Day 5: Moving on to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Words cannot really express how amazing Grand Tetons National Park was.  It was just so awesome and relaxing and EASY and everything you would want out of a vacation.  But it was with mixed feelings that we continued on with our journey.  We stopped to take these pictures of Jackson Lake and the mountains before pushing north into Yellowstone.

I know, right?  Andy was a little grumpy so he was trying to photo bomb us.

But eventually caught up with the wonder of it all as well.

But we continued to head north to Yellowstone.

Looking back Yellowstone is a completely different beast with a different feel.  DEFINITELY more crowded.  The scenery was nice, but just different.  Hotter, more windy roads, more traffic. But still amazing.  And it was a lot bigger.  Because of this, we stopped at the first visitor center we came to in order to talk to a ranger about options.  We were not the only one.  Every other visitor center I have ever been to has been "can I help you?" and this one had like a 15 minute wait.  But after all my research, I did feel it was invaluable to actually talk to someone about my itinerary.  We continued on to the south rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  

Everyone said we would see a lot of wildlife in Yellowstone.  I didn't believe them.  I thought we would see the famous "bear jams" but I was surprised to actually see wildlife.  We thought this was a moose:

But looking at it now, it looks more like an elk.  We saw a lot of elk.  Don't tell the kids we didn't see a moose.  We pulled over to see a bison!  But there were literally bison everywhere.  Here is one that we saw after we parked one time :

We saw a deer jam and I hated to break it to all those folks, but we actually have deer where we live.  Drove right on by that.  We were surprised to see no one stopped at THIS turn off to Yellowstone Lake.

  

Yellowstone Lake didn't make it to our final itinerary but Mark especially was really taken by the views.  See, we left something to do for when we went back.

We were actually staying in the Canyon Campground so visiting the Canyon seemed like a good thing to do our first day.  Because we had to drive in, we expected it to be crowded and ended up getting to the parking area around lunch time.  We then promptly made lunch in the RV.  I love the RV!  The Johnsons and Pennas met us there, but my parents, due to a scheduling issue, were not able to find lodging in Yellowstone so stayed another night in Grand Tetons.  I wasn't all that excited about the canyon, because we had just seen the actual Grand Canyon, but this was still nice.

There are two falls, the upper and lower falls.  Here is Andy at the upper falls which was close to where we parked:

The ranger at the visitor center recommended the rim trail saying that it was paved and "easy".  Well, yes it was paved, but there were some uphills and downhills!  And it was pretty hot.  We hiked to the lower falls at artist point.  Its a reverse group picture!

Both falls together!  And a selfie of me!  

And this is my favorite picture of the trip.  Andy is still grumpy but grinning and bearing it.

 The kids were whiny and we were not looking forward to taking this trail back to the upper falls.  My original itinerary had us on another kid friendly hike.  Brian stepped up at this point and did some research to take this trail back. Again, not suggested by the ranger and everyone we talked to said it was really long.  Brian really pushed it though and we ended up taking the back way to the upper falls.  So glad we took the chance, it was wonderful!

Ended up leaving the heat of the canyon rim and got in the shade a bit.  Saw some different things.  One thing I have never hiked to is a geyser!  It kind of smelled.  But it was different!  

The hike was actually to "Clear Lake"  I wouldn't let the kids put their feet in.  Geysers had heated the water so it was warmer than string lake.

Hiked through a meadow back to the RVs.  This might have been my favorite part of the whole trip.

Had to skirt bison to get back to the RVs (I told you they are everywhere) and headed to the campground.  I was really worried about the accommodations.  Again, wasn't expecting water or electricity, but hadn't heard good things.  I think it helped if you have three RVs all together.  It ended up being another great site for us.  We were surrounded by tall pine trees.  The kids had some room to run and we could just enjoy being outside.

Whew again! 

Day 4: Grand Tetons National Park

Day 4 we woke up for the first time in our RV.  AND IT WAS SOOOOOO COLD.  Temps got down to the mid 30s this night.  Holy Moly. We got up and turned on the furnace.  Why wasn't in on all night?  Well, let's go back to the research phase....

If you remember, in the last post, I mentioned that we were not staying in RV parks.  A lot of that just has to do with the fact that a lot of these facilities were built a long time ago.  The RVs parks and the camp sites.  So, when these camp sites were built, they didn't have water or electricity.  Now, I am used to the state park system where unless they say the sites "ARE PRIMATIVE.  NO WATER OR ELECTRICITY" I am expecting a little fluacet and a little plug box.  That is not the case in Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.  They have nothing. They have water at the bathrooms, and bathrooms, but any sort of connect is not there.  Showers are at the main village site for a fee.  We knew this going it, but weren't sure how it was going to go.  Short answer.  It was fine!  Yes, it was cold and our device batteries got a little low, but really fine.  I would totally do it again.  Moving on.

Day 4 we had planned to go hike at Jenny Lake.  This is The Thing To Do in Grand Tetons, so we were pretty sure it was going to be crowded.  We had a goal to leave around 8 and I think we hit it.  Got to Jenny Lake around 9.   The plan was to take the Jenny Lake boat shuttle to a hike on the other side of the lake.  Oh, and another big thing...

We wore special trip shirts!  A local friend designed and made these and they turned out great.

Here is AC on the shuttle.  They didn't know what they were getting when they got our party of 14.

We were doing a 1 mile hike to Inspirational Point.  Oh course all the kids had to get hiking sticks.  Here is us at the point.  We met some nice people from Ireland who took our picture.  Mr Tony say we weren't facing the right way for best lighting.

We tried to hike to a canyon afterwards, but couldn't find it.  Here is the back view of the shirts on the way down.  It says "Too Many Kids in a Park" and "RV there yet"

After our hike, we drove the RVs to the String Lake trailhead and picnic area.  Here is the real genius of the RV:  we didn't have to pack a lunch, just make it when we were ready.  Awesome!!  We had a nice little lunch.  I had planned on hiking around the lake, but all the kids were pretty tired.  We decided to just go look at the lake.   Then we (Keturah) wanted to put their feet in, and then one thing lead to another and before you know it all the kids were swimming.

That may not seem like such a big deal, but this is an alpine lake people.  Super super cold, especially for all these southern kids.  It became a challenge of who would go in the furthest, then who would go the most underwater, then who would stay under the longest.  They were so so cold.  But had a blast.

We went back to the campsite to rest afterwards.  Here is the downfall of the RV.  Once you are parked, it is hard to get going again.  A few of us went to Glacier Bay to look around.  I'm pretty sure I took pictures, but I can't find them.  Still it was a good day and probably ended up being one of my favorites!

Day 3: SLC to Grand Tetons National Park

We were packed, ready to go, had breakfast, which started at 7, not 8, my bad.  But our goal was to leave around 8 and I think we got it pretty close.  Had to take a before picture.

 My sister got me a starbucks.  She's the best.  So, we headed out of town.

Now, I can plan the heck out of itineraries, and yeah, i can get you there, but Mark was driving so he lead the caravan.

 We were promptly passed by the Johnson's who had been driving theirs for two days and were way more comfortable.  They beat us by about an hour.

When you watch the hype video for these, they show pictures of happy kids playing card games while gazing at beautiful scenery that passes by.  And then there is reality.

They had to close the blinds so they can see their kindles.  And then the table fell down.  I put it back up a couple of times before giving up and putting it into "bed" mode.  I think they liked that better anyways.  

The drive up was nice.  It took Mark awhile to get used to the RV.  It was really loud and bumpy.  You have to make sure everything is secure in your kitchen before driving off or it will spill.  There were horrible rattling sounds and we figured out some of them, but some we just lived with.  It wasn't like we could listen to the radio or anything!  The worst was the engine.  It did fine, but it took awhile to realize that it was normal sounds as it shifted gears going up and down hills.  And we did go up and down hills.

It was neat to see a different park of the country!

We pulled into the Grand Tetons Visitor Center parking lot about 1.  Mark and the kids went to find a place to eat lunch and me, well, I made lunch in the RV.  Nice.  Here was our lunch time view.

Grand Tetons were so dramatic.  I think everyone loved it.  I have a thing for snow capped mountains.

We toured the visitor center and then headed to our campsite.

Grand Tetons was a little strange.  All of the campsites were first come first serve.  That sounds nice and all, but I didn't fly all the way across the country for first come first serve!  I wanted to know where we were going.  Well, we had a couple of options for advance registration.  One was an RV park.  Yes, I know we were driving RVs and that seems like the logical choice, but reading up on these, they didn't sound very nice.  Packed in like sardines and no camp fires.  That's not what we signed up for.  Instead we opted for a group campground, and it was great!  We got to be together and there was lots of open space.  

Super fun.  And there was campfire games like Yes, No, H2O.

And Heads or Tails.  The kids really had a great time.

Even though it was a good first day, I still was a little nervous getting into our RV bed.  But once Mark put the white noise machine app on his phone, it was fine.  Slept great!

Day 2: Salt Lake City and RV pick up

We didn't wake up too early in mountain time, but early enough to be annoyed that the breakfast didn't open until 8 on the weekend.  Afterwards, we walked a couple of blocks to the trolley stop to downtown.

When we got there, we had just missed the one we needed.  The boys made rap music videos while waiting.

We were taking the trolley to Temple Square and to walk around downtown.  It seemed like the thing to do in Salt Lake City.  We were able to go into the visitor centers and the buildings.  Here is our lighting expert taking a picture of the lighting.  He was impressed. 

 I let James have my old phone.  I thought he would enjoy taking pictures of the trip and then he could make videos to keep him busy.  This turns out not to be the best idea.  Luckily, it has a bad battery and James kept turning off airplane mode and not keeping it charged so it didn't last long.  Its funny that he knows exactly how to take a selfie.

There were a lot of very nice people to answer questions and take pictures!

James did set up this picture though.  I feel it was a tribute to my detailed itinerary 

Really, we were done about 10, but dragggggged it out until 11 when it was socially acceptable to eat lunch.  Juliet and Mark actually went to an organ recital and the rest of us took the kids back to the hotel to swim.  But we did have plans for the afternoon.

 

Don't we look a little scared?  We went to pick up our RV.  Really, it went pretty quickly considering they were letting us take a very expensive piece of equipment that we didn't know how do drive.  Want to know how that went?  So, after we went to pick up the RV we need to go to WalMart.  Tony and Juliet were going to follow us there.  Mark and I were sitting at a light when all of a sudden, another Cruise America RV passed us and hit our driver side mirror so that one mirror out of two fell off.  Mark promptly ran it over.  What was there to do but continue to WalMart and I won't name the guilty party.  ;)  

Getting to WalMart was another ordeal.  Navigating the freeways in the RV was not easy and we ended up on one way streets.  We finally get to the walmart and turns out there is a parking garage for it.  This is pretty much the worst nightmare in as a new RV driver.  WalMart, well, that is always a nightmare and then our carts wouldn't go to our RV because of a safety mechanism.  I was so frustrated and tired, and HOT, and LATE to dinner.  And that is when the Johnsons had arrived.  We ate and then my sister bought everyone ice cream so it all worked out...  

Day 1: Traveling to Salt Lake City.

Day 1:  We had to drive to Atlanta to catch our flights that would eventually take us to Salt Lake City.

We really timed our flights really well this time.  I mean, we had to get up early, but not crazy early.  We hit Atlanta traffic, but not crazy traffic.  

There was a ton of traffic at the airport so parking was hard.  Checking in and the TSA lines weren't that bad.  Got to ride the airport train and even had time for a starbucks!

Andy was more willing to travel this time, but less willing to take pictures.  Everything worked out so well, we had some time to wait at the gate.

Since this was Southwest, we had to connect, and it was a surprise to see that we would be connecting through Dallas Love Field!  When we move from there Southwest had just won the court battle to have "long haul" flights from this airport.  I guess it was going well.  This was NOT the Love Field of 10 years ago.  We had our pick of Dallas restaurants and ended up at Catina Laredo.  They had charging stations at the tables!! 

This was Mark's lunch.  It was awesome.  I got a salad and it was fine.

They had all these activities in the airport.  Kids could make buttons and there was a live band.  What???

We finally arrived at Salt Lake City and took our airport shuttle to the Crystal Inn and Suites.  And the kids  were so excited to see.........

Oh, our neighbors who we literally see practically every day.  They got down to business to play Super Fight.  Hit a local brewery a short walk from the hotel for dinner and the whole gang was there, including my parents who again live 20 minutes away from us in SC.  So neat to see everyone in a different time zone! 

The weather in Salt Lake City was hot, but dry and honestly, it felt pretty good.  Another funny thing is that the sun didn't set until like 9:30 so these east coasters stayed up way later than they should have!

It was a great first day!  Everything worked out so far!!