Days 9 & 10 - Bryce Canyon National Park

Our trip from Salt Lake City to Bryce was successful due to my disobeying the navigation system. I still don’t know where we would have ended up of I had not turned when I did by following road signs instead of listening to Mercedes. We found Ruby’s Inn in Bryce Canyon City and checked in after Nicole’s Best Western rewards were figured out by the staff there. Ruby’s Inn was a mini city and we were told it is legally its own city by a receptionist. It had a small grocery store several nick-knack shops, a pool, spa, restaurant and several separate motel style lodges. Separately from were we stayed Ruby’s had a large RV and Campground with its own store and pool too.

We attempted to do a short hike called the Queen’s Garden, but we only got about half way due to some serious black cloud action. Later the canyon did get thunderstorms so I was glad we bailed. In the morning we set out for the second attempt and there at the end of the Queen’s Garden trail we found a very determined ground squirrel after our snack. After a rest at the bottom we set out onto the connecting trail to Navajo Loop and took the Wall Street route which turned out to be very scenic and memorable too. I’m so glad the hike was relatively easy because later in the evening we hope to attend the Ranger’s Astronomy lecture and viewing. The lecture was really interesting and the viewing was even better once people started dropping out as it got colder and later. Bryce was an amazing place, I would to go back and camp there.

Day 7 - From Tetons to Salt Lake City, UT

We packed all out things up from our Lakeside Room and headed off to breakfast. Nicole tried the Blackberry French Toast which was recommended by Chet. I ordered the Blueberry pancakes but they were way too big to finish. We took it easy as we drove to Salt Lake and even stopped at Bear Lake to make a sandwich and take in the view. When we arrived at Salt Lake we made a quick run to the mall across from the hotel to give out toes a much needed pedicure before our hikes at Bryce. Thanks for looking - Steph

Day 6 Steph's Pics Float Trip & Teton Range

Day 6 Part 2 Nicole's photos

Day 6 Grand Teton Float Trip

I had been waiting for Saturday all week…you know why??? Saturday was float trip day! When Steph and I first checked in to the hotel the receptionist told us Saturday would be the first float trip of the season and asked us if we would we like to sign up? We immediately said yes please sign us up! Neither of us had ever been on one before. We met our guide in front of our lodge at 9am sharp. This first trip of the season would turn out to be a small one, but it was just right for us. There was Gary and Shay, a couple from North Carolina, Chet from Mississippi, Steph and I and finally Mark our guide, originally from Chicago. Mark was very educated on the wildlife and the history of the area…he also managed to slip a few jokes in here and there as tour guides often do. Would highly recommend this trip to anyone who gets a chance to visit Signal Lodge in the Grand Teton National Park. It was a beautiful 2hr trip down Snake River with views of the entire mountain range. We were so lucky to enjoy this unique view from the river. These float trips are also great opportunities to see wild life. Steph and I were still hoping to see a Moose, but as fate would have it we saw no Moose today : (However we did manage to see two more Bald Eagles perched high above in their trees. We saw several other birds, so many I can’t list them here because I forgot all of their names…but Steph has the info and is keeping track of them in our kids guide to wildlife in Grand Teton.
One of our friends on the float trip just so happened to be the father of the head chef at the Lodge’s restaurant “The Peaks”. He suggested several menu items we should try while on our stay. We made it back to the Lodge just in time for lunch. We listened to Chet and decided to try the bison burgers, they were delicious! He also recommended I try the blackberry margarita. So a midday drink it was. We really hadn’t enjoyed very many alcoholic beverages since entering the park, mainly due to the constant need to consume water to stay hydrated, but today was an exception. My midday drink led to a very nice midday nap in the sun. Yes the sun finally was shining and it warmed up enough that I was able to wear a pair of shorts and flip-flops and take a glorious, much needed, much deserved nap. Steph followed suit and curled up on the couch for a nice long nap too. When we woke up we both took a nice walk along the lake and then headed back to our porch for beers and the sunset. After sunset we made our way over to “The Peaks” for dinner. Chet had also recommended we try the bison new york strip. It was so delicious, yet another great meal prepared by Chet’s son Josh!
It was our last evening at Signal Lodge…tomorrow we head back into Utah. Bryce Canyon is just a day away! See you all real soon - Nic

Finally Mammoth Hot Springs

Finally at Mammoth Hot Springs I really knocked the dust off my camera and even changed lenses. Those of you who really know me know I've sort of put photography on the back burner, well I'm back baby! There we also got as close to a bear as we hope to get by spotting BIG paw prints. The day turned out to be a twelve hour day and we had to drive back at night. I drove very cautiously, and we kept ourselves awake by listening to a Stephen King audio book. I had a close encounter with an elk crossing the road, thank God I wasn't speeding it could have been scarier than Stephen King! Good Night.

Day 5 Destination Old Faithful Part 2

As we entered Yellowstone park the walls of snow were so imposing as I drove through it, I thought of bobsledding. We finally made it to Old Faithful but we had to wait 90 minutes for the next show. Here again we saw our crazy driver who thought he was Mater from Cars. After Old Faithful and some shopping of course we were on our way to Canyon Lodge. We saw waterfalls here but found it not to be very spectacular. Nicole entertained herself with shadow puppets. Further along the way we ran into some more traffic but it wasn't construction it was bison! At Canyon Lodge we ate because I was getting grouchy, I had a braut and Nicole had a dog. As we tried to eat our late lunch/dinner a huge raven was "stalking" us according to Nicole. We arrived to Mammoth and made the trek up many stairs and pathways to view the Hot Springs. They were fabulous!

Day 5- Destination Old Faithful

The day cleared up after the storm and we woke up to a beautiful blue sky, even the ice had been completely pushed North. We headed up to Yellowstone and the excitement started right away witha driver going in reverse on the wrong side of the road. We ran into this crazy guy and the rest of his gang several times during our trip. We made a stop for pictures and we actually spoke to the crazy driver and I unfortunately stepped on some "scat" or animal droppings. We made a stop at Arizona Island so I could scrape it off my boot. We continued our trek and were compelled to stop and talk to a fisherman on the lakeside. The fisherman turned out to be friendly native who explained to us the type of fish he was catching and the type of bait he was using. We could have talked to him all day long but we knew we had to get going. As we drove on, only 30 minutes into our drive, we were stopped by construction work. We were entertained by the road worker who was trying his best not to work. He was trying desperately to get his "Stop" sign to stand up on it's own by leaning it against his car. When he accomplished this he dug around in his car and found a pill bottle and got on the phone, probably to refill it. He then spoke to the driver in the truck in front of us and then headed our way to entertain himself some more. When he asked where we were from and I mentioned I was from LA he said, "I've been to LA, LA County Jail." At this point I wish we could have stayed in the traffic but the pilot car arrived and we were off again.

Day 4 Gand Teton National Park

Thursday , Finally we were both able to sleep in! It was a leisurely morning for us both. We decided to stay here, in the Tetons, for the day and explore the visitors center, a few very famous turnout points Ansel Adams used when creating some of his best work and do a little bit of animal watching along the way. We had chances of rain today and didn’t want to risk making that drive to Yellowstone just yet.
The day started off with a quick drive to Craig Thomas Discovery Visitor Center. It was not such a quick visit. Steph and I were in Discovery Museum Heaven! We had all of these questions about how the Tetons were formed, what are the differences between all of the different landscapes we are seeing and what the heck was that cute little furry animal Steph saw this morning (we now think it to be a Pika, and no not a poke man pikachu)! They also had some gorgeous original art works to enjoy. When our eyeballs couldn’t take anymore reading and our legs needed a break we hit up the gift shop. Steph found a kids book for identifying animals specific to this area. We thought this would be perfect for us novices. I spotted a pair of binoculars and we were finally in business to do this animal watching thing right!
So we hit the road at 3:30 and had to try to make it to the other side of the park before the Indian Art Museum closed. The problem was we had all of these famous photography spots to stop at along the way. I was finally inspired to pull out the medium format camera. However between a little drizzle and some frustrations on my part to operate the camera I wasn’t able to get the shot I wanted. Don’t worry Dad, I didn’t get any water of the camera : )While I worked on the camera I neglected my duties as animal spotter and we missed a bunch of Elk just up the road. A nice woman told Steph where she saw them last. While we packed up Steph saw a bird she thought was a bald eagle and called me to come look…I looked up, pulled out the binoculars to verify and sure enough it was! Off we went to see if we could spot some Elk. Sure enough just down the road we saw Elk feeding on the side of a hill. We still haven’t spotted a moose, but we are crossing our fingers, saying a prayer or two and hopefully before Sunday we will get our chance.
Ok…so now we had to rush to the Indian Art Museum because 5pm is quickly approaching. We walk in thinking we have 15 minutes and I double check with the man at the door and he corrects me saying “actually you have 13 minutes”... geeze! I guess he wanted to get outta there quick. We tried to see everything, but it was impossible. There was so much beautiful beading work to admire. We were the only ones there, yet the man at the front still made the announcement “we will be closing in 4 minutes”…alright already…we know you are closing! So we hightailed it outta there and walked down the ramp to see Colter Bay. We were told at the other Museum that we would see this part of the lake frozen and sure enough it was. It was so cold and the photo will show you how amazing the water looked.
On our way back home for the night we pulled over and had a chance to catch an inspiring and majestic view. The sun peeked out at just the right time and I think I maybe got one good shot using my dads camera, but for now here is one from our digital camera. Dinner and blackberry pie was just around the corner! Today was also Throwback Thursday at our Lodge so they were selling these gigantic nachos for only $6.25! That’s I for today! - Nicole

Day 3 - Details

On day 3 our destination was Signal Lodge in the Grand Teton National Park. We woke up on Wednesday feeling more relaxed at the start of day because we knew our day would involve less miles than the previous to days of driving. Nicole had breakfast in the lobby while I took a shower, since I’m not a big breakfast type of gal I filled up my coffee mug and we went to downtown Idaho Falls for our first detour. We had noticed a camera shop (Ritz Owned) that had 4 days left of business so we stopped by to see what deals we could find. There wasn’t too much selection, but Nicole made out by getting a small camera case that was originally $15 for $3.
We stopped at the Idaho Falls Museum, which was swarming with school kids, to pick up postcards. We would have loved to see the Titanic exhibit (as seen on Ghost Hunters), but the kids would have made it less enjoyable. We then made our way to the post office for postage and to drop of the postcards. That area of Idaho Falls has so many one-ways that I made a few wrongs turns, which wasn’t a bad thing in the end. We found the Midget Market, for all your midget needs and a guy really, really struggling to mow his front lawn (he had a nice mullet too).
After all that we were finally on the road and eventually Wyoming came around and we drove through beautiful rolling hillsides that reminded Nicole of “Little House on the Prairie”. Later we reached a really long stretch of traffic due to roadwork, it sucked mostly because of the fact that my car is manual. It was at this point to that Nicole and I had to make a note of mentioning that there are many women in road construction. Everywhere on the 15 we have been slowed by construction and every time we see loads of women working those roads as heavy machinery drivers and traffic directors.
We decided to stop finally when we reached Jackson Hole, Nicole said I’d know it when we saw it and she was right. As I made the turn towards The Teton National Park there was a giant arch made of Antlers, it was beautiful. We stopped and ate at Backcountry Provisions Deli, I ordered the Angler with smoked salmon, sprouts, cucumber, tomato, and cheese. Nicole would like to forget about her sandwich so we will move on. It was really windy in Jackson Hole but we wanted to check out some of the shops. At about 2:30 the wind completely stopped and the day finally warmed up. We wanted to fill up our cooler with snacks to help with the cost of staying at a lodge, so found a local grocery store in Jackson Hole. We picked up sandwich meats and bread, cheeses, yogurt, nuts, trail mix, all stuff that could probably make us bear magnets.
We left for Grand Teton and were blown away when we made a turn in the pass that revealed the Grand Teton Mountain Range. They were so strikingly beautiful words really can’t describe them. When we made it to Signal Lodge we were told that we were being moved into the Lakeside Rooms, oh me oh my! When we got in to one and saw our view and the stove and the fridge and out living room and our little porch with chairs we both were literally screaming. Then we quickly pushed our plans forward called hotels and booked at Signal Lodge for an extra night. You see why we couldn’t post this yesterday? We were so exhausted because it doesn’t even end here.
We later got bundled up and walked down to the lakeshore and took some pictures of the mountains and the perfectly calm waters reflecting like a mirror. We were so lucky! Then we finally had dinner at the Dead Man’s Bar, I had ridiculously hot chicken quesadillas that I couldn’t finish and Nicole had the Bison Vegetable Soup with a piece of cornbread. We enjoyed a really damn good Cadillac margarita and then after stopping at the lobby to post the pictures from Day 3 we crashed.

Grand Teton National Park

Jackson Hole, WY

Day 3 Destination Idaho Falls, ID