Weeks behind! Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier National Parks

The blog is far behind our reality! No – or bad – internet connectivity is mostly to blame. That and it is not as easy as it should be to update this thing. In Wyoming & Canada we camped in national parks where there was no WiFi and in Montana at a KOA park where there might as well have been no internet (note: they were quick to point out that they do NOT advertise WiFi access). The KOA did two better though – they had an awesome hot tub AND they had a pizza kitchen & delivered to your campsite! Will sum up as best we can from our adventures in Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone & Glacier National Park.

Grand Tetons

Holy Cow! We LOVED the Tetons – as of today, we both agree this has been our favorite place so far, even though I thought I was going to die after a 35 mile bike ride. We also trekked around Phelps Lake where we spotted a moose drinking and a western tanager bird (no photo, he was too quick) so colorful, exquisite. We took the Jackson tram to the top of the mountain, spotting Corbets Couloir along the way. Brian might have feared death as he parasailed off that 10,000+ foot mountain; BUT yep, he really did do that.

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The scenery is just spectacular and we enjoyed the town of Jackson as well even if it is a bit touristy. Had some great ice cream (sorbet in my case) – where Brian lost his phone (later recovered) and had an intense yoga class at a studio we picked so we could also use the shower facilities. AND we got to ride horses into some beautiful terrain. I forgot how much core work is involved in that but I was reminded the next day when every time I moved involving my mid-back. In addition to the horses, we also got to see antelope, moose (one right in our campground) but did not see Elk even though Jackson is home to the National Elk Refuge. The four corners of the square in town have arches made from Elk antlers collected every year after the shed. Took our bear spray – but no bears.

In the visitor center, there was an exceptionally beautiful picture of the Teton range made from individual pictures from the area. Stunning. And I loved the quote on the wall there too.

Yellowstone

Most of our time in Yellowstone was spent driving from place to place. Not our idea of fun – but there really isn’t anther way to see the major sites or get to trails. The roadways are very scenic – some of them gave me the shivers driving along the sheer drops. It was very busy at all of the top places. The Falls were definitely a highlight and we were very happy Old Faithful did not let us down especially after it started raining. She took her time to show, but she did eventually. We enjoyed other geysers, the Grand Prismatic Spring and Mammoth Hot Springs as well. It was very interesting to learn about the Park, the fact that it is a super volcano and to see the caldera on the topographical map was enlightening just to see how enormous it is. We did get to see Elk in the park – one particular lady elk did not seem to care who was wandering around Mammoth, she was just hanging out by the buildings for all to see. We also captured a couple of bulls and crossed the Continental Divide. The Upper Falls were stunning – great way to wind down our visit there.

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We did discover how reliant we are on the internet during our stay there! My recipes are all online and I do all our day planning via the web. We were far from internet service at the campground, so when we went to Mammoth, I took screenshots of my recipe for dinner as well as the directions out the next day. We decided to leave a day early and split the drive to Glacier in half (was originally 7.5 hour drive), so booked a campground last minute as we drove out (and got cell service) the next day. Good call.

Glacier National Park

The genesis of this entire trip was that I wanted to see GNP before the Glaciers all disappeared. I am going to write another post on Glacier so I can put this one up. Stay tuned, more to come (soon, I hope – we have already been to Canada & Washington – leaving for Oregon tomorrow!)