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.
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