Grand Teton National Park

Nov. 8, 2023

Coming into the park from the south, the mountains suddenly are in view and are simply amazing. There was a dusting of snow over night which made everything pretty but some of the trails were ice under snow and rather slippery. It was 23F when I started hiking the Bradley and Taggert Lake loops. The snow made it easy to see lot of animal prints including deer, elk, fox, rabbit, squirrel and birds. It made me feel better about slipping on the ice when I found a track where a deer slid. A pheasant startled me on the trail on the way back. The next area was to the north by Coulter Bay. I spied a grizzly bear about 200 yards from the road. Heron pond did not live up to its name as there were not any herons. Swan lake did have a couple swans at the far end, but the lake was covered in ice close to shore. The wind picked up making the hike back to the car rather noisy from the creaking pine trees.