Sunday, June 24th

Today, Chelsea and I did some whitewater rafting on the Snake River. During the ride, we saw a cow moose and calf (rare sighting here apparently), marmots, osprey, great blue herons, and an immature bald eagle. There were a few good rapids including one called Lunch Counter and another called Kahuna. Not wanting to risk injury to my camera, I did not bring mine along. We will probably order the professional photo of us riding through Kahuna. The water was a mighty chilly 45 degrees and was, how shall we say, exhilarating when it hit you in the face. During one calm portion of the trip, three of the eight of us on board the raft decided to jump in and float in the cold water for a minute. Chelsea dove in with surprising gusto considering how cold it was. She forgot her hat was on her head as she jumped in but quickly grabbed it before it floated away. When I jumped in, it was so cold that I couldn't breathe for a couple seconds. YOUCH!

This was a great raft trip but I have to say that I may have enjoyed the trip last year on the Gallatin River a bit more. There seemed to be more rapids on the Gallatin. Of course, it's hard to know if the water levels were comparable. There may be times when this river has more whitewater.

In the afternoon, Chelsea rested in the tent while I went for a 6 or 7 mile bike ride near Jenny Lake. After I got back to the tent, she joined me for another 3 or 4 mile ride. What a great way to see the park and most of the roads right around the Jenny Lake area are quite flat.

Tonight, we had a great dinner at Dornan's just outside the Moose Entrance to the park. Fantastic pizza and chicken Caesar salad with the obligatory Snake River Lager, all the while sitting on the deck of the restaurant staring at the might Tetons. Does it really get any better than this?!?! (I will remember this place!)