Adam's Blog July 29th, Day 24

Idaho Falls to Jackson Hole is only supposedly around 2 hours and the drive once you get out into the mountains is so beautiful. Then we hit countless stretches of the road with construction that brought the road down to one lane (Pennsylvania style except people were working here) and there are a lot of farms in the area so we were frequently caught behind horse trailers, other farm equipment and delivery trucks on curvy one lane roads with no way to pass. This ends up taking us more like 3 hours in the end but the drive is pretty and worth it for sure. We arrive in Jackson Hole again in dire need of a restroom since there was a long mountain pass between the last town and here and pile in to the first convenience store we find. We all pile back in to the car and head off towards the Grand Tetons.

Jackson is cute little place with a heavy reliance upon tourism of all sorts and all year round. As we drive through town I can't help but think how much it must suck to be a local just trying to get around at any point because half of the cars were about as lost as we were when it came to being in the right lanes to stay on the roads that they wanted to be on. Still, you have a beautiful backdrop so I guess it pays off. We drive through town past the common which has huge elk antler entry arches on each corner which finally gets a reaction from Abigail for the day. As we leave town, the Tetons are in view and I get excited being able to see them that well again. I was impressed with them the first time that I visited here years ago and they are still just as impressive a visage now. We pull in to the park and take the very first turnoff that's available to start taking pictures.

Now, up until this point in the day, I had been driving. At this stop Courtney hits me with a blast from the past after saying she'll start driving. "If we were in Captain Planet, I would be water and you would be earth so you should be able to enjoy this more". How could I argue with that logic? I attempted to get around arguing about it by just getting back in the drivers seat while she was buckling Gideon into his seat but then she threatened to not get in the passenger seat and I wanted to see some more of the park so I conceded. The more you drove in, the more of the mountains that came in to view and the more impressive they became. You could slowly begin to see the waterfalls running down the different faces of the mountains from the glacier melt as well which just added to it all. There were also tons of gorgeous wildflowers in the many meadows that the road lead us through. Just an amazing place. We stop at one of the lodges to see if there is anything there that the kids would have for lunch to no avail which turned out to be great luck because as we were just about to finish getting ready to go, a deer runs in to the clearing and begins feeding. You can tell that this deer is used to people being around as there are people getting pretty close to get pictures and it doesn't seem to care. After getting some photos, we head off to the next lodge which did have food that the kids liked.

A lot more views of the mountains later and we are on our way to Yellowstone for the afternoon. Now, up until this point things hadn't been all that busy that we had seen and the first stretch in to Yellowstone was about the same deal until we happened across the first falls. There were cars all over the road but we were still able to navigate, we wanted to get to Old Faithful today before the rain that had been threatening for what felt like hours came down. The traffic snag is when there were some elk feeding by the road. We finally make it out Old Faithful and I am amazed at how many people are here. Last time that I was here, I was unaware of how full the parking lot was and how busy the park itself was, or maybe this is a more recent development, I don't know. Anyway, we manage to get a pretty good parking spot and head up to the geyser itself. There is a huge crowd here as well but we manage to get spots with really good views of the event and after only about twenty minutes of waiting and a little bit of getting irritated with other people in the crowd, we are treated to a truly amazing sight as well. I hear Gideon and Abigail both saying woahs and wows while my camera snaps away. We head in to the lodge while there as well since I remember being so impressed with the interior when I was younger. I don't think the kids had the same impression I did. It also wasn't as big as it seemed like it was in my head but maybe that's just being young.

We headed out to the Grand Prismatic Spring next, again hoping to beat the rain. As we get close we see cars lining the road again. The first thought is that there's some wildlife here again but we quickly realize that this is all people for the spring and that the parking area that they want you to use is completely full. We find a spot for ourselves along the road edge and all unload from the van. As we head down the street towards to the entrance we can see clouds of steam coming off of the area with the walkway and a stream of steaming water pouring down the side of the hill and into the river. A pretty cool sight to start but we were in for much more. As we headed up the walkway you could see what used to be a geyser until it blew itself apart in one of its eruptions. It is now what looks somewhat like a super hot spring. You can see the water boiling and the color of the water is unreal. We come around the corner from this to the Grand Prismatic Spring. This spring has rings of colors around it. The deep blue in the middle of the spring followed by a lighter blue around the edge. This is followed by a yellowish area and where the water starts flowing out of the spring and down the spillway to the river are oranges and reds. It is remarkable. As we leave the winds start shifting and blowing the steam from the formations on to us. It felt like being in a sauna momentarily, followed immediately by being cold because of the lack of steam.

After we all get back in the car we realize that it's probably time to head back to town considering the distance that we have travel to get back to Jackson and the fact that it was nearly dinner time. Away we went to stay at our fancy lodge for the evening in Jackson. It's actualy a rather cute place with carved bears and raccoons hanging from different parts of the exterior including some of them peeking in windows.

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