Back from the Tetons

We are back home! As nice as it is to be sleeping in an actual bed again, I am missing our trip already. It was our first actual camping trip together, just us. Well, there was this time, but that doesn't count. [To readers: This post is more for memories for my sake than it is for entertainment value. There's a fair warning for you if it's boring.] We camped a couple miles outside the south Yellowstone entrance for three nights, although we spent more time in Grand Teton National Park. The scenery was amazing! We were going to leave Sunday morning, but then we learned that the highway we needed was going to be closed for construction that day, so we left Saturday morning instead, and just decided to find a place for that night, somewhere. It was a little spontaneous, we don't ever just take off somewhere not knowing if we were going to be able to find a place to stay that night, so it was fun. We actually got a little place in Afton, WY, which was cute on the outside and a trip to the 60's on the inside:
We ate dinner at a sea-food place, then went to look at some of the cute little shops on main street, but they had all closed at 6:00 (retarded). We also tried to find the coldwater spring they boasted about and drove aways up the canyon before giving up and coming back. We did get to see an old tabernacle, it looks like they use it as a church building now. And we went shopping at the only place in town still open: the Family Dollar (yay!) When we came back we watched the Olympics and Father of the Bride and went to sleep.

Oh yes - we also got pulled over in Star Valley. The officer asked Geoff if he knew why he'd been pulled over and Geoff said, "speeding?" The cop actually said no, it was because we didn't have a front license plate. He was very good-natured with us, even though I thought it was completely stupid that, after all these years, I've never been pulled over for that reason. He just gave us a warning and said he gets a lot of drug busts from pulling people over for that. He must've decided we weren't the drug-dealin' type because he never asked to search our car.

Anyway, the next day, we went the rest of the way to our campsite, stopping in Jackson to buy some bear spray and book a whitewater trip. We also stopped at Jenny Lake, because my sister suggested it from when she lived out there last summer. We were going to try a hike to a waterfall, but then we noticed you could rent canoes and kayaks, so we did that instead. It was a two-man kayak, and we just took it out on the lake and stayed out for about an hour, using the video camera. Here are some shots Geoff got with the digital cam:

Then we got to our very own first

campsite:

And made our very own first campfire:

I was pretty scared we would attract bears, because we were on the very edge of the campground and there were warnings all over. We had to lock up everything in the car at night, even the water cooler. I think we showered, ate dinner, (Emergency Essentials) and went to bed. Yes, there were showers and yes, we used them. Who said you can't enjoy a few modern conveniences while camping?

The next day, we drove up to see Old Faithful and take a walk around the geyers and mineral pools. It was very neat and very hot. This is Geoff and Cali sans makeup and hair-dos.

Hard to believe such a beautiful, transparent-looking pool could be hundreds of degrees in temp. and acidic enough to melt your skin off in seconds!

We went back to camp and took a nap, then drove back to Jackson to do some shopping. All we needed was some stuff to wear while whitewater rafting, and the only place that looked cheap enough for that one-time thing was K-Mart. I hate K-Mart! They had nothing, not even men's sandals, and the women's swimsuits were the butt-ugliest things I'd ever seen. I stopped a lady passing by, discovered she was from the area, and asked if there was a Wal-Mart or a Target, even a Shopko around. She laughed and said, "Oh bless your heart dear. We don't have anything like that here, this is it! You're in Wyoming now!" Well we made the best of it and stopped for dinner across the street at Bajio's. We debated going to a movie, then decided just to go back to camp because we didn't want to be driving through the parks at night and getting lost. On the way back, with the sun setting, we saw the most beautiful scenery. The Tetons are striking enough during the day, but at dusk they were pretty amazing.

We listened to country music all day and then classical on the way back to camp. The next day, we decided drove just a little ways into Yellowstone because we'd noticed a waterfall there the day before that we wanted to see closer.

Then we hiked up right next to the falls:

This is the view from the top with the water coming:

And going over the edge:

Then we headed back back down to Jenny Lake to take that hike to the other waterfall that we'd started the first day, and stopped to look at a Native American museum, which was kind of neat. We got some gorgeous pictures at the lake. The hike wasn't hard, and only about 3 miles one-way. The first day we had been there, it was so so hot and so crowded. This time, there was hardly anyone and the temperature was nice and cool, it was perfect.

I couldn't believe how picturesque it was.

It was about 4:00 by the time we got back to camp that day and we were so tired, so we just decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. Shower, eat dinner, sit around the fire. So we did just that. Except I got a little sick, all light-headed and nauseous. Geoff was a sweetie walking all the way to the little store to buy me a Sprite (it was a fairly big campground), then when he got back I asked for an apple, so back to the store it was. (An apple was the only thing I could even think about eating without wanting to gag. I know weird.) Afterwards I felt a little better and we just sat by the fire and talked the rest of the night until bed. While we had been gone that day, someone came and put up a tent in the spot right next to ours, just feet away from us. Just a little tent, no camp chairs, firewood, nothing. We thought that was a little weird since there was soooo much open space in the campground why did they pick the spot right next to us, and we joked that maybe someone left a body in it, or maybe there was a serial killer hiding in it and was going to come out as soon as everyone went to bed. A dumb thing, but it spooked me for pretty much the rest of the night. I kept thinking I heard noises and waking up, then finally, probably around 3 a.m. a bunch of teenage girls pulled up and got in the tent. They were soooo loud, but it didn't take long before they were asleep too.

In the morning, Geoff packed up camp while I went to the bathroom to do something with my hair, and we ate breakfast at the restaurant. Then we drove to Jackson for our whitewater trip on the way home. It was pretty fun, except I had thought it was going to be a little more wild than it was, but still fun nonetheless. The girl in front of me fell off the raft on the first rapid. Geoff took a dip a few times too, although he had willingly jumped in. We didn't get any pictures from the whitewater because the cameras would've been ruined, but we did get this before we left:

We stopped for gas and McDonald's, which I wolfed down, and we only made one other stop on the way home in Brigham City. It was a nice drive home. We passed through Logan, and the canyon up there, the one that empties into Logan, was beautiful! There were a ton of campgrounds there that looked really cool; so we might go back up and camp there sometime. The only really cool wildlife we saw the entire time was a giant, jet-black moose, just standing off the side of the road somewhere in Cache County. I tried to hard to get the camera out and ready to go but by the time I did, the moose had turned and calmly walked into the trees. (bummer). Another thing that was good about this trip was that we didn't fight even once, a feat for us since we tend to bicker a lot anytime we go out of town. It was really enjoyable and I enjoyed being with Geoff. If I can figure out how to post videos, I'll try to put some of that up.