usual. We still seem to have a problem with our trailer battery holding a charge. We plan to go back into Jackson after the float trip and buy a new battery. We got everything ready and I packed our lunch last night so we got a good start. We were happy to see a big buck Elk on our drive into Moose, along with a small herd of females (4-6 unsure of count). We also saw a couple of Pronged Horned Antelope both on our drive there and back. So anyway we arrived an hour early for our trip but we took Tony for a long walk along the side of the Snake River and wore him out so he wouldn’t be too unhappy waiting. We were relieved it was a cool day and he would not be hot at all in the van waiting. Soon the three Solitude Van rolled up, they run this concession for the Nat’l Park Service. Our guide is Mike who is from Idaho but has lived here for 27 years, he doesn’t look much older that that! One couple never showed up so we waited about 15 minutes and then went ahead. There was a total of 28 people in 3 rafts, but we never really saw the other people, just the 8 people in our raft, 6 from CA, and 2 from NC. The couple from North Carolina spend a couple months in this area and in West Yellowstone every year, they love it. It is their 12 raft float! The water looks like it is moving faster than it is but it is fast, just under 10K cubic square foot gallons per minute, it peaked a couple days ago. They have a pretty slick way to get into the rafts, they back down of course, then slide the raft off the trailer, then you walk across the trailer and step down into the raft and you’re all set. The views were fantastic. The river banks look like man-made levees but of course they are not. Even at the speed and volume of this water one can hit bottom, which we did twice. You can also hear the rocks tumbling along the riverbed in places. Mike shared a lot of geological information and facts about the river. I was a surprise that potato farmers in Idaho have the water rights because they build the dam at Jackson Lake. There is other interesting history about the area. I finally found out why so many places have French names, it was explorers, hunters, scouts coming down from Canada that gave the names. Makes sense, I just didn’t’ think about that. We saw a flock American White Pelicans and one just sitting there but I couldn’t get a good photo. They are pure white with a bright yellow/orange bill and sack. They don’t dip in the water for fish like at the ocean but just sit on the water and bob down for their meal. We saw lots of Canada Geese, a few Red Tailed Hawks, a few Bald Eagles, and a Bald Eagle nest with one adult and two youngsters in it. Mike said they have been in this area trying to have a family for four years but this is the first year they were successful, no one knows why. There was one other nesting bird with a red head but I have forgotten the name. We saw a lot of evidence of beavers but none to be seen. Near the end of the float where the river is just one solid river, no divisions or tributaries we saw a couple of moose feeding, both females and they look so scrawny you do feel sorry for them. Mike said they had a very hard winter and there hasn’t been time for them to recover yet. That makes sense. We were hungry so we ate our lunch then headed into Jackson. Thankfully Mike had told us the only place in town to buy the battery we needed. We got that and headed back. We are tired to we are saving a couple roads we want to go on for tomorrow. Bison were the last treat of the day, just two in the far distance grazing. I think it might have been those we saw at Gros Ventre because they were in the same area. John got the battery switched out and we stayed around to run the generator to be sure it is fully charged. We played cards, watched a few minutes of brief rain from beneath our awning, and listened to the wind howl, or I should say the trees moving in the wind, it was a beautiful sound, and really loud! We had a loaded baked potato for dinner.

Elk-Male