Wildflowers of Grand Teton National Park

The winter was unstoppable this year. The snow piled up continuosly from January to May with many areas of Jackson Hole recieving over 700 inches of snow throughout the season (that's nearly 60 feet!). Although this exceptional amount of snow made for a slow start to our hiking season, it has some neat benefits, one being an abundance of water for the wildflowers of Grand Teton National Park to drink up all summer.

As things thawed throughout May and June and the sagebrush began to push through the snow cover we began to see the first spots of brilliant color announcing that flowers were on their way. It wasn't long before fields of yellow arrowleaf balsamroot, and blue lupine were blanketing sections of the valley floor.

The flowers begin blooming at the lower elevations and climb up the mountainsides chasing the receding snow. Different types of flowers grow at different elevations. Larger more robust species like the arrowleaf balsamroot, lupine, sticky geranium and indian paintbrush thrive in the valley. Moving up through the forests and mid-elevations you may find more intricate flowers such as monkshood, harebell, columbine, steer's head or shooting star. In the upper alpine zone's the flowers are small and close to the ground, look for moss campion, alpine forget-me-not and flox.

The color these flowers provide polk-a-dots and embellishes an already magnificent landscape.

Summer Staff Games 2011

Every summer in June the SML staff band together by department and form teams to enter into a week of competitive fun. A handful of events are hosted each day throughout the week ranging from a chess tournament to a running relay, and horseshoes to a volleyball tournament, just to name a few. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded for each event and points are accumulated in conjunction with the medals. After a series of events on the final day, points are tallied and the highly sought prize, The Most Prestigous Trophy, is passed into the possession of the winning-est team during an outdoor cookout and closing ceremony.

All of the teams worked hard this year and it was a very close match throughout the week with many teams still handily in reach of first place by the final day of games. In the end, the enthusiasm and perseverance of the Cleaning Mutant Ninja Turtles paid off and they emerged victorious.

Congratulations to the Cleaning Mutant Ninja Turtles (housekeeping staff) for taking home The Most Prestigious Trophy in this year's SML Summer Staff Games! Hip Hip Hooray!

A big thanks to all who participated and made this year's games so much fun!

The volleyball tournament!

Mt. Moranasaurus getting the crowd riled up

The Phantoms of the Opera warming up for the Talent Show

An entertaining skit for the talent show

A couple of Cleaning Mutant Ninja Turtles

Some excited gold medalists

The victorious team touting their prize

The Marinas And Leek's Pizzeria Are Open, And Summer Time Updates

The ice has completely disappeared from Jackson Lake and it is nice to once again see the deep blue against the shining white mountains. The sun is out and the wildlife are roaming around the park.

We have our docks in the water and have opened both Signal Marina and Leek's Marina along with Leek's Pizzeria. So come on up and cruise around the lake, or grab some delicious pizza, or both!

Our Marinas will have a few operational limitations over the first week as we get prepped for the rest of the summer. Signal Marina has canoes, kayaks, and a few run-about boats in the water. (The paddle powered boats will have limited usage areas due to cold water conditions). The rest of the fleet will be available as they come out of storage and are prepped by our marina staff.

Leek's Marina will not have gas, potable water or pump out services available on the docks until tentatively the weekend of June 4th. We are busy upgrading our fuel containment systems on the dock and hope to have work completed by then.

The guest docks at Signal Marina and the wrangle dock at Leek's Marina wil be out of the water until the lake level rises.

Seasonal Buoyers will have access to the wrangle boats to mark their buoys both at Signal Marina and Leek's Marina starting May 29th.

We are looking forward to warmer and warmer weather as the week goes on and a full lake for the length of the summer! See you at the lake!

The marina from the lodge

The dock

The marina staff are ready to help