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!