Day 8 ~ Full day of Jackson Hole

Today was the first day we didn't have to drive to the next stop and got to stay in a hotel more than one night~ it was so nice and relaxing!  The hotel we stayed at did not have a full breakfast for us, but they did have coffee and snacks in the lobby of the sister hotel that we could eat.  

We walked around the town for a couple hours and were able to go into the stores that were closed last night.  The town square is really unique in that it has antler arches at each corner and a really nice memorial for the veterans from that county.  The stagecoach went by us multiple times with very tired looking horses!  There was an artists' shop with beautiful statues and paintings upwards of $40K or more!!  I could not relax until we were out of there--it was making me so nervous to walk around those pieces of art.  I was more of a fan of the outside statues that were sturdier.  Panda and I spent some time with Wilbur and Orville!!

The National Elk Refuge was right down the road so we stopped in to see if there were any Elk around.  They told us the Elk in the valley had all moved up to the mountains for the summer, but the drive through the Refuge was still so pretty.  The last count of Elk in the valley was in the thousands back in February.  

After a quick break at the town park's basketball court, we walked to the town square for a 10 minute cowboy gun fight.  The theater actors put together a skit and performed in the streets.  The gun shooting was loud!  We went to a town drugstore for burgers...it was an old soda shop set up and was so cute!  No pictures though because we were hungry and ate and left before I remembered!

At dusk time, we drove north of town to the edges of the Grand Teton National Park to go moose-hunting.  We had heard of a few areas that might have moose (they tend to stay in the southern part of the Grand Teton/Yellowstone parks).  We ended up driving through Mormon Row (a historical area with old log cabins and fences).  No moose there, but we did see a ground squirrel.  

We kept driving and would randomly spot elk.  Panda found the first ones and then we saw a bunch at a river bank. The folks there said they saw a moose but it had just went into the brush.  Onward we went to find the moose.  There was a moose habitat, but none were out tonight.  On the way back to the motel, we stopped by a bridge where other people were congregating and finally saw two moose!  They were small, black spots in our binoculars and cameras.  They were far away and it was a bit too dark, but it was still really cool to see!  We also saw two beavers right in front of us under the bridge!!

We ended the night with watermelon and lots of laughs!