Spring Stirrings--Ice Off

Teton winters tend to be pretty long, and the early signs of spring can be difficult to recognize with eyes desensitized by months of nothing but the colors snow white and moose brown , but we're here to tell you, Spring is on its way. These gray, rainy days may not make us feel like tiptoeing through the tulips, but they do serve an important function--they are great at melting snow. For example, in just a few weeks, the snow banks in the Signal Staff Housing area have shrunk from head height to hip height. Progress!

For the staff here at Signal Mountain Lodge (not to mention JH locals and longtime guests), perhaps the biggest and most important harbinger of the coming Teton summer is know as Ice Off--the date on which the SML Marina portion of Jackson Lake is completely free of ice. Predicting the official Ice Off date has become something of a competition among Moran Locals. But when will it all actually melt? It's hard to say for sure, but here are some images to help gauge your expectations. More importantly, they may just convince you that GTNP is indeed creeping towards springtime....



Here's what Jackson Lake looked like on March 8th...

And here's what it looks like today!

Here's the restaurant building in March

April 25th!



Finally, here's our parking lot snow pile the day it was plowed for Nacho Night, March 7th.

TODAY!  Quite a bit dirtier but noticeably reduced in size : )

We know these aren't exactly the kind of jaw-dropping scenic photos we usually post on the blog, but we hope they provide some encouragement to those who, like us, are still crawling out of Winter's icy grip. (Or for our readers in warmer climes, perhaps they will merely provide an afternoon's worth of schadenfreude...)

Either way, hang in there, friends, stay warm, and we'll see you May 9th!!!!