Two longish rides and only two notable critters
Oddly, it wasn't the national park that produced the fun wildlife viewing
So here’s the odd thing: I cycled for a few hours in Grand Teton National Park last week with a friend and we didn’t see a single noteworthy critter, but riding home from the Kelly Canyon area in eastern Idaho a couple of days before, I saw a fox and a moose. Go figure.
Another friend who is recovering from an injury called last week and wanted to go rock climbing outside near the Wolf Flats area off the Snake River Road. I decided it would be a good opportunity to sneak in a twofer. Do some rock climbing east of Heise, then ride my bike home. He graciously offered to drop my climbing gear off at my house when he got back into town.
After we climbed four routes at the Pointless Crag, I changed into cycling duds and we drove back to where the pavement starts. I got out and starting riding up the hill to the Kelly Canyon Ski Resort.
It takes nearly 3 miles of uphill to reach the end of the pavement next to the resort. From there, I turned around and zoomed back down the hill. I hit speeds up to 40 mph.
About halfway down the hill, a fox darted across the road in front of me and disappeared into the trees. Despite their pesty reputation, I love seeing foxes.
One odd thing about the ride was the wind. Normally the wind is in your face heading south back to town. This late afternoon the wind was being kind. It was blowing from the north northeast. Nice and helpful.
After Heise Hot Springs, I approached the bridge over the Snake River where I spied a giant. There was a moose walking out into the river to a gravel bar. I stopped to take photos/video. The moose stopped and stared back. I think it was giving me the stink eye (maybe it was offended by bright colored lycra). A few cars passed by, but I don’t think they noticed what I was photographing.
Home ended up being 36 miles away.
Back to my cycling friend, two days later he and I drove to Wilson, Wyoming and parked at the Owen Bircher city park. We rode our bikes on the nearly valley-wide pedestrian path that leads into Jackson, Wyoming. Our goal was to ride bikes to Jenny Lake inside Grand Teton National Park. This pathway is a joy and features a bridge over the Snake River.
Instead of riding into the congested town of Jackson on the way north and east, we left the bike path and turned north on the Spring Gulch Road. This generally quiet road has a rural feel and is an alternative bypass west of Jackson. The road leads past the Jackson Hole Golf course to a roundabout intersecting with Highway 89/191. From this roundabout, cyclists can get back on the bike path leading north into Grand Teton National Park. The path takes you to Moose and the park’s visitors center.
The path continues to the entrance gate. While standing on the path next to the gate with several cars backed up on the road, we waved our park pass to the man inside the gate booth and he waved us through. There is also a small self-serve kiosk here to take your money if you don’t have a pass.
Inside the park we were treated to pleasant weather and that world famous snow-capped view of the Teton Range. It’s about 12 miles one way from Moose to Jenny Lake.
Despite it being a Saturday and nice weather, neither the pathway nor the roads were particularly busy. But I think it was busy enough to chase all of the critters into hiding. The only animals we saw were a few birds.
After walking down to the lake, we returned to Moose. Along the way we stopped at Dornan’s Chuckwagon restaurant to see if it was open (it’s temporarily closed).
We continued south on the bike path past the National Elk Refuge into Jackson and stopped at New York City Sub Shop for a sandwich and a soda. From there, we left town on the bike path and returned to Wilson. Our total milage was 56.
We thought about riding the Moose-Wilson Road from Wilson into the park, but the Moose-Wilson Road is closed for construction until late June. That route would shorten the overall milage considerably.
If you’d like to add miles to this route, you can take a side loop to Kelly, Wyoming over to Kelly Warm Springs or Gros Ventre Campground area on the east side of the valley. I have done this in the past and returned with about 70 miles of riding. The nice thing about most of the riding in this valley is it’s mostly flat. On the negative side, wind can often be a factor.