Teton Village

The season is winding down. Rebekah and Kim have completed their contracts and are ready to roadtrip home. Before they leave, we all headed to Jackson, WY for a weekend. We stayed at The Hostel at Teton Village.

We had dinner at Teton Thai in Jackson. The next morning, we had breakfast at the Village and then drove the Moose-Wilson Rd. We stopped at the new Rockefeller Preserve.

We hiked out to Phelps Lake:

A perfect place to relax...

Wes' Visit

I have a visitor from home!!! Wes came to spend a week in Yellowstone and it was great to see an old friend! I had to work the first 3 days of his trip so he went sight-seeing along the upper loop during the day while I worked.


Tuesday, we hiked Elephant Back and had a great view of Yellowstone Lake. Afterwards, we had lunch at Fishing Bridge General Store and drove back to Mammoth stopping along the way to take pics of flowers, wildlife and scenery.

Once we were back at Mammoth, we decided to head down to Boiling River to relax. Boiling River is where scalding hot water from natural hot springs flows into the cool Gardner River. It takes some time to find a spot that isn't too cool, and most importantly, not too hot.

Later that evening, Rebekah joined us for dinner at Rosie's in Gardiner.

Wednesday morningwe headed down to the Old Faithful area. We walked the Upper Geyser Basin and visited the Old Faithful Inn. We visited some other geyser basins and did a short hike to get an aerial view of Grand Prismatic Hot Spring. This night, we camped at Madison Campground and Wes went fishing for a while.

Thursday morning, bright and early, we headed for Grand Teton National Park. Along the way, we spotted this coyote:

Seeing the Tetons never gets old...

At Moose Junction in GTNP, we spotted 2 bull moose!! Here's one of them:

On the drive back to Lake Lodge, we stopped at Lewis Lake so Wes could do some more fishing. It was a beautiful sunset...

Friday morning, after breakfast at Fishing Bridge General Store, we went on a hike back to Riddle Lake.

It was a nice 2 mile stroll back to the lake through the forest. Fishing was not good this day because it was much too windy. But the view was nice:

We did some exploring of other areas of the park that Wes had not yet visited. The evening was spent enjoying the lake and geese:

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.

Go West!

I'm headed back to YNP for another summer! Clarinda and Cari Ann rode along with me. We had a great time!

St. Louis Gateway Arch. We took the elevators to the top.

The view from the arch was amazing!!

The viewing area wasn't as big as I thought it would be...the ceiling wasn't very tall.

Busch Stadium, Home of the Cardinals, as seen from the arch!

The first night of the trip, we stayed in Clarinda, Iowa much to our Clarinda's delight!! It was a very nice, small town.

The Iowa countryside was beautiful, but the pics just don't show how pretty it really was. This is along Hwy 2 in Iowa, headed to Lincoln, Nebraska.

DAY 2: We travelled across Nebraska and stopped at the Great Platte River Road Archway Museum that is built over Interstate 80:

The museum pays tribute to the pioneers who travelled the Great Platte River Road to settle the West.

Cari Ann listening to the story of the 49ers. The headsets gave commentary and info as you walk along at your own speed.

Checking the speed of cars passing below us:

Nebraska:

Western Nebraska:

Cheyenne, Wyoming:

Windmills in Eastern Wyoming:

Just before we arrived in Laramie, it started snowing:

We spent the night in Laramie, WY. We had a nice surprise when we checked in at the hotel. Chad had pre-arranged for a gift basket to be waiting for us! It was stuffed full of snacks and goodies for the rest of the trip.

DAY 3: Eastern Wyoming along I-80.

Snow Breaks along I-80 in WY to reduce the drifting of snow onto the road:

At Rock Springs, we got off the interstate and took Hwy 191 North towards Jackson.

We made it to Jackson and then drove into Grand Teton National Park. The Tetons are breathtaking:

We saw two moose:

Then we saw 2 Grizzlies:

Clarinda and Cari Ann in front of the frozen Jackson Lake with the Tetons behind them.

Elk:

We stayed in Jackson at The Parkway Inn. It was very quaint and cute:

From Jackson, we headed northwest into Idaho. The scenery was beautiful!!! We saw a couple of trucks loaded down with potatoes.

As we got closer to West Yellowstone, MT and the west entrance of YNP, we came through a blizzard! This southern girl was nervous!

West Yellowstone, MT: The blizzard had dumped a foot of snow inside YNP, so they closed the roads. We had to take a 3 hour detour up to Bozeman and then through the North Entrance of the park.

Big Sky, MT. Beautiful! On Hwy 89, south of Livingston in Paradise Valley.

We FINALLY arrived in YNP. Clarinda and Cari Ann didn't get to see much because the snow had the roads in the park closed. We stayed a couple of nights in Gardiner, MT where Cari Ann got to swim. I'm so glad they came with me and had a girls road trip.