I'm writing from our hotel room in Burley, Idaho. Today we head to Boise, the last stop of our 9-week journey. We will end our travels with a bang, visiting a bunch of good friends for a few days. Both of us are feeling rather melancholy about being so close to the end. This trip has been so amazing. I really do think that we could keep going and I think part of that is due to the fact that we are able to keep in close touch with home via our cellphones and the internet. So, if we turn south instead of west out of Boise.... Just kidding.
We've had lots of mini-vacations within our grand vacation - visits with friends, long weekends in fun cities, a week down the shore. And, for the last week or so, a camping trip in South Dakota and Wyoming.
Last summer Erin and I drove through Yellowstone and the Tetons in a day on our cross country trip to move her back to Seattle. It was great to be back again this year with time to explore. Both parks are eye-popping. We stayed 2 nights at Canyon in Yellowstone and a night at Lizard Creek in the Tetons. At both parks we were required to keep everything related in any way to food or cooking or cleaning up inside our car if not in use to discourage bear visitations. While we are glad that we didn't experience any bear curiosity at our campsite, seeing a bear at a distance would have been OK by me!
Yellowstone dished up some volatile weather and we camped through drizzly evenings and nights. The overnight temps in the mid-30's were a bit of a shock. We are doing minimalist car camping - most of the gear we brought is our backpacking gear. No blue tarp available. So, picture this, one evening we sat in the car reading so that we didn't have to spend 12+ hours laying around in our little 2-person tent! The weather, combined with our end-of-the trip sadness, put a dent in the mood for a little while. It didn't last. Our daytime explorations at both parks and the warm dry weather in the Tetons made up for the discomfort brought by the late-day rain and cold in Yellowstone.
Here are some pictures. I couldn't figure out how to keep it to only a few!
Shell Falls in the Big Horn Mountains
We spent the night in Cody, Wyoming after leaving the Black Hills and before heading into Yellowstone from the east. Driving from the Black Hills to Cody requires crossing the Big Horn Mountains on Route 14. It is a steep and beautiful climb out of the valley followed by a plunge into a scenic canyon. Not to be missed.
Yellowstone
We spent two days exploring both loop roads in the park. Got to see some wildlife along with the natural splendor of the landscape.
One could easily spend a week or more.
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
See the rainbow?
Canyon art shot by Rob
The Falls - Yellowstone River
One of many hydro-thermal landscapes in the Mammoth Hot Springs area
Other-worldly.
Ditto
This is not Old Faithful
We saw Old Faithful erupt, but I've got to say that there are lots of other amazing sights that get short-shrift. We saw and heard geysers and mud pots and hot springs and fumaroles and steam vents that blew us away.
So, sorry Old Faithful, you don't get your picture on this blog.
One last shot as we were leaving the park
Jackson Lake - Grand Teton National Park
This is the beach at Lizard Creek Campground. Just down from our campsite. Nice spot for our breakfast.
This is not the last time we will be here (hopefully).
Grand Tetons - no way to get the grandeur in one photo
So here's another photo
Jenny Lake
Rob swimming in Jenny Lake
Fun story about Jenny Lake. We stopped at the Jenny Lake Lodge to see if our friend Vaughn's daughter was still working there. Sure enough, she was! And, not only that, her Dad was visiting. So we had a surprise visit with Vaughn at Sonia's cabin. I love random things like that!
After the swim, we drove into Jackson via Moose-Wilson road. No moose, oh well. We had dinner at the Snake River Brewery in town. Then, we hit the road heading west and didn't stop until close to midnight. One more photo below.
Moonrise over the Swan Valley
Eastern Idaho
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