Grand Teton National Park and heading back East

Monday, August 22

On the Way to Great Tetons

Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

Both Clara and I woke up this morning with a painful case of withdrawal. We've had the kids (both the big and little) for over three weeks and we've really gotten use to having them around.  They are so much fun and make the adventures so much more fun.  We really had a great journey.  It's unbelievable that we did so many things in that short three weeks.  Air Force Academy, Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, Snow Mountain Ranch, Rocky Mountain National Park, Arches National Park, the crazy jeep ride in the slickrocks, Colorado National Monument, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park,  Silverton and the wild ride with Candace, train ride from Silverton to Durango, Durango, the Bar D Ranch show, rafting, Mesa Verde, Four Corners National Monument, Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell boat ride, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon National Park and the mule ride, Zion National Park and Salt Lake City - all in three weeks.  Seems unbelievable now!  But we did it all!!!

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Now, we've got to get back to it just being the two of us - which isn't bad at all because we really enjoy each other and traveling just makes it more fun.

After a couple of hours, we packed up and headed toward Grand  Teton National Park - a two day drive at our rate of speed.  After Clara took over the driving duties, I started looking for a route and place to spend the night.

I found an interestingly named little community in Idaho called Lava Hot Springs.  After a little research we found that there is a little RV park called Mary's Place there, so we called and of course they had plenty of openings (schools back in session and only the weekends will be crowded from now on).

Boy, did we ever find the spot.  This incredible little town of 400 has some of the best aquatic facilities I have ever seen.

Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

Once part of the original Fort Hall reservation, the springs and land were part of a treaty agreement between the Indians and the US Government in the late 1800's. The federal government purchased the springs and land, approximately 178 acres including the springs. 

A 1902 act granted the lands to the State of Idaho to be held by the State for public use. Later all rights to the operation, management, control, maintenance and improvement of the lands and property were vested in the Lava Hot Springs Foundation, an agency within the Idaho Dept. of Parks and Recreation.

Today, thanks to this treaty and ownership of the lands around the springs by the state, there is an incredible Olympic quality water facility and a beautifully developed hot springs bathing area.

http://www.lavahotsprings.com/

As soon as we got set up in this lovely wooded campground, I took off to inspect the swimming facilities.  It's been over 3 weeks since I've been in a pool, probably a record for the past 10 years.  And what a place I found. 

Three huge pools, one outdoor and two indoor (all heated by water from the hot springs which maintain the pools around 85 degrees).  Not only are there great pools, but Olympic quality diving facilities, climbing walls, several water slides (really long ones) - a kids paradise.  And it was filled (on a Monday afternoon).

Thankfully, in one of the pools they had a lane set aside for lap swimmers.

After the swim, I came back and picked Clara up and we went to the hot springs bathing facility.  This must be a popular spot because while we were there, two big tour buses stopped and people flooded into the water.

After we had thoroughly soaked ourselves in the cleansing waters, we went to dinner and crashed back at home.

We have often found the biggest surprises and most interesting places in small out-of-the-way places, and this will certainly go down as one of the best of those.

This beautiful river runs next to the RV park

We actually have a  tree from which Clara can hang her swing

Tuesday, August 23

Boy, do we really miss the kids.  As I was hooking up and unhooking the car today, I thought about how much help they had been getting ready to set up and leave camp.

But we are overcoming the loneliness with a new National Park today - The Grand Tetons.

 

An interesting entry into the little Wyoming town of Afton

Unfortunately, there are two forest fires burning in two different locations within the park.  One the our South (where we came through the strong, dense choking smoke, and one to our North a few miles, which has closed the road to the North which leads to Yellowstone National Park.

When we checked in, we were told that if we hear a horn blowing continuously during the night (or for that matter anytime), to pack up and get out.  It means the forest fires are heading our way.

The fire to our North that has closed the road to Yellowstone NP

The orange haze is the smoke from the forest fire to our South.  The Tetons at sunset.

As long as the winds cooperate, we're okay here in Coulter Bay.  Where we're staying is right in the center of activities - just a few hundred feet and there are restaurant, marinas (where we can rent boats and kayaks), Visitor Center, shops and more.  There's enough here to keep us busy for several days.  And if we can't go to Yellowstone, we'll be perfectly happy right here. 

Wednesday, August 24

Today was unusual.  We didn't do much!  That is primarily because of the fires.  Last night the wind shifted and this morning we woke up to a strong fire odor.  For a while, it was strong enough to cause us to cough and wheeze.  

We decided that the further away we got from the fire, the better, so we got in the car and drove about 35 miles South to the town of Jackson.  It was very comfortable there and we enjoyed a day of just checking out the place.  It mostly consist of a town square (a little unusual - see the pictures), many gallaries featuring paintings and prints (which were beautiful and expensive), a few t-shirt shops and several restaurants.  

As to the town square, it unusual because on each of the four corners are arches make of elk horns.  These have been here since 1960.  They are collected from the National Elk Refuge just North of town, where about 7,500 elk stay in the winter.  Each year, the local boy scouts collect the horns in the Spring after the elk shed them.  The elk grow a new set of antlers each year.  That explains why we see them in so many places around here.

On the streets of Jackson

We had a nice lunch and headed back, stopping to see the Grand Tetons for the first time.  The smoke had cleared enough that they are visible today.  They are magnificent and I can imagine that on a clear day they are astounding.  They rise 6,000 feet above a level plateau, which make them very imposing.  Unlike our mountains, there are no foothills leading up the them.  They just pop out of the earth.

A smoke filled view of the Tetons.  Hopefully before we leave, we'll have a better look at these magnificent mountains.

Significantly, the temperature this morning was 41 degrees.  Tomorrow morning it is forecast to be below freezing.  We've been where it is so hot that we have to run all three air conditioners to keep cool and now, we're running all three heaters to keep warm.  

Thursday, August 25

The fire continues North of us, however at least the wind shifted overnight and the smoke has pretty well cleared out of this area.  Upon checking though, I found that the lingering haze obscured the Tetons and it was not going to be much of a picture taking day.  After checking with the camp office, it doesn't seem that the road to Yellowstone will be open anytime soon.  So we decided to point the front of the motor home East - finally.

Our last views of the Great Tetons

We stopped in the little town of Lander, Wyoming.  Again, we seem to have stumbled into a pretty neat place.

Our first stop after setting the motor home up was the Museum of the American West.  It's a large museum (supported by the county, donations and membership) that contains a wide range of the history of this area and its people.  We easily spent 2 hours looking at the various displays and reading about the fascinating history of the area.  

The museum has collected and relocated almost 20 homes and structures of historical significance and relocated to the museums property.  It's probably one of the best small museums I've seen.

This is an Indian artists work with 11mm beads stitched on deer hide.  The colors and detail of this work of art is incredible.  Inside the museum there are great displays showing artifacts from the Indians that once occupied this land to the pioneers that traveled to and through the area up to recent memorabilia from soldiers from the area who served in WWI and WWII.

An authentic covered wagon, the predecessor to the RV

Established in 1998, the Museum of the American West (MAW) is a unique not-for-profit outdoor/indoor museum complex that educates the public by presenting and advancing the unmatched natural and cultural history of the Wind River and Sweetwater valleys and the South Pass region of the Rocky Mountains.

http://museumoftheamericanwest.com/

After this, I drove to the Sinks Canyon State Park a few miles out of town.  

The park gets its name because the Popa Agie (pronounced Po-Po-Shuh) river that flows out of the Wind River Mountains and through the canyon.  Halfway down the canyon, the river abruptly turns into a large limestone cavern, and the crashing mountain stream "sinks" into fissures and cracks at the back of the cave.  The river is underground for 1/4 mile until it emerges down the canyon in a large calm pool, called "the rise".  It then continues its course into the valley below.  A fascinating phenomenon.

The water disappears into the cavern in the side of the mountain, which has never been explored because the water diffuses into numerous holes in the rock.

And the river emerges from the ground 1/4 mile away in this calm pool.  The pool supports hundreds of very large trout.

While we were driving to the museum, Clara noticed what seemed to be preparations for an outdoor event on a side street.  Upon inquiry, we found that a band was playing and there was a fund raiser tonight.  After supper we drove down and listened to a rock band for a while.  There were several hundred people enjoying a fun evening on the streets.  But, it wasn't our kind of music, so after a while, we decided to come back to the motor home and watch a movie.

An interesting day that was totally unexpected.

Tomorrow, we'll continue our journey across Wyoming looking for other interesting places. 

Salt Lake City - and Goodbye!!

Saturday, August 20

PAPA:  It's about time for Papa to take back the blog - cause we're coming to the end of our three wonderful weeks exploring this beautiful country with our grandkids.

Today, after an early wake up, we drove for 6-7 hours to an RV park just North of Salt Lake City, Cherry Hill.  It is a resort (of sorts) and has a water park and adventure land as part of the park.

It took almost an hour to get the motor home into our assigned spot because it is so crowded here.  On our first try, we couldn't make the corner to be able to get to our site.  Cars were parked so close to the road and the motor homes on the corner hung out to far.  We had to walk almost the entire park to even find a way to turn around.  Eventually, we ended up backing the motor home over 100 feet into the pull-thru site.

As soon as we were set up, Evan and Anna took off for the water park.  We were disappointed to find out that the water park/adventure land are all closed on Sunday.  In fact, we have found that a lot of businesses that would normally be open are closed on Sunday.  We figured it out pretty quickly that this is largely a Morman community and obviously, they very strictly observe the sabbath.

ANNA:  Today was another big driving day. When we got up, we hit the road early from Zion to Salt Lake City. Zion is right by the Utah/ Arizona border… Salt Lake city is pretty much the northernmost city in Utah. Papa drove all of Utah in a day. It was a long ride, but we stopped at some gas stations along the way to break it up.

When we got to the very cramped Cherry Hill Campground we immediately hit the activities, because they would all be closed tomorrow. Evan climbed a climbing wall, we did some water slides and finished up with the lazy river. We had a blast!

We walked back to the RV for another great dinner by Mimi before all four of us heading to the pool just to hang out. Once we were all showered up, Papa, Evan and I walked over the ‘the gulch’ where a local band was playing live music. It was so much fun because they played everything from 80s to pop to country and rock. We even won a CD for being the farthest ones from home!

Tonight is our last night in the RV. *tear* Evan and I get to spend tomorrow with Mimi and Papa but our plane takes off at 12:15. No that is not noontime 12:15. Yes my dearest father scheduled us for a red eye flight. Thanks dad. :)

Sunday, August 21

We really slept in this morning.  Until almost 9 o'clock.

After a very lazy start, we decided while we're here, we should at least see the Great Salt Lake.  So we drove to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake State Park, which is an island (with a land bridge to it).

There were several of these fiberglass buffalo in the park painted all kinds of weird colors.  We never figured out why.  There is a large herd of buffalo on the island (which is very large), but we never saw them.

There were actually some people swimming in the lake.  All of the dark color next to the water and out about 40 feet in the water is flies.

We stopped by the visitor center and then had a little lunch.  Then we walked down to "the beach".  What a disappointment.  First, it was very hazy from the forest fires that have been going on out here.  Then we found that the flies cover the ground (literally) for about 50 feet next to shore, and then about 50 feet out into the water.  The ground was black with these flies. I ventured a few feet into the hoard and immediately turned around and ran away.

As much as we would have liked to have experienced the heavily laden salt water (which is up to 6 times as salty as the ocean), there was no way we were going to go through that fly infestation.

So we went back to the motor home and started packing up the kids for their trip home.  Then we took off about 7 pm to see some of the "Temple" in downtown Salt Lake City (which we really didn't to get to see very much of), then to Denny's for supper and then the lllllloooooonnnnnngggg wait at the airport for the kids 12:15 takeoff.

By the time we returned to the motor home, we were really tired.

Zion National Park

Friday, August 19

This morning we got started a little later, staying in bed until around 8. Once we got started, Evan and I put on water gear and jackets as we mentally prepared ourselves to face The Narrows.

The Narrows is one of the most famous hikes of Zion, you walk a little over a mile to get there, and then you enter the Virgin River (which is all of 60 degrees- which is COLD water.) We started out in barely ankle deep water, and as we hiked through the canyon we got to points where we couldn’t touch at all. The hike is called The Narrows, because it’s the narrowest part of the canyon with only about 20 feet in between the canyon walls most of the time.

Hiking up the river in The Narrows

Cool and Refreshing

Smiling through the pain (that water was in the process of numbing my legs.)

Yeah!!  We made it!

The Narrows where the canyons close in around you.

Yeah! The water is cooolllllddddd!

Many people hiking the narrows stop long enough to build these cairns

The squirrels have learned that a lot of people ignore the "Do not feed the wildlife" signs.  They are so tame that they will come right up to you.

The whole hike is in the water, there are a few sandbars here and there, but those are for wimps. Evan and I hiked up the river for about an hour and a half, before turning back (because we told Papa we didn’t think we’d be longer than 2 hours.) The walk back only took about half an hour because it was going with the current and not against it.

Evan and I had a great time, we both committed to getting completely soaked, so he did a few belly flops and climbed up every rock he saw (as usual.)

Once we got out of the Narrows we met with Papa at the Temple of Sinawava, he was waiting for us the whole time even though we had made a plan to him that if he wanted to leave, we could take the shuttle back to the campground.

When we got back to the RV Mimi was the hero. On the shuttle ride back, Evan and I were starving and just trying to figure out what warm food we’d eat because we just hiked forever and were hungry. Well, when we got back to the RV Mimi had fixed us all lunch that was worthy of being dinner. We had sausage, hamburgers, mac n cheese and potatoes. As if that wasn’t heaven, once we finished she pulled out a fresh quadruple chocolate cake. It was great. Total bliss.

Our campsite.  Not to shabby!

Once we had showered off and put on warm clothes, we went downtown to check out the art galleries, wind sculptures and milkshakes. It was like a thousand million degrees there so we headed back to the RV pretty quick to chill out and fix supper.

Mimi again pulled out all the stops with mashed potatoes, pork chops and rice (with sugar.) We really ate right today.

After supper we all rode through the park, half of it in the car going through the tunnels and switchbacks. The other half going up the canyon on the shuttle. It was again, gorgeous (and getting mighty dark). When we got back it started to rain so it was a good stop to the evening so we could all get to bed to the patter of rain on the roof.

The best way to see the tops of the mountains!

This is the view from within the tunnel.  This little section is opened up for ventilation - and what a view.

Looking straight up in the bus to the walls of the canyon

Zion National Park has become our favorite of all the parks we have been to on this trip.