Tetons Weekend!

Cathleen, Holly and I headed to the Tetons for our weekend. This was a last minute decision, so our options for lodging were somewhat limited. We reserved a tent cabin at Colter Bay Village in Grand Teton National Park. None of us knew what to expect, but I was excited about our little adventure!

Tent Cabin: Canvas wall with a window that opened and closed via a zipper, a screen door with a very technical lock system consisting of a hook and latch, tin roof, and a woodstove for the heat source.

I think Cathleen was a little anxious about what she would find inside...

...ah, yes! Jail-style bunk beds!!! Cathleen would later refer to this cabin as jail!!!

After checking out our cabin, we headed to Jackson. We browsed some of the shops.


Two of the greatest in American history: Cathleen and Ben Franklin.

I'll always remember this trip to Jackson for many reasons, but one of them is because I tried Thai food for the first time. Teton Thai restaurant was recommended to us. It was a great atmosphere with all the tables on an open-air deck.

I stayed on the safe side and ordered Pad Thai. It was delicious and I'm an fan of Thai food!

We had a fun evening back at the cabin. It was pretty chilly so we built a fire in the woodstove, climbed in our bunks, and listened to Holly tell us entertaining bedtime stories from her adventures of living, dating, and performing in NYC and Chicago!

The next morning, we woke to rain on the tin roof. We ate breakfast sitting on the dock at Colter Bay.

The HooDoos

An another after dinner hike with Rebekah in the HooDoos:

Indian Paintbrush:

Red Lodge, MT & The Beartooth All-American Road

One of the prettiest drives you'll ever take is the Beartooth Hwy. Mary, my co-worker and friend, and I headed to Red Lodge, MT via this beautiful route. Once you exit the Northeast Entrance of the park, you follow Hwy 212 to the little town of Red Lodge.

The Beartooth Mtn range has over 20 peaks reaching over 12,000 ft in elevation and have glaciers on the north flank of nearly every mountain over 11,500 ft.

Our first stop was the City Bakery to buy a cream puff to share:

Yum!

We spent the day browsing the shoppes.

For dinner, we headed out Hwy 308 to the Saloon & Steakhouse in Bear Creek, MT.

This joint is famous for the pig races they hold every night. That's right folks, pig races nightly.

We didn't get to stay for the races, but we did get to check out the competitors.

The proceeds go to fund local scholarships.

The drive back to the park:

The highlight of the day for me was seeing mountain goats on the way back.

We saw this black bear just inside the park entrance:

Mt. Evarts

Mt. Evarts, below, was named for Truman Evarts, a member of the 1870 Washburn Expedition that was some of the first explorers of the park. Evarts was separated from group, lost his glasses, horse, food, blanket, and shoes. He spent the next 37 days in peril - hallucinating, starving and freezing in the wilderness. He was eventually rescued just hours from death.

Our fearless leader Linda at the front of our group: Cathleen, Suzanne, Holly and me!!

The reward of the climb was the panorama : Osprey Falls to the left..

...Mammoth Hot Springs in front...

...and Devil's Slide to the right. Amazing!

It was quite a climb but luckily the weather was nice and cool.

Here are some more views:

Pretty flowers:

Mammoth Hot Springs from 8,000 ft:

It was really windy at the top and was a little scary, especially at the edge:

Gardiner, MT is at the far right: A cactus in bloom:

Crossing over the Gardner River at Rescue Creek. It was exhausting, but so worth it.

At the half way point or so, we were all pretty tired and exhausted (or at least I was). Holly promised us that she would sing for us (she's awesome). She chose the perfect song, You'll Never Walk Alone from Carousel, at the perfect place and time!!