Kayaking the Snake River

We had a chance to scope out the campground that we stayed at.  Pretty nice place, next to the Pacific Creek.  It is literally at the end of the road.  If you want to go any further, it’s either on foot or on horseback.  Horseback riding is apparently the thing here as most of the vehicles gathered here were connected to horse trailers and a large portion of this area is composed of corrals and a large haystack.  The campground itself was nearly deserted.

One thing we have been noticing is that the Aspen trees have really started to turn color.  Even in the last four days since we’ve been here we’ve noticed a dramatic change in the color of the trees.  Today many of the areas are aflame with yellow whereas when we came in, the trees were just starting to turn.  Makes for some amazing scenery.

Since there was no cell signal at the campground, we drove out to the main road and stopped at the Moran boat ramp where we left a bicycle locked up.  We then drove to Jackson Lake Dam, where we knew we could get some cell coverage and parked in the parking lot just below the dam.  We spent some time streaming this morning’s church service and taking care of any other Internet-related tasks.

After lunch we put the kayaks in the Snake River just below the dam.  Distance to where we spotted the bicycle was about six miles.  The water here was moving swiftly and we figured it would be a fairly short paddle.  Several anglers casting their lines on the shore, and we could see why.  From our vantage, we could see hundreds of big fish in the water.  I could have almost reached down and grabbed one.  We also saw several river otters frolicking in the water, and several bald eagles flying overhead.

The river became deeper and wider at Oxbow Bend, so we actually had to paddle for the remainder of the trip.  Oxbow Bend is a favorite place for photographers, because it faces the Teton range, and we paddled a little bit of a detour to get some pictures from the water.

Once again, despite the crowds in the park, we had most of the river to ourselves.  

When we reached the boat ramp, I rode my bike back to retrieve the RV and we parked it in the turnout for the Cunningham Cabin for some more Internet access.  Internet with a view, it’s a wonderful thing.  We were able to watch a teaching video for the Romans series we are working on.  We’re up to chapter 3, where all the bad news of the prior two and a half chapters becomes the good news that we are justified by his grace as a gift.  And that truly is good news, because, on our own, it is impossible to follow God’s law perfectly.

We are now camped in the same parking lot we have camped in for the two nights before last night.  It’s just a big gravel parking lot just outside the park boundary, but it is super convenient for visiting the park as it is quite close to the Moran entrance.  And the price is right.

Tomorrow we’ll head up towards Yellowstone.  We’re not sure anything will work out since nearly all of the campgrounds are closed for the season.  And there’s not as many dispersed camping areas just outside the park as there are here by the Tetons.  So, if nothing works out, we may just end up driving through and coming out in Idaho.  We’ll have to figure out what to do from there.