Day Seven - Tetons and Yellowstone

Monday – June 25th – we actually slept in quite late (7am). The cabin beds were very comfortable. The morning slipped away quickly and again the most stressful part of the trip was packing the car and getting on the road. We managed to do this by about 9am and were headed out to Jenny Lake to take a boat ride and a short hike. The boat ride was very nice – about 20 minutes across a small alpine lake with incredible views of the Tetons behind us. Lucas and Sammie enjoyed the ride. We were a little skeptical about the hike to come – not knowing what to expect from Sammie. The hike was about .60 of a mile up a rocky trail to get to the Hidden Waterfall. Sammie was a true champion and we could see her confidence rise as she walked further on the trail. By the end she wanted nothing to do with holding our hands – “I can do it!” We were very proud of her. On the way down Lucas fell fast asleep in the backpack and even slept through the boat ride back. It was a real treat for all of us. Sammie also made friends with another family on the way down the hike. They had a 2 ½ yr old and a 6 week old. She chatted them up and wanted to know why he was a daddy but had long hair and a pony tail. By the time we got back across Jenny Lake in the boat, EVERYONE on the boat knew our life story (…moving to Michigan, cousins named Olivia and Chloe, mommy had a tummy bug at the Grand Canyon…). After Jenny Lake we jumped back on the road and had lunch at the Jackson dam – with a perfect view of the Tetons – maybe the best lunch spot EVER. Then on to Yellowstone.


Where to begin? As Don Henley once said “Call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.” Maybe it was because we went to the aesthetically pleasing Tetons first – but Yellowstone and it’s Martian landscapes, stinky sulpher pits, unbelievable crowds (more crowded than Grand Canyon – midweek), traffic jams, road work, and enormity – just left us with a bad taste in our mouth. First of all the park is maybe three times the size of the Tetons. We were driving for a long time just to get to Old Faithful. On the way we passed the Continental Divide and officially became Easterners. We noticed right away that this park was MUCH more crowded than the Tetons – and to us it just wasn’t as pretty – just more vast and the landscape was grey and ugly (this was on the eastern geyser basin drive). By the time we got to Old Faithful Sammie was practically jumping out of her seat. There were maybe 1000 people to see Old Faithful blow off some steam. Bor-ring. IT blows about once every 70 minutes and we got lucky and arrived with about 10 minutes to go. After a couple of fake ones it finally went off. Kind of cool if we were alone – but with all the people it just sucked the soul right out of it. The picture of Laura above pretty much sums it up. Then the ensuing traffic jam was worse than the exodus from a rock concert. Just painful. Both of us were just frazzled – made worse when there was another traffic jam on the way to the campsite and it turned out to be a grisly auto accident – a Toyota Highlander upside and crushed on the road. Yikes. We finally got to the campsite and it turned out we were in this incredibly small site in between two families who were friends – their kids running back and forth in our site. The site was just plain dusty and barren from the ten thousand families that had stayed there before us and ground the rocks to dust. In 10 minutes Lucas and Sammie looked like Dick Van Dykes kids from Mary Poppins. A quick dinner of toasted cheese and tomato soup. Then the fire and TWO whole smores for Sammie. She gobbled them down. The other thing we noticed is that it was increasingly colder – which prompted me to ask Laura again how cold it was going to be in Michigan. We all bundled up and hunkered down in the tent. Lucas slept a little better – and we all got a decent night sleep. I wrote half of the blogs from the past two days sitting at the campsite picnic table with the smoke of the fire wafting over me and stinging me eyes. Kind of cool.

Quote of the day from Sammie: Mom: “Well Sam most of the time mountain lakes are very cold.” Sammie: “You’re tellin’ me!”

Another favorite Sammie quote: “Are you on Vacation? We aren’t on vacation, we’re moving.”

What we learned today: If you want to see Old Faithful – just go to Disneyland and ride the Matterhorn instead. It is much more exciting and there will probably be less people. Go to the Tetons instead. Laura learned that Oregon fans are EVERYWHERE. Both Sammie and Lucas had Oregon gear on and no less than 6 people commented on how they were from Oregon during our trip to Jenny Lake. Sweet – Ducks Baby. We are not desert people. Sorry Dad.