20240923 EF Go Ahead National Parks Bus Tour Day 12/20 - Mormon Row, Jenny Lake, and floating the Snake RIver

American West Bus Tour Day 12/20 - Mormon Row, Jenny Lake, and floating down the Snake River

Our morning started with an experience we have had multiple times on our travels. We walked into breakfast at the hotel this morning. I was wearing a Lopez Legacy Golf Course shirt from The Villages. As we walked by a table, the folks sitting there stopped me and asked if we lived in The Villages. We said yes, in Briar Meadow. They live in the village of St. James, a little bit south of us. I can't count the number of times we have met other Villagers when traveling.

Today's activities started cold and early at 7:45 and about 35F. Too early and too cold. Our first stop was Mormon Row, a roadway with several historic Mormon buildings from the late-frontier Mormon settlement of the early 1900s.

Robin, transporting us safely

I included a lot of photos because I liked the look of all of them.

I decided to channel my inner Ansel Adams and produce some of the images in black & white, more in line with the times when the settlers were here.

From Mormon Row, we headed to Jenny Lake right at the base of the Tetons. The views were stunning. 

We wandered a bit, including Arlona braving the steep hill down to the water.

As always, touching the water

Taking a landscape photo

And the result

Ta-da!

Our driver, Robin, even posed as the view was so phenomenal.

That completed our morning adventures. We grabbed a quick lunch and prepared for our afternoon activity, floating down the Snake River. As we left for lunch, we saw our awesome driver, Robin doing typical Robin stuff, making sure her bus was sparkling and the windows were clean so we all had the best possible views. 

She works incredibly hard to make sure we have the best experience

Our trip was handled by these guys

Our stylish transport to the river float

Our river transport - we had two boats with 8 and one boat with 7 passengers

And, we're off

Our guide, Madden, on the oars

An eagle, watching us sail by

We had mostly smooth sailing with some minor (class 1) rapids

Another eagle, watching, watching

Yet another eagle - the most interesting wildlife we saw

A massive eagle nest

The view from the water was super

Our boat with a view

Female mergansers

The color of the cottonwoods and aspens was nice

A huge beaver dam

After 13+ miles of cruising down the Snake River, we made the drive back to the hotel. Normally, this would be easy, but there was road construction today. This meant that it took a long time...on a school bus. Still, we got back to the hotel with enough time to take showers before tonight's group farewell dinner.

This ends the bus tour and 11 of the 30 passengers are going home tomorrow. The remaining 19 signed on for the extension that will take us ultimately to Kalispell, Montana, and Glacier National Park. To mark the occasion, Geoff booked us for dinner at a local restaurant, Hatch,.

We enjoyed a nice dinner together and bid farewell to the 11 departing travelers. The remaining 19 of us will board the bus and depart Jackson at 7:45 tomorrow morning en route to Missoula, Montana - our stop tomorrow night.

Tonight means packing since we've been here a couple of nights already. Tomorrow, we're back to living out of a suitcase.