Yellowstone- Day 2

Tuesday morning we had a quick breakfast before heading over to a few other viewing spots for the falls. We once again marveled at the power of the water rushing over the rocks.

We then headed out to do a short hike to the Natural Bridge. The hike was quite nice and bear
free.

We then headed back to the Lake Village area for a picnic next to Yellowstone Lake. It was quite windy but the views were spectacular!


Does everything seem normal in this picture?

Next, we drove over to the Noris Geyser Basin where we toured a bunch of the geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and steam vents. The landscape is just surreal with steam escaping everywhere. You realize you're in a really strange place. The mud pot was my favorite. It was going crazy and they had to close off a section of the boardwalk. The sign read, "Hot flying mud!" We saw a couple of small geysers. We also stopped at the Painters Pots.








Once again we had dinner at the Canyon Lodge before resting up for the next day's adventures!

Yellowstone- Day 1

We woke up early the next day to set off for Yellowstone, which is actually only about 20 minutes away from Grand Teton National Park. After sneaking one last long look at the Teton Mountain Range we were on our way.

Upon entering the park we stopped for pictures of the Yellowstone Park sign. We had done some pre-planning for the Yellowstone part of our trip but we still didn't know exactly what to expect. We drove along the road stopping at a bunch of sights. First up was a small waterfall. Yellowstone is full of waterfalls. These waterfalls are one tell tale sign that you are in an area formed by a volcano. As we continued we saw a giant elk (although it was sitting in the woods so you couldn't get a good picture), tons of bison, a gray fox, a couple of bear jams (gridlock caused by a bear sighting), and the West Thumb Geyser Basin. This is where our Yellowstone adventure truly started.










For those of you that don't know, Yellowstone sits on top of a huge volcano. Yes, you read that right. Hot lave flows 3-8 miles underground a majority of the park. The steam escapes in hot spring, mud pots, geysers, and steam vents. All of which were on display at the West Thumb Geyser basin. We had read about this basin in our tour book but nothing prepares you for the real thing. The colors are beautiful and it's so neat to see these pools of water bubbling. The neat thing about this geyser basin is that it is right next to Yellowstone Lake. If you look closely at the lake's shoreline you can see underground hot springs. This is one of the many reasons swimming in the lake is not encouraged. The cause of the beautiful colors is bacteria that can sustain life at extremely hot temperatures.







After touring the basin we continued driving along the Lake. We found a cool sandbar where you could walk out into the Lake. It was there that we really got the sense that we were on a volcano. The sand is black and there are lots of rocks that could only come from a volcano.







We continued on our travels, stopping at Lake Village for lunch. Along the way we saw lots of beautiful views. We drove all the way to Canyon Village, where we would be staying for two nights. The Village area is bustling and the Lodge itself is a blast from the past adding to it's charm. We were hungry but we decided to go to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone while it was still light out. We hiked down about 600 feet on a switchback trail to the base of the Lower Falls. Wow is all I can say! The power of the water rushing over the falls was amazing. We stayed for a quite a while because we were both in awe.



After hiking back up we headed back to the Lodge to have dinner in the Lodge's dining room. We both ordered the bison ravioli...delicious! Then we headed back to our small, but very manageable, cabin. We woke up in the middle of the night freezing because we had left the windows open. Woops! It had gotten all the way down into the 30s.

Grand Teton National Park

We woke up pretty early on Monday morning to get to Grand Teton as early as possible to enjoy the park... unlike last year when we were trying to get to the parks early to avoid the heat.

The mountains looked pretty awesome entering the park, but I was still waiting for the "moment." About five minutes into the park we were greeted with this.

And it only got better from there.

Our big excursion for this park was a hike around Jenny Lake. This was a pretty big deal for me since it was a five mile round trip to the Hidden Falls. There is an option to take a boat across the river and cut the hike down to 1.5 miles but I was feeling up to the challenge. The weather was perfect for hiking, plus there was a lot of tree cover.

Along the hike we had gorgeous views of the lake,


a baby moose in a pond,


and ultimately the Hidden Falls.

After the hike we were both starving but ended up getting big ice cream bars at the general store instead. We continued driving through the park, stopping often to take pictures and take in the majestic mountains.

Our final destination for the day was the Jackson Lake Lodge in the park. The lodge is absolutely gorgeous. It's a bit of a "forced modernism" structure that has retained it's original look from the 50s. When you walk about the stairs in the lobby you are greeted with 60 foot, floor to ceiling windows with the ultimate view of the Teton Range. In my opinion, this is the best view in the park. You have the rolling meadows that open up to the Jackson Lake, and then the mountains in all of their glory. It really is stunning and I could have sit there all day staring at them.

After getting settled in our cabin we headed over to the Mural Room at the Lodge for dinner. The Mural Room has the same huge windows, and the same view. It was one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been to! We had fun deciding what to get for an appetizer. We finally decided to be adventurous and ordered the hazelnut and ginger bison carpaccio. I was a little nervous about eating raw bison but it was delicious. We also had an amuse-bouche of tuna tartar which was quite yummy! Our dinners were delicious and dessert was as well. We had such a great time staring out the windows at the mountains. A fox even ran by the window.

After dinner we headed to one of the Lodge bars to have drinks outside and watch the sunset over the mountains. Unfortunately, the mousquitoes were really bad so we watched from inside the lobby darting outside every few minutes to take pictures. As the sun was setting deer and elk came out in the meadows. It was truly beautiful. I still cannot get over how amazing the mountains were. Grand Teton National Park definitely surpassed our expectations.

Road Trip 2011- It all Starts in the Ski Towns

Last year, after getting hooked by Ken Burns' documentary on the National Parks, we went on an epic road trip that encompassed five National Parks in five days. This year we decided to do it again. We planned a road trip from Salt Lake City, through Park City and Teton Village, to Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and back again to Salt Lake City. This trip was a lot different. We had a day and a half at Grand Teton and four straight days at Yellowstone!

We flew out of Boston on one of those lovely 105 degree heat wave days. The thought of mountain weather never seemed so appealing. Of course, packing for a mountainous environment while melting in 105 degree heat means not bringing your scarves and mittens...but we made it work.

Our first stop was Park City, Utah. We went back and forth about weather or not to spend an entire day and night here. One version of our trip had us spending the night of our flight in here, doing a little exploring the next day, and then heading straight to Grand Teton. I'm so glad we decided to stay the extra night. Park City proved to be a lot of fun and a great way to relax and rest up for the epic adventures that awaited us in the National Parks.

The first thing that I loved is that on the drive from the airport there the thermometer in the car reported a cool 56 degrees! You also could tell that you were surrounded by mountains even though you couldn't really see them. It was a bit spooky, but in a fun way.

After sleeping in, a rarity on this trip, we headed into Park City for lunch. The weather was a beautiful 75 degrees and sunny. Even though it was well past noon on a Saturday, Park City was still a bit sleepy. It reminded me a lot of Breckenridge, although Breck is still tops on my ski resort town list. We had lunch at a pub that offered outdoor seating. Of course we wanted to sit outside, but the waitress told us it was going to get too hot to sit outside. When I asked her how hot she said it might reach the 80s today. I laughed and informed her it was the second hottest day in the history of Boston today and that we'd take the chance of sitting outside. Lunch was really good and it was fun to watch more and more people file into the town.



After lunch we spent some time browsing the shops and galleries. JO bought a winter hat for Yellowstone after realizing he hadn't brought anything with a hood and the lows could be in the 30s.

One of the neatest things about Park City is that it was an Olympic Venue during the 2002 Salt Lake City games. You can tell how much pride the town took in that special time. Many of the Olympic signs are there. We headed over to the Welcome Plaza where we found this:

Yes, that's right. You can stand on the gold medal podium for the events held at Park City. That was seriously a cool feeling!

We headed back into Park City to enjoy a fabulous dinner with mountain views. We found this great Italian place at the top of the hill in town. This gave us a stunning view of the mountains while we planned our National Park adventures. A hint for Cambridge- Park City offers tons of outdoor dining by building elevated patios that are placed in the street next to the sidewalk. After dinner we took the chair lift to the top of one of the mountains before settling in by my most favorite perk of ski resorts in the summer, a fire pit!


The next day we drove through Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming with a stop in Jackson Hole for lunch at a famous BBQ place. The food was delicious! Then we drove the short distance to yet another ski town, Teton Village. I absolutely loved this place (still not as much as Breck...but it's really high up on the list!)

For starters, the sweeping views of the mountains are awesome. Not only do you get normal beautiful mountain views, but you also get views of the Grand Teton and Teton range. Plus, they have a Gondola and a Tram that give you even more amazing views. The town is small, but it has a handful of restaurants and shops and feels like a community. We even had a chance to enjoy the free concert in the courtyard.

The travel book I used to plan this trip raved about the Tram ride at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. I don't think either of us really knew what to expect. The tram takes you up 4,000 vertical feet to the top of Rendezvous Mountain where you come face to face with the Teton Mountain Range. I highly recommend this to anyone who visits, it's worth the $25 ticket. Stepping off the tram I was just overwhelmed by the mountains staring back at me. I had been waiting to have the "take my breath away" moment and this did it! We ran into some hikers who had just finished a 14 mile hike from Idaho over the mountains and it was fun to listen to them talk about their journey.




When we returned to the bottom we quickly headed over to the Gondola because we "just" had to take advantage of the free ride. The man riding in the Gondola with his daughter asked us where we were from, which led to this fun exchange.

"Oh, we live in Cambridge."
"You guys go to school down there?"
"No, we live there."
"Really, people really live there?"
"Yup, yup they do."


The Gondola also gave us the opportunity for our first of many wildlife spottings- a dear and a fox!

After grabbing dinner at the Mangy Moose we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next day's adventure in Grand Teton National Park.