Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (State #41)-Colter Bay RV Park

August 21-28,2016

The Grand Tetons were named by French trappers, “Les Trois Tetons”, and put nicely means The Three Breasts. I'm still not sure which three they were so impressed by because there are definitely more than three peaks. But they are truly beautiful. And yet, we were unable to see them in their full splendor. The day we arrived a fire that had been burning over a month began to spread. The campgrounds to the north of us were evacuated and the road to Yellowstone was shut down. Fortunately, we were able to stay but some mornings the haze and smoke were so bad that we just stayed indoors.

This picture is a perfect example. The same enormous mountain range you see in the above picture is totally obscured by smoke in this one.

In the afternoons though we were able to get out and as the week progressed, the views became better.

We stayed at Colter Bay RV Park which is located in Colter Bay Village and on Jackson Lake. We didn't have a full view of the lake but it was a short walk to get there. Greg loved watching the sunsets and I think Jacob and Jordan can find endless fun with driftwood.

One evening, we were even able to see the fire that had come over the ridge.

Here are some general pictures:

Willow Flats Overlook

Jackson Lake Overlook 

Signal Mountain Overlook

Our hikes included:

String Lake

Inspiration Point

(not as inspiring as I hoped but still nice)

Taggart and Bradley Lake trail

(Bradley Lake)

 (Taggart Lake)

(Taggart Lake)

We also went in to Jackson one day for lunch, went to a couple of the visitor's centers, checked out the Jackson Lake Dam and learned about the engine used to open the gates and how to read the gauges,

celebrated the National Parks Service's 100^th Birthday with rangers and had some cake,

and attended a few ranger programs. My favorite program was actually done by author Kenneth Thomasma who wrote The Truth About Sacajawea. He retold the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition focusing more on Sacajawea and her extraordinary skills at such a young age resulting in some very significant contributions to the Discovery Group which certainly improved their chances for success.  

I love hearing this story over and over again. Each person, book, or video presents it slightly different and adds a few extra details I haven't heard before. Mr Thomasma also had a key role in recommending Sacajawea for the dollar coin to replace the Susan B. Anthony one and then tirelessly working for that to come to fruition.  We bought a couple of his books (some additional historical fiction ones) for the kids and he signed them and gave us Sacajawea coins.

And Jordan was able to assist in the flag ceremony

Our stay was nice. We need to come back in the future for a better look. We've heard September is great when the elks are moving and bugling and the fall foliage begins to show.

We have yet to see a grizzly! Maybe that will happen this week as we move to Yellowstone!

American Falls, Idaho-Massacre Rocks State Park

AUGUST 14-21, 2016

We didn't do a whole lot this week but there were a few interesting sites and some unwanted excitement. I'll get to that part shortly.

On our way from Boise, we stopped at Three Island Crossing State Park and Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Here is where the wagon trains crossed the Snake River. At some point they built a ferry but prior to that, they would ford the river via two of the islands. Many lost livestock and even their wagons. They would cross about this time of year, in August. And being here in the High Desert in August just added to the experience. It was miserably HOT with the sun just blazing down! Those people had some amazing will.

Inside the interpretive center, the kids tried loading their wagons with supplies,

learning what amount of supplies $500, $1000, and $1500 would get you (and just for reference, $1000 back then is $20,000 today Sheesh!),

basket weaving and other things.

From there, we traveled to City of Rocks National Reserve.  The wagon trains passed through here and many of the emigrants signed their names on the rocks using axle grease.

We stopped and checked out some of the rocks and then nearing the end of the road through the park, we got back into the truck and it would not start!!! So there we were in the middle of NOWHERE with NO cell phone signal and it is now 6:45 pm. Fortunately, we had our "covered wagon" with us! Haha

I should add that on the way to the park, the truck engine light came on. We connected the computer to the system and read the error code. It indicated that there was low rail pressure and that the truck could go into limp mode. But the truck was running fine and even limp mode would at least get us somewhere so we cleared the code and continued on (knowing that we would need to address it later).

So Greg got to work. He climbed up to the top of the RV to attach our cell phone booster and was able to get a signal to call our insurance for roadside assistance. That too was no easy task. Because our RV and our truck are covered by two different companies, we would be out of pocket for towing one of them ($$$). And where would we even go? We were really not near any big towns.

The good news was that we were safe, in a parking lot in the park, with toilets and running water. So that was awesome. BUT Greg had to work the next day and without internet we were in a bit of trouble. After two hours on the phone and no real plan for getting out of there, Greg was able to get an internet signal and after a short search, had a revelation. He primed the fuel pump and the truck started right up! WooHoo! We stashed everything as fast as we could and boogied on down the road. The truck ran fine and we were pulling into the next campground at 10:03 pm. We said another Hallelujah when we saw that there was no gate locking the park at 10:00 pm like many of them do.

So the truck is running fine. Greg has researched and spoken with some people about it and has a part on the way. In the meantime though, I have been a little leary of going off by myself with the kids.

It's interesting coming into a park at night and then waking up to see where exactly you are. We really had no idea what was around us but it was so pretty. Looking out over the snake river....

It's a small park and quite remote but it would be our home for the next week. And the week started out very hot, like almost Texas hot. Our RV only has one a/c and generally that is enough but there was no shade and it was 95 degrees out. And being so remote and with a questionable vehicle, there wasn't really any place to go.

So we just dealt with it. We did check out some of the trails in the park. This park is also on the Oregon Trail and had a small visitor's center with some information. The name Massacre Rocks comes from an Indian skirmish with two wagon trains in 1862 during which 5 pioneers died. The early travelers called it "Devil's Pass" or "Gates of Death" since the boulders where tall and steep and had only narrow passages for the wagons to travel through, making it an ideal place for attack.  The park has a memorial stone that has been moved here after the highway was blasted and built through.

Nearby, is another location named Register Rock where again the pioneers left their names.

 (The Indian head was carved in 1866 by a 7-year-old boy who was traveling with his parents on the Oregon 

Trail.  He later became a sculptor and dated the carving again when he returned in 1908)

We also checked out the parks frisbee golf course.

And one evening, we drove to Pocatello and had a very nice visit with one of Greg's former coworkers, Randy and his family. They moved to Idaho a couple of years ago.

(They had their reason for posing this way.  Ha ha)

Now we are off to Wyoming!