Summer Trip Part 3 (Wyo., ID & CO)

This is the last in the summer trip series, I promise.  I took so many pictures that I had to break it up into parts.  This third part is the last segment of our trip, when we had left the national parks area.  We were sad to say, "Good-Bye" to the beautiful Grand Teton peaks.

But, actually, we weren't really, quite, saying "Good-Bye!", yet, because in the next town where we stayed, Driggs, ID, you actually get a backside view of the Grand Tetons.  It looks quite different than the dramatic view in the National Park.  But, it's still pretty and we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere in the small town of Driggs.





Here's a picture of when we arrived at our hotel. We thought it was rather hilarious that there was a sign not to park in the snow plowing zone, given the fact that it was about 90 degrees!
 

The first thing we wanted to do was to shower in our hotel room after "roughing it" in our tabin for the previous couple of nights in the Grand Tetons.  We also did a little swimming at our hotel there.  Then we took the steep mountain pass back to Jackson, Wyo. with at least a 10% grade or more most of the way down.

in order to go to a Chuckwagon Show that night.  We had a great time at the Chuckwagon Dinner Show at the Bar J.

Before the dinner started we decided to take a wagon ride.

And here is some of the scenery that we saw along our ride...

After the wagon ride, we enjoyed a good Chuckwagon dinner in a fun, rustic barn-like structure.

and then a show...



  I didn't take many pictures of the show, because it was dark and I didn't want to infringe upon their rights.  But, all I will say is that it was a very good show, with great music and humor!  And when we came outside afterwards, it was a beautiful, moonlit evening.

Penny's favorite part of our evening was seeing the large, draft horses, which were so gentle and yet strong enough to pull a wagonload full of people.  They were amazing creatures.

That night, it was a scary drive back across the pass because we came around a bend in the road and there were many deer right in the middle of the road!  Fortunately, Jay stopped just in time to avoid hitting them.  We saw many more, both live and dead along the side of the road, too.  So, we were very relieved when we made it back to our hotel, without a damaged vehicle!

The next day was the day we drove several miles in ID, WYO and CO on our way towards home.  Here are a few pictures from the drive.

We were just arriving in Craig, CO, as the sun went down.  "Why would we want to stay in Craig?" you may ask.  Well, Jay wanted to show us around, since we had almost ended up moving here almost 3 years ago.  Jay had had a very good interview at an elementary school there and the principal was planning on offering him the job, when an employee from within the district ended up requesting a transfer to that position, instead.  So, the job ended up going to him, and Jay ended up getting a position that landed us in the Denver area.  But, it was fun to look around the small town of Craig and see where we could have ended up.  Since, I grew up in rural South Dakota, I really like the small-town atmosphere of Craig and the fact that it is near to many state parks, as well.  As we drove around, we noticed several deer just hanging out in people's yards.  It was a nice place.  But, we also noticed many roofs in bad shape.  They obviously get extreme weather there, with very hot sun in the winter and LOTs of snow in the winter.  Keep in mind, that is between the desert-like Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and ski resort town of Steamboat Springs, CO.  So, I'm not sure if we would have enjoyed the weather, as much.  Our next day, after looking around Craig, we headed back towards Ft. Collins, where Jay's mom still lives.  And, while we drove over Rabbit Ears Pass, south of Steamboat Springs, we got to see this bear cross right across the busy highway in front of us!

That was our first time, ever, to actually see a bear in Colorado!  We were very excited and tired out by our long trip and had a great time staying with Jay's mom one night before heading back to Arvada.  It was a great trip to celebrate Penny's high school graduation.  And now we're anticipating the next, exciting stage, as she plans to go on to study at a local community college. And we'll see what God has in store for Jay's future employment opportunities.  Stay tuned for future adventures!













Summer Trip Part 2 (Grand Tetons)

I promised to update you on the next segment of our trip.  We left off as we were leaving Yellowstone National Park.  As we did, it started raining on our way to the Grand Teton National Park.

So, it was a little harder to see the Grand Tetons.  But, we were very excited to be staying right in the heart of the park, this time, near Colter Bay.

The above picture was the view of the mountain above the roof of our "tabin", (so called, because was part tent and part cabin).  We really enjoyed staying there, as it felt like we were somewhat roughing it, but we didn't have to set up our tent in the rain, (like last year on the top of Mesa Verde with lighting striking all around).  And we were just feet away from a public bathroom, along with a water source and even a big sink for washing dishes.  Here are a few pictures from our rustic camping experience.

You probably noticed the bear box made out of metal where we were to store any food and even toiletries to keep the bears from invading our tabin.  Fortunately, we never did see one near where we slept.  But, the next morning we were told that a young one went strolling right by the nearby visitor's center that morning at Colter Bay.  And we ended up seeing another bear on our drive around the Tetons that next morning.  It was nice and sunny.  But, it was rather still in the morning, so there were a LOT of bugs to contend with.  Thus, we had a hard time smiling and staying still for photo shots.  Here is one example of a funny shot, due to the bugs.

Now I'll add a few that turned out a little better.

The mountains were so beautiful that it was absolutely breath taking.  It's hard to decide which photos to include on this blog.  I took WAY too many pictures. 

We were very excited to see another bear.  It's hard to tell by these photos, but here is the bear.

After seeing the bear, we drove up a road to the top of Signal Mountain, where we got a nice view and saw millions of butterflies!

We were also seeing lots of beautiful wildflowers on this trip, because they had had plenty of rain this summer!

Next we took the Teton Park Road toward Jenny Lake.

It was getting REALLY hot, again, by this time.  But, we managed to find a picnic spot in a fairly shaded area near the lake.

After our picnic lunch we stopped at the Jenny Lake Visitor's Center to refresh ourselves.  We were fortunate that someone had just left, because the parking lot was packed to overflowing when we arrived there.  It was a pretty area where lots of people stopped to catch boat rides across the lake.

Our last stop before heading back towards our campground was the Chapel of the Transfiguration.  It is actually a real church that still holds Sunday morning worship services.  Surprisingly enough, it was one place that wasn't overrun by tourists.  It was a nice, quiet time for reflection there.

After that we drove into Jackson, to get gas at a more reasonable price and where I got a nice, ice-cold Mtn. Dew Freezie.  Ah, so refreshing after the hot day of being in the 90's at high altitude, again.  Then, on the way back we got to see more bison.

At the campground we saw more beautiful flowers!

And Jay started a fire for BBQ'ing and to keep the bugs away.

By that time, Penny had had enough of any picture taking!

As you can see, she ended up sleeping on an air mattress on the ground, near the potbelly stove, which we ended up using that second night there, because the first night we woke up in the middle of the night feeling VERY cold!  Here are a few more pictures of the inside of our tabin....

Jay and I each slept on the two bottom bunk beds and used the upper beds for storing our bags.  That second night there we ended up going to do laundry and then enjoyed having the sturdy tabin for when a thunderstorm rolled through.  The next morning was our last morning in the park.  We had a great time, but Penny was getting homesick.  I think she had had enough of the camping out and it made her long for home.  Here I am excited to not have to wash dishes for the next few days. : )

The first place we stopped on our last way out of the park was the Oxbow Turnout Lookout.  Once again, we started to notice the flies driving us crazy when we went down by the water.  So, we didn't stay as long as we would have liked.  But, it sure was beautiful and peaceful there.

Next, we stopped by the Snake River Overlook and attempted to take some nice photos in between swatting flies.

As we left the park we still couldn't believe the amazing beauty of our Creator God when we saw the handiwork of the amazing Grand Teton mountains.