Grand Tetons

We pulled out of Estes Park, Colorado Sunday morning and began the long haul to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The drive took 12 hours, but was totally worth the scenery. We avoided all major highways and took all scenic routes through some of the most beautiful country God put on this earth. We were a bit shocked once we reached the Continental Divide in Wyoming. We were greeted with snow on the ground, 40 mph wind gusts, and temperatures in the low 40's. After descending back into lower altitudes we needed a pit stop for groceries and fuel. Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the entire trip was a visit to the Wal-Mart in Rock Springs, Wyoming. It was unlike any other Wal-Mart trip I have ever experienced. At about 8:00 PM it was getting dark and we decided to call the next campground where we had tentatively made arrangements. To our surprise we learned they sold out and had no room for our party wagon! After frantic phone calls we learned all of the campgrounds around Jackson Hole were already closed for the day. At this point the temperature was starting to reach the 30's and we had no place to go! We decided to just roll into town and wing it. Our fateful Garmin totally screwed us and led us to some shady boys camp where we could barely turn around the rig. We finally got back on the stretch to Jackson Hole and by chance happened to pass by a KOA campground. KOA is now our new arch nemesis. They charged us a fortune and the spots aren't even big enough to hold a Ford Pinto and a one-man my first tent. Our neighbors were literally 4 feet away and had a camper full of screaming kids that were absolutely tearing the place apart. After John and Kate plus eight finally shut up we called it a night and tried to stay warm in the windy 32 degree weather.

On Monday we headed into Grand Teton National Park. The Grand Tetons are located just to the south of Yellowstone in NW Wyoming. They are pretty much extremely steep granite spires that rise almost 14,000 feet in elevation. At the base of the range are several blue crystal clear glacier fed lakes that are pretty amazing. We started out by exploring around all of the lakes and then went for a 6 mile hike at Signal Mountain, which is a summit overlooking Jackson Lake and the 3 major Tetons. After our hike we drove around several dirt roads throughout the park looking for wildlife. We saw many pronghorn antelope and a few buffalo along the drive. We headed back to the campground that afternoon and cooked up some dinner and decided to catch up on some laundry. The visit to the laundromat at the KOA campground was a very interesting experience. It was Potts and me along with a group of moms doing midnight laundry. They were pretty interested in our adventure and I think we made quite an impression. As fate would have it, we ran out of quarters and didn't have enough change to dry our clothes. There was no change machine and everything in town was already closed. The wonderful RV housewives of the Jackson Hole KOA took up a collection amongst themselves and donated enough quarters to our cause so that we could have dry clothes. A few hours later and a couple deeply intrigued women, we had our laundry finished and were ready to get some sleep and move the show to Yellowstone.

Cheggy