Day Three

Driving

We had a great day today! Our drive for the first 3 hours or so consisted of high plains full of sage and antelope (one even ran in front of us!). The road was just about deserted, which made for stress-free driving. Closer to the Grand Tetons, we had amazing rock formations at every turn. Some looked like giants had stacked them up, some were bright red, other solid rock formations jutted straight up out of the ground. This was a day of saying “wow” again and again. As the mountains drew nearer, we could see snow capped peaks, often cloaked in clouds.

Grand Teton National Park

Finally we entered Grand Tetons National Park and enjoyed Jenny Lake and the visitor center there. Most likely this was our only day for the Tetons, so we tried to see as much as we could. What a gorgeous park! Snow covered the mountains and even along the road snow patches were still there. The crowds weren’t bad at all. The only challenge was stopping ourselves from taking pictures every 20 feet. And the pictures don’t really even do justice to the mountains or the lake. We only saw the teeniest bit of the Grand Tetons . . . but may not be able to go back this trip since there was considerable road work to get through between Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. We were fortunate that today was Sunday so even though there was a delay, it wasn’t as bad as it would be on a work day. There’s a great hike near Jenny lake we’d like to do, though . . . .

Yellowstone National Park

I read a blog last night of a family’s trip to Yellowstone, and they said that the reason it takes so long to get anywhere in Yellowstone is all the distractions. We agree! By the time we hit Yellowstone we really needed to just power through and get to our hotel in West Yellowstone, a good hour’s drive away. But that meant driving past waterfalls, bison, geysers, old faithful, etc! We managed to keep going most of the time but we did stop to look at the Black Sand geysers – wow (again). We kept rolling past the people trying to get closer to a two ton buffalo for that perfect shot (we’ve seen the videos on the www.nps/yell that show visitors getting gored), skipped Old Faithful for today and focused on getting to our hotel.

West Yellowstone

We are staying in West Yellowstone because all of the in-park locations were full by the time we decided to plan this trip. We are in a cozy little place called “Alpine Motel” which is listed as the #1 recommended motel on tripadvisor.com. It deserves the accolades. It’s run by a family who take extreme care to provide a clean, pleasant stay at a reasonable price. It’s a really little, old fashioned motel that is somewhat updated and extremely clean. Did I say clean? I meant spotless. The only downside at this point is a slow wifi - seriously cramping my style in uploading photos. So far I only have the slideshow of a few. So here’s to a good night’s sleep and lots of hiking and geysers tomorrow.