Looking down Jenny Lake in the Grand Tetons

The Advisory Council meeting came to a close today, with a brief tour of Grand Teton National Park as a wrap-up. I've been to the Tetons before, and they are rather impressive. One of those ranges where... you drive and drive and don't see anything and don't see anything, and you wonder where in the world these silly mountains are, and then your turn around a corner or come over a ridge or peak around a tree and BAM. There they are! Huge and uber-imposing and out of nothing. They don't look quite as tall as they could until you realize they are miles upon miles off, and they STILL look tall. Rocky and edgy and Craggy and snow-covered, everything you would want from the West.

They are pretty developed, with lots of inholdings and private ranches and other consumer means. It was only a couple of years ago that commercial grazing inside the park was made illegal (though I do enjoy grass-fed beef as opposed to wasteful grain-fed beef). I have to admit though, this was the first time I remember being in the park when I didn't see a moose... do they go anywhere for the winter? I have no idea, but the moose rutt was supposed to be pretty wild this year.

Anyway, we had a brief tour by the Jackson NPCA field office (seriously this Shannon chic IS the ENTIRE office) and Bill, some dude who spends a lot of money on NPCA. I immediately didn't take to Bill, as he was one of those aforementioned people who spoke to me like I didn't just move to Colorado from YELLOWSTONE. Also, he said that the buffalo from Yellowstone migrate in the winter to Grand Teton, which is well... not true. They migrate north to the Crazy Mountains in Montana, which is why there's the big controversy about them leaving park boundaries... if they were going south to another park, leaving the park wouldn't be much of a problem. Oh well, I assume Bill assumed that none of us would know any better.

On the tour, I immediately took to Alan, our government affairs liaison, who's got long dreads and who prefers to be out in the wild taking photos on his own and not feeding into the egos of the rest of us. Plus, he had a GREAT lens... I had lens envy!

Gail, my director

Megan, my coworker

Jodie, the CPM person who lives in our office... the pic came out blurry because I have poor eyesight and can't see what I focus, but I though it was neat!

Jim, the Head Honcho

Alan, being all photographer-like