If you have read my other posts at this point you are probably thinking, “Didn’t you and C agree to NEVER try and do 4 big states ever again?”, and you should be thinking that because yes we did! We did not really do four states this trip though, we were only in Montana for a little bit, and our time in Utah was minimal as well. Really, this trip was to explore The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone parks! The other stuff was just a happy addition.
We started off in Salt Lake City, having only done a few things in southern Utah we felt that we owed the state a bit more exploration. We got up early and went to see the Great Salt Lake, I have to say it did not smell anywhere near as badly as I thought it would and C stuck it out like a trooper (she hates eggs and the smell of sulfur was something I was worried about with her). After that we went to the capital building and took a tour. Our tour guide was so sweet and we learned a lot (fine seagulls, I guess you are not the most horrible things in the world, but you are still not very high on my list!). Even though Mormonism is very strong in Utah the state is much more liberal than I thought it would be, which I think is AMAZING! The day was still somewhat young so we walked down to the Mormon Temple and explored around the outside. The building is beautiful, but I was expecting something a bit more spectacular considering that the one in San Diego looks like it could be a Disney castle! We made our way back to the hotel for a fairly early night because we were making our drive from Salt Lake to Jackson Hole.
We left Utah at like 2 in the morning to begin our drive to the Grand Tetons, unfortunately this meant that when we crossed the state line it was still very dark, so our state line picture is very dark.
It is also very blurry, but whatever we crossed over and made our way to the camp ground. This would be my second time camping ever, and I was very confused the entire time leading up to the trip as to how we were going to get our camp gear with us. I know that checking bags is a thing, but it all seemed very impractical in my opinion, but it was important to C, so camping we went. When we arrived there though it was not quite checkout for everyone else, so we decided to go and do our first hike! The views were amazing and Wyoming definitely delivered with their weather because we had mostly clear skies the entire time we were there. The only downside was we were expecting cold, so neither of us were prepared for the warmth, but we made due!
After hiking a bit and setting up our campsite we decided to just hang out and chill for the evening, after driving for most of the morning I was in need of a break and neither of us really slept the night before. We got up early the next morning and spent all day hiking and exploring the area. Words can not express how amazing it was, so I am just going to upload a bunch of pictures so you guys can somewhat experience it!
C took a lot of pictures that I was not aware of, hence me not looking, but they are some pretty great shots in my opinion. The antlers are arches that sit on each corner of the town square in Jackson Hole where we went to have dinner one night. It is entirely possible that one of us who is not accustomed to camping was a bit cranky that she did not have a way to make coffee and was expected to eat nothing but peanut butter sandwiches for like 5 days…. it is also possible that she was even more cranky because she had no pillow to sleep on. (C deserves some major brownie points for putting up with me and my lack of camping understanding on this trip!) We went to Pinky G’s Pizzeria and I highly recommend it. I saw it on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and it just so happened that they were shooting another one when we walked up. Guy’s car is AMAZING!! We were getting settled back at the campsite when the rangers came around to tell us that a bear had made its way into the grounds. C and I were excited, but it managed to make its way back out before we saw it. This was probably a good thing because we needed to get to sleep since we had another early morning to start our drive to Yellowstone.
We were both a little underwhelmed with Yellowstone, BUT some amazing things did happen while we were there. First, there are only so many hot springs and geysers that a person can look at before they start to get a little bored with them. Second, the day that we had planned to go see Old Faithful was a bit cloudy and overcast so the blast was not as spectacular as it could have been. Although we did get a pretty good blast apparently, which is cool, and it was not terribly crowded while we were there. What really made this part of the trip for us was seeing all the wildlife. We saw multiple bears, including a mom and her cub! I wanted to jump up and down and shout, but I knew better, and when we had to have bear repellent for one of our hikes and they were basically like if you see a grizzly you’re dead it really hit home for me. BUT STILL BEARS!!!
The only downside was that I did not get to see “many much moosen”. I did touch one of the hot springs… it was too close and I couldn’t resist, and as you can probably tell from our attire and the clouds it was very cold and very wet during our time in Yellowstone.
On our way out of Yellowstone and back down towards Idaho we had a stop to make at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, which is where Montana comes in to this trip. The place was amazing and watching their bears and wolves was awe inspiring. The pack does not always howl and when they do it is usually only once or twice. They howled off and on for a good 5 minutes for us. The focus of the center is to educate people about the impact that they have on bears, and quite a few of their environmental enrichment devices are things that can commonly be found in campgrounds. They even had a few of the “bear safe” trash bins to prove that if a bear wants to get into it they WILL! Their bears are all rescued animals and a few were brought in as cubs because mom had to be euthanized due to harming humans (I am not making a comment about this law, but if you are reading this and want to help these animals out educate yourself by visiting facilities like this one and inform you elected officials about wanting a change!) Now back to the happy stuff, the bears and gorgeous and I have never seen a grizzly bear that close, but after doing so I can tell why we got the bear spray warning that we did.
We left and made our way in to Idaho where we saw the spot that Evil Kenevil jumped his bike over the river. The waterfalls there were very pretty and the sunset gave us more great shots. After a night in a hotel we made our way back into Utah and decided to drive down to Arches since we really did not get to see them when we initially tried to during our “Four Corners” trip. C and I had a great time, but it was ridiculously hot and similar to Yellowstone you can only see so many arches before it’s just another arch. Although I am sure if we got to see it at sunset it would have been different. We could not stay though because our flight left very early the next morning and it was still a long drive back to Salt Lake City from Arches.
We made it back home safely and started talking about where we wanted to go next! There is a possibility that we will try to take a weekend trip somewhere this year, but it is looking like a mostly individual travel year again. Although, we are looking into possibly doing London (and maybe throwing Paris in there as well) during this coming Christmas/New Year’s break.
For those of you keeping track our count is 11/50 that C and I have either both done or we accomplished together, that puts us at 22% complete!
50 X 50 