So.... That left Caroline and I to have a wonderful adventure on the way home.
It was the best.
We decided to try to make the most of C's National Park pass. First, we drove up to Grand Teton National Park. It's in far western Wyoming, between Jackson and the Idaho border. We had never been. It was SPECTACULAR! Amazing! Breathtaking! Every good adjective you could think of!
Look at these mountains!
When I was prepping for this trip, I came across several recommendations for an app called GyPSy. It's a guided audio tour of different national parks and landmarks that uses GPS to tell you about whatever it is that you're driving by. It makes recommendations about where to stop and what you can miss. We LOVED it.
My animal-loving Care Bear was thrilled with all the
wildlife that we spotted throughout our time in the parks.
Our first stop was a hike along Death Canyon Trail (sounds ominous, right?) to the Phelps Lake Overlook.
It was anything but ominous.
It was tranquil and beautiful.
And a perfect difficulty level for the two of us.
It was about a mile out and a mile back.
Cute wildflowers along the way.
There were signs at the trailhead warning about the
dangers of bears. I was unprepared and came without
bear spray. (Big no-no!) Some fellow hikers
told us that there was one in the area recently.
Luckily, we never crossed its path.
Always looking for a chance to climb! :)
And at the end of our mile-long hike,
THIS is the payoff.
Are you kidding me?
That is Phelps Lake.
SO breathtakingly gorgeous.
Loved, loved, loved this hike.
That's a BIG tree.
And a cute little tree hugger.
On our way back down,
fellow hikers taught us about Huckleberries.
They are wild berries that grow in this area and
happened to be in season right when we were there.
They taught us how to find them and we snacked
on huckleberries the whole way down. Yum!
C loves her water shoes and took
every opportunity to step in creeks and lakes.
We stopped for a little while at the
Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center.
They had some cool exhibits, including
one on the history of rock climbing.
Such spectacular views!
There's a section of the park where historic homes
and buildings are still standing.
We had time for one more hike before heading to our
AirBnB. We decided to hike to Taggart Lake,
also a little over a mile out.
Liked these Aspens.
Got to cross over a gorgeous
raging waterfall/stream.
What is it about breathing that mountain air?
So refreshing.
Taggart Lake.
Look how clear that water is!
Loved seeing the mountains reflect in the lake.
This girl is a GREAT traveling and hiking buddy.
More cute wildlife.
On our drive out, we saw a few elk, which was awesome.
And this cool bird up in its next.
So, the bad thing about not planning your trip to this area in advanced, is there are very limited numbers of hotel rooms. So, the only ones that were available anywhere near the park were $400+/night. Out of my budget. Instead, I found a cute B&B in Driggs, Idaho for us to stay the night. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes to drive there. Normally that's no problem for us. But when you've hiked 4+ miles and you're planning on coming back to the park the next day, it was annoying.
The AirBnB ended up being quite the adventure. My phone didn't get any data reception in Driggs. I had the address to the place, but couldn't figure out how to get in the building. Or where to park. We ended up meeting a cute, young, European couple who were also staying there and they helped us get in. It was a Saturday night, so C and I went to buy groceries so that we wouldn't have to eat out on Sunday. By the time we were done shopping and came back to the place to eat dinner, it was after 10 pm. The couple was in the shared kitchen area eating dinner. They said, "This is so late for Americans to be eating!" Ha! You're telling us? We were famished! It was fun to visit with them over dinner.
The room itself was actually really cute. But it was in a remodeled assisted living center that was still in the middle of renovations. It has a lot of potential.
We went to sacrament meeting in Driggs the next morning.
Love visiting congregations across the country.
Drove through Jackson, Wyoming.
Seems like a fun place to spend some time.
The one other place we wanted to stop in Grand Teton
was Jenny Lake. We were hoping to do a short hike,
but the trails were closed that day,
so we just enjoyed the view from the shore.
A cute little butterfly found Caroline.
We tried to take in all those spectacular views
one last time as we drove away from the park.
So grateful we could spend some time in this
beautiful part of the world.
Quick stop at Jackson Lake on the way out.
