Guest blogger Irene Mellion: Hike to Phelps Lake and the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve

     With a generous donation from Laurance S. Rockefeller, visitors to Grand Teton National Park have access to over 1,100 acres of pristine land located on the shores of Phelps Lake.

Rosie and Pat brought along on the hike lots of  special people: Rosie's mom (Irene Mellion, today's guest blogger), her aunt (Carol Connors), and her honorary "Aunt" Pam Basset. "Uncle" Will Bassett stayed at the visitor center and explored their beautiful library (see below) 

Pat surveys Phelps Lake

Rosie's aunt Carol (Connors) and mother Irene
Death Canyon is in the background

Open meadows and mountains!

Silly hikers crossing the road.
(remember the Beattles' Abbey Road Photo?)

The Visitor Center's inviting library

"How we treat the land, how we build upon it
how we act toward our air and water,
will in the long run tell
what kind of people we really are

Laurance S. Rockefeller

Rosie and Patrick
After hike reading!

Will and Pam Bassett

Below: Late addition to the blog! I practiced postural positioning to pictures this princess pine pipsissewa. Phew!

Be very quiet, he's sleeping!

Yesterday we hiked Sheep Mountain, aka the Sleeping Indian, from Flat Creek Road out of Jackson. This is one of the most fun hikes we've done in a while.

 Rosie hiking back to the trailhead after we overshot it on Flat Creek Road. It's not a maintained trail so the trailhead is hard to find.

The views of the Tetons are awesome.
 

Sheep Mtn has a big flat area near the top, like the Alpine Garden or Tablelands on Washington or Katahdin, respectively.

Sammy's keeping watch out for pikas.

360 panorama from the summit.

Perhaps worth looking at on Photosynth.

The nose of the Sleeping Indian.

A heart shaped rock Rosie found on the way up. Awww!

Now Sammy is holding the heart rock. AWWWW!

Red hills, and a lavender hill.

In 1996 an Air Force C-130 cargo plane took off from JAC and crashed into Sheep Mountain, killing all on board. There are still bits of rubble everywhere, including shattered safety glass, fiberglass bits, hoses, and blobs of melted plastic and metal.

Here are some videos of Sammy, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of hiking with him.

Sammy running fast downhill, at 240 frames/s.


Sammy chasing a chipmunk. He leaps and pounces wildly and we'll try to capture this better in a future video.



Trotting it back to the car.

 Done. Photo from a couple winters ago from the Mellions' condo. The snow really makes it look like a sleeping indian wearing a headdress, with arms crossed over his chest. We were up at the highpoint at left.

 About 10-11 miles, and 4400 vertical feet of climbing.

Cultural Corner with Rosie

I think even Patrick has agreed that you can't hike or bike 24 hours a day. So here is the update of cultural activities we've done to balance out our physical activities.

World Premiere of this documentary:

My parents were friends of the original Stagecoach band members and still go to dance to the band's music on Sunday nights. The infamous family story is that the band used to serenade my mom with "Good Night, Irene," as their last song. Pat and I've been to the Coach for Sunday night fun, too.

Here's the film's great preview:

The Stagecoach Bar: An American Crossroads - Promo from Jennifer Tennican on Vimeo.

Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra performances on Friday nights

Clearly not our picture--it's from GTMF.org

The first week featured opera singers performing selections of Wagner's Die Walküre--amazing! Also amazing to have a symphony orchestra practically in our backyard.

Concert on the Commons in Teton Village: The Black Lillies

Nice Americana/country band. Studio photo from their website.

Annual Hootenanny at the Center for the Arts 

Pat says they should call it a Superhootenanny. It's the one time a year that the Hoot travels from its home at Dornan's to a theater with advanced ticketing. It sold out in advance.

Photos courtesy of Irene Mellion.

The Hoot's like a Jackson Hole (or national, even) Who's Who. 

Here's ski legend Bill Briggs, playing the autoharp. 

 Singing is author John Cooke (son of Alistair Cooke.) And when do you actually hear a washboard or a single-stringed broom handle supported by a bucket being played? 

In other groups, a woman played a melodica and a man played a dobro. Its "hubcap" as my mom called it reflected light all the way to the theater ceiling.

 No one famous (yet) here. 

The architect who designed the theater/Center for the Arts also played (but he's not pictured.)

 Most of the performers, Hoot boardmembers (including my dad), and Center for the Arts staff members played several beautiful final numbers as a farewell for co-Hoot-founder Dick Barker. He had passed away that morning of cancer, and the Superhoot was dedicated to him.

Touring about Yellowstone NP with the Mellion clan

On Saturday Irene, Moe, Frank, Meghan, Rosie, and Pat climbed into the Windstar at 7 AM and headed north to Yellowstone for some sightseeing. We had a great day.

 Still in GTNP here... 

Ansel Adams took a famous photo from this very spot. It's ok if you think his is better:

Mt Moran and the Skillet Glacier.

The Jackson Lake Lodge. The view is the best part. And the food.

We drove into Jellystone. We stopped at a pond which is perched right on the Continental Divide and actually drains into both the Pacific and Atlantic.


Isa Lake is believed to be the only lake in the world which drains to two different oceans backwards.^[3] The east side of the lake drains by way of the Lewis River to the Pacific Ocean and the west side of the lake drains by way of the Firehole River to the Atlantic Ocean.^[4] This is the opposite of what one would expect since the Atlantic Ocean is east of the lake and the Pacific Ocean is to the west. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isa_Lake.

 Then we went to Old Faithful. About 500 feet from the biggest tourist attraction in the national park system, a buffalo ambled up.

Then I hopped on for a while, and they made a movie about me:


Old Faithful blew at 12:30, according to schedule.

Photo identical to the other 600 tourists' photos standing around me.

Then we had lunch at Old Faithful Inn. Awesome.

This picture is as funny now as it was 15 years ago when I first saw it. It's from a Park Service sign warning you to stay on the boardwalks. This kid is so surprised his hat popped off!

Red Spouter fumarole:



Red Spouter fumarole/mudpot. This was created instantly by the a huge earthquake in 1959 or so. Depending on the season this can be a hot spring, mud pot, or dry fumarole as above. See this other photo:

 From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecramermadison76/4402497809/

A geyser which goes erupts 24/7.