Bison, Bears and Wolves, Oh My (We hope)!! - TR UPDATE!! 8-19-14 - Page 12 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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The walking tour of Yellowstone Inn looks very informative. Love your pictures of the inn. So glad the weather cooperated for you all to get to Grand Teton.
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Low Lakes, a Big Conference and Where's the Moose?
After arriving in Grand Teton - we made a beeline for the Colter Bay Visitor's Center. Have to get that Passport stamped! We pulled up - and the place was basically deserted - the campground, etc were all closed for the season - the only thing open was the Visitor's Center.
I walked back to the Lake overlook to discover - no lake!! It is low in the fall and winter due to releases of water into the Snake river for agriculture fields outside the park.
Instead of the lake we expected - we found a large mud flat - but we did see some bear tracks across the mud flats -
Grand Teton National Park is a grand compromise. It took so long to make the park a reality that there are numerous things in the park that you wouldn't expect in a National Park - A) A man-expanded lake and Dam for irrigation; b) Commercial Airport; c) privately owned property D) Parts of the park open for hunting E) Major highway runs through the park. It is very interesting to me that this mix has flourished and is considered one of our most beloved National Parks. Although I often think people prefer Yellowstone and think of this park as a 2nd sister.
After our short visit to Colter (dry) bay... we moved on to the Jackson Lake Lodge - and lunch.
This is where I had originally wanted to stay during our visit to Grand Teton NP - but it was booked solid (hmmm weird this time of year) - well we found out why - A Conference of Nature Film Producers, Directors, etc were staying there. So no rooms at the Inn.
I fell in love with the large picture window that (normally) shows a sweeping view of the Teton range and the round fireplaces in the lobby.
If you look really hard... you can ALMOST see one of the mountains.
My original plan for lunch had been in the Mural Room - well, due to the conference, that was going to take an hour or more to get a table. So - instead we decided on the Pioneer Grill. It reminded me of a 1950s diner. It had lots of old photos and memorabilia from the Park's early days.
I have zero memory of what we ate. I think I had a bowl of chili?? Bison chili?? And that's all I remember.
After lunch, we were out exploring the patio behind the lodge - which overlooks the marshes of Jackson lake - and we decided to take an "easy trail" from the hotel to "Lunch Tree Hill" - this is where John D. Rockefeller brought his family to eat lunch and hike when he visited the park. I had read that this trail was good for seeing animals in the marshes below - and someone returning on the trail said there were mating moose... so off we went - in search of the moose...
The large picture windows of the lodge.
The marshes - the weather was improving.
Signage about moose
Looking back at the Lodge
Lunch Tree Hill Plaque
To make a long hike - a much shorter story - we hiked long past the Lunch Tree - and never did find the Moose in the marsh. Chris wanted to keep looking - but we did hear buggling - and found elk in the marsh below. And a small little bird - that was very cold and fluffed up. After about an hour of Moose-searching - I told Chris we needed to move on - we had to get through more of the park today before heading to the hotel for the night.
Male elk on the right with his rack - we kept hearing him bugle.
Fluffy little bird
I think he fluffed up to try and stay warm.
We returned to the lodge, made it through the crowd (Chris thinks he saw Jack Hanna)
Better photo of the round copper fireplace
We headed back to the car and continued on our way.
Wow, I just can't get over the difference in what you're seeing just a couple of weeks later than the time of year we were there - no lake, barely any moutains in view. It's just so hard to take in how much a park can change in such a small amount of time...
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Sanctuary in the middle of Nature's beauty
As we wound the SUV through marsh, we came to a dam. Jackson Lake Dam and Reservoir to be exact.
As I mentioned earlier - since Grand Teton was designated a National Park in 1950, quite a bit of infrastructure had been built in the valley before designation, which makes it a really interesting park to visit if you have any interest in environmental policy and management (ok 99% of you don't - but as an Environmental policy wonk who deals with these issues all the time, it was interesting to me).
The road from the lodge crosses the dam and there is a parking lot to pull out and take photos.
The lake was low - but not at its lowest yet.
We also saw lots and lots of coots...
After taking a few photos - we moved on.
There was one thing I had read about in some of the books that I wanted to stop and see - the Chapel of the Sacred Heart
This small log Catholic chapel sits in the pine forest with a view of Jackson Lake. All the information I had read said the chapel is closed except for services... but hte door was unlocked and we entered.
The stained glass window with the heart was so beautiful.
The Chapel is part of Our Lady of the Mountain, Roman Catholic Church in Jackson, WY. It was built in the 1930s, the chapel has been remodeled most recently in 2003 in honor of the American spirit following the tragedy of 9/11. The Chapel is a beautiful rustic log structure in the pine trees. The Chapel seats about 140 people and regular weekend masses are celebrated during the summer months of June through September. You can also apply to be married in the chapel. This little chapel was a small slice of sanctuary in the middle of all this nature.
I left a small donation in the box, thankful for this small quiet place and we moved on to our next stop.
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What a beautiful little chapel. I still can't get over how different things look from when we visited - just amazing the difference a couple of weeks in a year can make.
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I still can't get over how different things look from when we visited - just amazing the difference a couple of weeks in a year can make.
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