2014XC: Day 14, June 25 – Wyoming, Grand Teton (Colter Bay) to Idaho, Bear Lake (State Park)

I could have taken a gazillion pictures of the Teton mountains…they really were something to see.

We continued through Wyoming and into Idaho.

Steve’s parents let us borrow a book called “Off The Beaten Path”, describing places in the country that may not be so well known but might be worth a visit to. We used it a lot for the map of the entire country and the individual state ones that we visited as well. On our way from Grand Teton to our next planned stop in Salt Lake City, Utah, the book mentioned a state park named Bear Lake shared by Idaho and Utah. The park highlight was the turquoise lake nestled in the valley as a watersports and swimming paradise. We decided to give it a look.
The day was overcast so the color of the lake wasn’t so much turquoise, but the place was perfect. We didn’t have reservations, but each site had a post with the site number and the next two reservation dates and last name, and it turned out that we were welcome to just find a spot that wasn’t marked reserved already and park there. It was only $20.50 a night, with water and electric, and it was basically on the beach! It was perfect. It was great for Gabriel because it was shallow for a long distance, so he was able to feel like he was really far out in the lake. We enjoyed exploring, and we found a fish skeleton. The lake was said to have only 4 different kinds of fish, 2 of them only known to this lake. According to the info board posted about the local fishing, I think the fish skeleton was a cutthroat trout, and it looked to be about 12-15 inches long.