Jun 11, 2013 - Photos from Jenny Lake

Day 7 in Jackson, and today it's adieu to the destination of our vacation. As a tribute--and because I may not have access to a decent internet connection for a few days--here are some of the photos I took of Jenny Lake last night. We're going to hit the road as soon as we pack the van. Tonight we will be in Billings, MO, and my first-ever time in Montana. Should be an interesting trip through Beartooth Pass this morning. More later!

Jun 10, 2013 - Getting ready to leave paradise...

Hello everyone! It's Monday, late afternoon, and we have been very lazy today, trying to adjust our sights for tomorrow morning's departure from Jackson. It has been a wonderful 6 days here, but reality is that we have to be back in PA on Saturday. This gives us 4 full days to drive about 2100 miles. Tomorrow is the lightest mileage of our trip--ending up in Billings, MO, for the night--because we are driving through Yellowstone yet one more time before leaving Wyoming. We will be heading up to the West Yellowstone entrance to the park,...

Jun 9, 2013 - Another very, very long day

Hello everyone! It's 10:30 PM here in Wyoming, and we just got back to the condo about 30 minutes ago. We left around 8:30 this morning! We drove up to the West Yellowstone entrance and around the park, ending up at Old Faithful. We had another great day, including views of wildlife on the way back to Jackson. We had elk walking across the road, a bear running across the road in front of us...and more elk. That was just on the drive over the last 10 miles back to Tamarack 623 at The Aspens, which is where we have been staying. We have had...

Jun 7, 2013 - A very long day

Hello again! Today was a very, very long day in the van. We got up early so that we could hit the road before 8. At around 7:45 we had managed to load up and hit the road. Today we were bound for the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park. First we had to drive through Grand Teton National Park though, and we had some sweet photo opportunities. We drove and drove...and it seemed to me that an appropriate sound track for our journey would be Ravel's BOLERO!! Drive, drive, drive...sleep...drive, drive, drive...eat...etc. etc. It was a...

Jun 6, 2013 - Day 1 in Jackson, Wyoming

We lucked out with the condominium we rented. It is at the back of a series of buildings, buried in among the aspens, birches and evergreens. Magpies light in the trees and make their raucous noises, while chickadees call to one another. We managed to see several things today--at least one first for Joe's bird list. We crossed another thing off his bucket list, too. He wanted to capture good photos of a meadowlark...and he got his chance along Mormon Road. One actually sat and posed for him, then gave a series of calls that only the...

Jun 5, 2013 - We made it!!

As of 5:30 Mountain Time, we arrived at our condominium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. On the way into Jackson Hole we drove through the Grand Teton National Forest...where we encountered folks pulled over to the side of the road photographing something. When we stopped, we discovered a grizzly bear just across the road and on a slight rise...digging for grubs. What a find!! This is one of Joe's exclusive reasons for wanting to go to Yellowstone--to capture photographs of wildlife. He loves grizzly bears and wanted to be able to capture some...

Aug 23, 2012 - Day 6, Wyoming, hiked Cascade Canyon and Paint Brush Trail

Day 6, Thursday 8/23 up at 7:30 for what will be a spectacular, eventful and VERY LONG day. It had been Bill's goal to do a 20 mile hike but we are up kind of late for starting a 12 hour hike (according to trail guide). Neither of us eat breakfast because we ate so much spaghetti the night before. Bob packs sandwiches and we both pack lots of trail food and drinks. On the drive to the trail head, I took images #26,27, and 28 of the majestic Grand Tetons. Since we are 20 plus miles away, we get to Jenny Lake around 10am. We take the boat...

Aug 15, 2012 - Grand Tetons National Park

A relatively brief drive (for us, less than three hours) from the high plains, then suddenly in mountainous territory. We arrived in Jackson, WY, anxiously awaiting our first glimpse of the Teton mountains. Can you spot the Tetons in this photo? Well, neither could we. What disappointment. This whole area is enveloped in smoke from wildfires in Idaho and Yellowstone. Not only is our view of the Tetons impaired you can't escape the smell of smoke everywhere. According to the Park ranger here at Grand Teton National Park this is probably the...

Jul 29, 2012 - Dest. Victor, Idaho

RV miles driven today: 513 Total Trip miles 5406 Checked into Teton Valley Campground around 5:30 PM MDT. Read all about Grand Tetons at: http://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm From Wikipedia: Grand Teton National Park is a United States National Park in northwestern Wyoming. Approximately 310,000 acres (130,000) in size, the park includes the major peaks of the 40-mile (64 km) long Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Only 10 miles (16 km) south of Yellowstone National Park, the two parks are...

Jul 13, 2012 - More Tetons

A day threatening thunderstorms hampered our hiking plans, so we decided to check out Teton Village. We ended up at a little German restaurant (yes friends... Jerry at a German restaurant... although he had a hamburger, but it was on a pretzel bun). Right after our arrival, a big storm came through blowing outside tables and umbrellas everywhere. Good decision not to go hiking! To wind down our time in the Tetons, we did yet another hike on Thursday. This time we hiked around String Lake, which took us part way up the mountain. It was...

Jul 10, 2012 - The Grand Teton Adventure

Day 1-- We arrived at our RV site after two day travel from the Rockies. Some of the drive was very lonely through Wyoming with roads with nothing or no one on them. Sandi was not liking Wyoming very much at that point... very stark and desolate. We finally came to the foothills of the mountains and she began to brighten her attitude. We found a small in an area called Hoback Junction, right on the Snake River and about 12 miles from Jackson Hole. After Kodi was set up we took our normal exploratory drive to Grand Teton National Park. But...

Jul 2, 2012 - Jackson Hole, WY

Finally made it out of Idaho -- two states in two weeks -- we'll have to pick up the pace. We had three large climbs today, the last two had miles of 10% grade climbs. The Teton Pass summit was 8431 feet. Yikes. Had another casualty in the group today. One of the guys fell while descending from Teton Pass. He broke his hip -- ouch. He was one of our two doctors on the ride. He diagnosed is injury while waiting for the ambulance. His fall really had put the fear of the Lord into the rest of the riders to control speed during descents....