We left the West Yellowstone with some regret, and the Holiday Inn with rather less, bought lunch at the usual supermarket, and headed South towards Grand Teton National Park in Bo's coach.
Before leaving Yellowstone National Park, we stopped on the shore of the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. The lake has 110 miles of shoreline and is over 7,000' above sea level. There's another geyser basin at West Thumb, and some more board walks, and these were duly photographed and explored.Apparently it was once common practice for fish caught in the lake to be dangled in one of the hot springs to be cooked, whilst still on the hook. Not a great plan, given the amount of sulphur around.
Then back on the coach for a 40 mile drive to Colter Bay, just inside the Grand Teton National Park and on the shore of Jackson Lake. Even on the approach, it was clear that the scenery was stunning - but more of that later.
We parked outside the Visitor Centre, used the 'facilities' and then took our lunches through an archway towards the lake. As we emerged on the lake side, a quintet of young wind musicians were setting up and about to play. Before long , they struck up with an excerpt from Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony - the section known in our family as the 'Flying Horse Music' because of its use in Fantasia. It was great to see a group of young people playing with such energy, without 'the dots' and clearly loving what they were doing.
After watching and videoing for a while, we found some logs to sit on within listening distance. The quintet played another tune or two that we didn't recognise (one is one the video - please let us know if you can identify it).With the amazing view of the Teton range, and the music, it was a perfect lunch stop.
We were guideless, so Mike led us us on a short 'tourist' walk along Jackson Lake, and up to Heron Pond and Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky was not present). Both the lakes were pretty, but the nicest spots were a bit crowded so we didn't stay as long as we might have. We spend a little time at the Visitor Centre before the final leg of our journey to our next base - the well-named Jackson Hole.
We were staying at the Lexington, where we had a massive and very comfortable room. There was no restaurant, so we would be eating out every day while here. On the first evening, we were bused to the 'Bar J Chuckwagon Super and Western Music Show' that was, as they say, an 'experience'. There were rows of trestle tables, each seating about a dozen people. The formal capacity was about 550, and it was almost full, and we were the last group to arrive.
As our holiday progressed, it was becoming clear that, each evening, everyone was trying to avoid having Sheila sit next to them at dinner. This evening, there was almost no attempt by anyone to do this subtly, and she I was left sitting on the end of one of the benches. Unfortunately, that meant she was next to me. I served my shift with as much grace as I could manage.
There were several 'wranglers' in full gear, and one of them took to the stage to explain how the evening would work. Once we'd got the hang of the accent, we understood that this was designed to be the sort of meal a cowboy on a cattle drive would have had. wWe picked up our tin trays, and queued for some beef stew, a chicken breast, a jacket potato, beans (Blazin' Saddles), cole slaw, apple sauce and 'biscuit'. The food was all pretty good (and much better than somewhere else I could mention). Drinks were lemon squash, water or coffee, with no beer available!
After dinner, the one of the wranglers took to the stage to explain the set-up - this was a real ranch raising cattle for sale to farms in the East, and the show had been set up by his father, who owns the ranch. This took rather too long, and was full of corny jokes and sentimentality. Eventually, he was joined by the rest of the band and they started to play. They sang 'Western' songs (no 'Country' here - this is real cowboy territory) with immaculate four-part harmony, and some great fiddle playing and guitar picking. We even got some pedal steel and dobro. However, the material was fairly corny, but nowhere near as corny as the between-song banter and 'comedy', which was buttock-clenchingly embarrassing. A few of our group left to sit in the coach - I think this was because of the volume, rather than a show of good taste. I just admired the musicianship. Sample it on YouTube.
However, at one point, after a little 'God' interlude, they paid tribute to people who'd served in the armed forces. No problem with that. Then they asked us to remember the 58,000 people who'd died in the Vietnam War as if only American deaths counted. I contained my urge to heckle for self-preservation reasons. A very uncomfortable moment. I think most of us were glad when the show was over and we could return to the hotel.
We were staying at the Lexington, where we had a massive and very comfortable room. There was no restaurant, so we would be eating out every day while here. On the first evening, we were bused to the 'Bar J Chuckwagon Super and Western Music Show' that was, as they say, an 'experience'. There were rows of trestle tables, each seating about a dozen people. The formal capacity was about 550, and it was almost full, and we were the last group to arrive.
As our holiday progressed, it was becoming clear that, each evening, everyone was trying to avoid having Sheila sit next to them at dinner. This evening, there was almost no attempt by anyone to do this subtly, and she I was left sitting on the end of one of the benches. Unfortunately, that meant she was next to me. I served my shift with as much grace as I could manage.
There were several 'wranglers' in full gear, and one of them took to the stage to explain how the evening would work. Once we'd got the hang of the accent, we understood that this was designed to be the sort of meal a cowboy on a cattle drive would have had. wWe picked up our tin trays, and queued for some beef stew, a chicken breast, a jacket potato, beans (Blazin' Saddles), cole slaw, apple sauce and 'biscuit'. The food was all pretty good (and much better than somewhere else I could mention). Drinks were lemon squash, water or coffee, with no beer available!
However, at one point, after a little 'God' interlude, they paid tribute to people who'd served in the armed forces. No problem with that. Then they asked us to remember the 58,000 people who'd died in the Vietnam War as if only American deaths counted. I contained my urge to heckle for self-preservation reasons. A very uncomfortable moment. I think most of us were glad when the show was over and we could return to the hotel.
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