Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park

We woke up fairly early that morning because we knew it was going to be a long day. Not only that, we were looking forward to the ride we were planning. We could have easily ran straight north from Grand Teton National Park directly toward Yellowstone National Park, but naaah - that would have taken some of the fun out of it!.

We had mapped out a route that ran back south toward Jackson Hole, then westward over a southern pass across the Tetons themselves. This route would put us riding partially over the Grand Tetons!! The temptation was too hard to resist.

Not only would the route we chose take us over the Tetons, but we would wind up on the "back" (west) side of them so we can see what that side looked like. Our path also was going to lead us through Idaho, and as we headed northbound, we would skirt across a small part of Montana before entering into the west side of Yellowstone National Park.

So with our route in mind, we broke down camp, and repacked all of our camping gear. That task was becoming easier as well. It's interesting though that somehow, we managed to load our gear just a little differently onto the motorcycles each time we piled it all on them.

Once loaded, we started out, looking for a place to gas up along the way. I looked like Jackson Hole was going to be the closest gas stop, so off we went.

Our trip toward Yellowstone - continued next time.

Grand Teton National Park - Continued

Grand Teton National Park

Riding the Grand Teton National Park is an adventure that I won't soon forget. We woke up at our new campsite and got us a little breakfast before venturing out to explore. We met our new neighbors, which was really cool. My brother-in-law and riding partner is from Mississippi, and I from Tennessee. Our neighbors, as it turns out were from the south as well. Wow, what a small world!.

We rode out of our campgrounds and headed south toward those amazing peaks. There was a really cool place to stop with information about the formation of the Grand Tetons - and some good picture taking opportunities. The river below was small, but very beautiful. We saw a raft floating down the river just far enough downstream that we couldn't tell how many people were taking a floating trip that day.

We arrived in Jackson Hole just around lunch time and stopped at a little restaurant for a bite to eat. The building across the street had one of the most interesting roofs on it that we had ever seen. The entire roof of that place was covered with grass!!! Yes, actual, real, growing grass!!. We laughed about that for a bit, wondering how they got the lawnmover up there to mow the roof.

After lunch, we rode around "the hole" for awhile, then headed back northward to the road that runs by Jenny Lake. The lake was crystal clear, sitting just beneath the rise of the Tetons themselves. Picturesque!!.

That evening, we found a nice Italian restaurant at the edge of a lake, the Tetons lust beyond it, reflection mirrored in the clear greenish, blue water. We were able to get a table on the wrap around deck, so we could eat our dinner while enjoying the fantastic view.

Tired, full, and our eyes full of the beauty of the day, we headed back to the campsite to start our campfire.

The next day, we planned to journey on toward Yellowstone National Park, but we had decided to take the long way.. more about that next time.

Grand Teton National Park - Continued

Grand Teton National Park

I had already reserved a campsite in Grand Teton National Park for us to bed down. Since we had been riding for a pretty good ways by now, we decided to head directly toward the campground. As it turned out, we rode right along side of the Grand Teton Mountain range on our way to the campground. I still think about that view!!

We actually went a little north of the Teton Range, and toward Yellowstone National Park to get to our campground. Once checked in, we found our site and started unloading our gear.

I took along a really small tent. I called it "the coffin tent" because you basically had to lay down to get in and out of the thing, and once it was setup, it looked kindof like a coffin. It was OK, but in hindsight, I wished I had taken a different tent. Even though it packed up really small, it was a pain to get in and out of. It was almost impossible to change clothes inside of it. I have found much better tents since then.

By the time we made it to Tetons, we had the unpacking and setting up part down to a science. It didn't take us long at all to get our stuff setup.

We headed back to the office, got another map of the area and a little camping food, then headed back to our site for dinner. A few pieces of wood later and a little cooking, and dinner was served!

We only had reserved two days in Grand Teton national Park, so we got a little rest, because we know the next day was a riding day.

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park

It was a little bit of a haul from Lander, Wyoming to the Grand Teton National Park. That was our next destination. I guess it was bout 150 miles or so when we began to notice a difference in the terrain. One of things that caught my eye on the sides of the highway were these wooden 'fence' sortof things. I really had NO idea what they were, or why they would be constructed along the sides of the highway.

My ever so genius brother-in-law and riding partner explained it to me. Those things are to help keep the snow drifts from getting to bad on the highways. It made sense to me. I can imagine that the winters in the middle portion of Wyoming can get pretty bad. With the wind rushing through, I have no doubt that some major snowdrifts can accumulate on the highways.

The further into the ride we travelled, the more ups and downs we found. The hills starting getting a little steeper. We did run into some road constuction, though. Parts of it even turned into gravel for awhile - ouch!! It seemed like we had not been in the hilly part of the ride for very long, and the next thing we knoew, we could see them. The Grand Tetons!!

What a sight! I had never seen mountains so tall. We naturally had to make a stop at a safe spot along the roadside to get a couple of pictures.

We rode a little furthur and cam upon the sign welcoming us to the Grand Teton National Park.

Our stay in the Grand Tetons - next time

Rocky Mountain National Park - Continued

Rocky Mountain National Park

The ride through southern Wyoming was definitely different. I guess we went about 300 to 400 miles across some of the most desolate land I have traveled. Riding down the highway, we had the road all to ourselves. We would occasionally see a house about every 50 miles or so.

We finally ran across the Interstate we were looking for, and jumped on. We passed several Oil Wells. I had no idea that they had those in Wyoming. I thought that was a Texas thing!! Live and learn they say.

We pulled in to Lander, Wyoming sometime early evening. I had in mind a camping area that we could stay in. I had not made reservations yet. We were pretty darn hungry by now, so decided to stop in a little burger joint on the main drag. Either I was really hungry, or that burger was awesome!!.

We started talking to this guy outside the restaurant. He asked us where we were staying. I told him the name of the campground. He suggested we stay in the city park. He said we could stay there for free - what a deal!. The park was great. We shared it with several other tent campers. There were no showers, but luckily the hotel in town had public use showers for 5 bucks, so we cleaned up before continuing onward toward Grand Teton National Park.

Rocky Mountain National Park

The riding in the Rocky Mountain National Park was just fantastic. Such beautiful scenery, the great winding roads we had to enjoy. We cooked hobo dinners over an open campfire the first night. The fire was a little hard to keep going due to the high altitude, but we managed to get dinner anyway. It would have been nice to have the space to carry a Dutch Oven, though.

On our way toward the visitors center at the top (over 11,000 Ft), we stopped to take a short hike on a trail leading to some snow that was still laying on the mountainside. It was great fun to have a snowball fight in the last week of July!!

We hung out for a bit at the visitor’s center, the headed around the other side of the park. riding through there was simply awesome! It's hard to put it into words.

Back at our campsite, we had a visit from a neighboring deer. He was no more that 30 of 40 feet from where we had out tents setup. It’s so awesome to be able to enjoy a plce like that.

When it was time to leave Rocky Mountain National Park, we decided to head almost straight north - toward Wyoming and Grand Teton National park.

Next stop - Lander, Wyoming.