Saturday, October 16, 2010

Jackson, Wyoming- At Last!

This post is so long overdue its not even funny.  About a month ago, we traveled to Jackson, Wyoming to visit my brother and his beautiful girlfriend.  They have lived there for three years, and this was our first trip up there to visit! It is a loonnnngggg drive (20+ hours each way) so we took our time and broke that down into two days of driving.  All I can say is if you have not been to that area of the country, it is a MUST VISIT!  Put it on your list! They live in a small town called Wilson, Wyoming which is located just outside of Jackson.  The town big town is called Jackson and Jackson Hole is the nearby ski mountain resort which is literally minutes away from Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park as well.

In my defense for the delay of this post, just before leaving, I purchased a new camera and well, I went a little crazy on our trip and took over 900+ photos! (I know!)


 So, over the past few weeks, I've been slowly going through them all in effort to weed out the obvious bad ones and to organize the ones I wanted to keep and post for the blog.  I also learned that taking 900+ photos is fun, but kind of a pain to go through when you get back!  So at long last, here are but a few of my favorites from our trip.  We were there for nearly a week and had the best time.

Here you go...

Here is where we stayed...in that white building on the left.  It is literally at the base of the Jackson Hole ski mountain (you can see some of the ski runs in the background) and right next to the tram (the big red Jackson Hole building).  Its located in Teton Village which is the community of hotels, restaurants, shops and 5 Star hotels.  It was a lot of fun to stay in the village.  Thanks D for hooking us up with such a great place to rest our heads!

This is my brother- He is a real live mountain man and I love him to pieces and miss him terribly! (However, every time I visit him in one of the cool places he's living, I am reminded why he probably won't be moving back to Kansas any time soon.)

This is his beloved dog, Luna.  She has lived 200 lives in her 9 years....

This is my amazing brother and his adorable girlfriend....

This is the house where they live...

This is where my brother works, and with so much wilderness around...needless to say, we learned a ton and were very well geared up for wildlife spotting and wilderness exploring...

gearing up...

...one of the first places we went...I wanted to see "the famous barn" that is in so many photos of this area. Oh, and the Tetons too.  :)

We hiked around Jenny Lake inside Grand Teton National Park one day and hiked to a place called Hidden Falls.

...the spot we stopped for a special picnic lunch...

...some of Luke's clouds were overhead while we ate...so beautiful...

...a little hammock that my brother set up when we were hiking back and decided to take a break...(it was the coolest thing and comfy too!)

M & D are a great together and they are also amazing chefs in the kitchen...they fed us very well!

One evening we made Asian food- we had spring rolls and homemade Pho (pronounced Pha) which is a soup. It was delicious!

One entire day we went to Yellowstone and did what is known as "the lower loop." It is about a 12 hour drive round trip- not because you are traveling a super long distance, but because you can only drive 45mph the entire time - and also because there are so many spectacular places to stop and get out to see.... (ps. an especially big thank you to my brother who took us on this trip despite the fact that he has to do it all the time for work! We LOVED getting to see it!)

...needless to say, we were not the only ones waiting for Old Faithful geyser to go off!

Old Faithful...so amazing...

...another geyser we stopped to see...

...a hot spring...

...some scoping at our picnic spot in Yellowstone... (notice M sitting up there next to the river watching for wildlife too...everyone was spotting wildlife...mine were just easier to see...)


Part of the lower loop in Yellowstone contains a place called The Canyon which is amazing and so, so beautiful. 

It contains this famous and gigantic waterfall...

We spent some time there just soaking it all in...

Then moved onto this valley where we watched some wildlife prancing around and killing things...

More Luke clouds overhead in Yellowstone...

...we saw quite a few bison in Yellowstone...they are HUGE...I included this shot so you could get perspective of one next to a Dodge pickup truck...did I mention that they are HUGE?

...another glimpse...

...a waterfall just inside the park where we stopped on our way back to Jackson...

...another look...

One whole morning we hiked to this place called Ule Hill in Grand Teton National Park.  It is well known as a place to observe wolves in their natural habitat.  We were lucky in that we had the whole place to ourselves the entire time we were there, but we were unlucky in that we did not see any wolves.  But we did see plenty of wildlife doing their thing...it was a fun morning...


...I know!  Look at those Tetons in the background!


We saw some moose while we were there too...

...and these guys... (really gals)

We introduced M&D to a Swiss yard game called Kubb (pronounced Koob). It is a lot of fun to play and needless to say, the students became the teachers.  I think we won only one game of the 20 that we played....but we had a lot of fun but I'm pretty sure most of those games were close ones!

...the battle zone...

D in action...


 
... in action...

...the girl is a ringer!

...I'm pretty certain he's about to win the game with this one...

...some of the days we were there were cold and chilly with a little bit of rain, so we played some indoor games as well....

...Remember when I said they fed us well? These are some homemade fries we had one night...

...the griller checking his fish...

...the feast!  Salmon and halibut caught by my brother and the fries (we also had salad too)- (please excuse the hideous cropping. That was the photographer's fault... but trust me, the whole scene was a beautiful sight!)

Remember I said was rainy some of the days we were there? Well, that was down in the valley were we were, but up on the peaks it was all snow! So one day we rode the tram (which on a busy day can hold close to 100 people!) up to the top of the ski mountain at Jackson Hole.  It was really fun and really cold at the top too!


At the top is this little warming hut place that makes waffles for the skiers and snowboarders during the winter.  It was open while we were there, so we went in.  We did not have waffles, but we (I) had a hot chocolate and the boys had some cold ones. It was really fun- and yes, that is fresh snow all around this building!

 
...along the outside of the waffle place...

In the wintertime, my brother does the daily snow report for the ski mountain.  All of that gear on the roof of the warming hut is what helps him to get his weather info every morning.  Pretty crazy!

...my delicious hot chocolate....first one of the season is always somehow the best!

...at the top...

....our last night in town...

...we took the scenic way out of town and these were some of our final views as we drove away....

...goodbye Tetons....we cannot wait to come back and visit!

To M & D, we cannot thank you enough for your hospitality, your incredible meals you provided and for all of the fun we had visiting you.  We look forward to seeing you again really soon! Love you lots!

8 comments:

  1. sweet pics! love the update and getting to hang with your husband.
    josh

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  2. I seriously love that place. Greg and I had waffles and hot chocolate up top about six years ago. Beautiful pics!

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  3. So glad for the special times you've had - loved getting to meet your brother and his work - WOW!Top class tour guides! If/when you come to New Zealand we can show you geysers and hot springs and boiling mud pools too.

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  4. Beautiful!! You can just tell by the smiles on your faces how great the trip was.

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  5. I love how your brother has a headlight on in some of the pictures- Austin has one of those too!

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  6. What a great trip and wonderful memories for you. Love your pictures! Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Simply marvelous! Now I know my next vacation destination! Thanks for sharing your awesome pictures and wonderful talent as a photographer!

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  8. Sarah & Joe-
    LOVE the pics from your visit! It went so fast! I am glad you were able to do such a good job of documentation with your new hardware. Can't wait to see you guys at Thanksgiving! -Mark

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