Grand Tetons and Yellowstone

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that; we really haven't done much worth posting. I've started my internship, but other than that not much. Holly and I took a weekend trip to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone over Memorial Day. It's about a 5-hour drive from Hailey. We did a little backcountry camping in Grand Tetons National Park. It started raining while we were hiking in, and we set up in the rain. I've camped in the snow before (it's a lot of fun), but snow camping in a downpour is not a lot of fun. We spent about a half-hour trying to get as much water out of the tent as possible.


Here's Holly trying to keep warm... It was a cold, wet night.


Here she is on the hike out.










Jenny Lake at Tetons




The truck, having a good time... On a side note, Go Yota!! We got almost 29 mpg on the drive out and up through the parks, and 27.5 on the drive back.



Jackson Lake in Tetons


A cascade in Yellowstone (I forget which one). There's still a ton of snow up there!


Old Faithful! We did kind of a quick tour of Yellowstone. We're planning on going back later this summer, but we thought it would be fun to see the major attractions.

More photos

Update: For some reason, the small photos didn't link to bigger ones. I've fixed this if you want to see the full size images.

Brian and I went wheelin' yesterday afternoon. It was lots of fun. A dirty truck is a happy truck!










After Holly got off work, we drove up over Galena Pass to Stanley. It's an incredibly beautiful area, and we got there just in time for this:

We were going back over Galena Pass afterwards, and stopped for some long exposure night photography.

Here's Wood River by moonlight.

Pictures from my first week here with my dad

I finally have gotten around to posting pictures from the week Dad and I were out here together (the first week we were in the area).


One of the days we went on a drive and found a short cut back to Ketchum. When the roads started to look like this we decided the short cut would probably take longer than just turning around and driving back.









This was a photo we took shortly before dropping Dad off at the bus station.
It was taken near Twin Falls, ID.


















This was taken at that same place. It is the bridge into town.














We drove to a little town at the top of a mountain one of the days. This is the view from Stanley, ID.


















This is one of the many ski runs we found





This is a lava rock. There is a lava field south of Hailey.




This is our little patio.





This is the living room.


















This is a picture of a potato field.
















... And these are all pictures taken on the drive to Stanley. It is an hour away from Ketchum.

Idaho rocks my socks off!!!

Peyton got to some training time in on Wednesday. He's loving it here... There's a path that runs right through our backyard that leads to this field. He's gone biking with us a couple of times, and has found a new BFF in Brian.

My bike loves me so much right now! Thursday Brian and I rode Greenhorn Gulch. It was awesome. Sweet trail, a little mud, some snow, and a few freezing cold creek crossings. Heck yeah!

Brian on a bridge over a creek.

I wasn't expecting to be postholing through knee-deep snow in mid-May, but it's all good.

Happy bikes and a happy truck.

Fun in the dirt

Brian and I played today while Holly was at work.

Mountain bike trail less than 1/4 mile from our house

Took the 'Yota wheeling.

End of the line for us today.

Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door

Long haul!

Well, Brian and I drove pretty much nonstop to Idaho Saturday and Sunday. We were in the cars for about 28 hours total (we stopped for a couple hours' sleep twice).

Camera Dump!

Goodbye Ames!

Nebraska: Drive until your eyes bleed, rinse and repeat as necessary.

Bikes: "Are we there yet?"

Me: "Bikes can't talk. Leave me alone."

Me: "I didn't mean that. I'm really sorry, I'm just a little tired and grumpy. Will you forgive me?

Bikes: "We'll talk about this later."

Some people just weren't cut out for life on the road... :)

Hour 14: Welcome to Wyoming!

Sweet! Terrain features! I-80 goes from about 6000 feet in Cheyenne to over 8500 feet just east of Laramie. The truck was not happy climbing those hills. The combination of grade, altitude, extra weight, extra drag from the bikes, and the good ol' 105hp 2.4 liter 22re combined for several climbs at under 50 mph, getting passed by semi trucks going uphill.

Wyoming sunset, somewhere west of Laramie. Very few radio stations out here.

Yep, this is pretty much what the overnight felt like for me too.

Wasatch Mountains in Utah.

Woo Hoo!! We stopped at a rest stop near here, and Peyton wasn't quite sure what to make of the place. He walked around with his nose to the ground peeing on everything he could find.

Then he went back to sleep.

Going north on Highway 75, almost there!

And you'll have to wait for photos of the Big Wood River valley. I'll be posting again soon. Hope you all are doing well,

Eric