Day 32--Reasons That Help Us Decide to Divert to Jackson Hole

As I write this, we are waiting at the Jackson Lodge, about 30 miles out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in Grand Teton National Park, for a family connection of Derik's to come pick us up, and take us to Jackson Hole. The main route doesn't go to Jackson Hole, but that's where we are going. These are the reasons why.

1) This is our second day of riding in the rain (we did ride 21 miles today).

2) This is what my tent looked like this morning.

It's a houseboat!

3) The weather forecast for the next few days is rain/snow.

4) The campground we were supposed to go to tonight is closed to tenting due to heavy grizzly bear activity.

5) The next campground is at 9300+ feet of elevation. They are predicting snow at Teton Pass which is at 8400 feet.

I'd say those are 5 good reasons to divert! 

Like I said, we did ride 21 miles. We entered Grand Teton National Park. Sadly, we couldn't see much of the mountains.

I've heard there are big mountains around here...can't see them, though.

We stopped at the Colter Bay convenience store. That's when the gal told us Jackson Lake Lodge was still open (until October 9th). We didn't relish the idea of eating lunch in the rain, so we decided to have lunch at the restaurant. After lunch, we ran through our options. We thought about staying at the lodge ($364), but then Wendy was able to pick us up and bring us to Jackson Hole.

Wendy picked us up about 4:00. On the way to Jackson, we saw two buffalo and an elk. I called Ranch Inn from the lodge and made a reservation. When I told the guy we had three bikes, he said we could keep them in the meeting room or the dining room (we'd have to move them by 6:30 for breakfast). However, when we got here, Chad had decided to upgrade us to the larger room for the same price! We'll stay here for two nights to wait out some of the weather. Then we'll take the highway to Pinedale. The weather is supposed to be clearing up there. Now we get to explore Jackson Hole!