Part of the “thrill” of looking for free federal land to set up shop at, is that you don’t know what’s available until you’re there! After a beautiful but extremely hilly drive from Idaho into Wyoming, we arrived into the outdoorsy town of Jackson. From there we got a great look at the Grand Teton mountain ridge and where we’d be staying for a couple of days. We drove a couple miles up a dirt road, driving from the Grand Teton National Park to the Bridger-Teton National Forest. We were with a couple of other RV’s and campers on a ridge directly overlooking the beautiful mountain. This was another great spot, private with good views, and a big forest behind us, down a steep hill that the boys liked to explore. Woody found a unique tree in the forest that he could lay in to read and took advantage of that in the mornings.
We didn’t see or hear them, but we felt Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s presence on our first night. They were there with a contingent of record executives and other celebrities for Kanye’s album release party. Apparently he likes this place a lot! Anywho, they all had to cross the road near our campsite to get from the ranch they were at back to Jackson to celebrate at the honkytonk in town. I didn’t get an invite, so I’ll probably protest the album.
Some of the fun things we did in the Grand Teton National Park was visit the Jackson Lake lodge. It was exactly what a NP lodge should be like with a huge main room with big windows that framed the mountains. Woody noticed they were selling huckleberry milkshakes. There’s not much the boys will use their Christmas money for, but this is important and memorable for them!
We had beautiful weather here for a couple of days, and the reflection of the peaks off the lakes was amazing. We were totally taking our time here, and Jesse took an off the beaten path dirt road that eventually lead to a lake shore. It was private, with only a couple of other people there so we felt it ok to let Gunner off leash to jump and play in the lake. It was so cold, but you could tell Gunner was loving it all! He played fetch for what seemed forever, and we could have stayed there much longer had it not been for annoying mosquitos.
On another back road, we happened to catch a moose 20 feet off the road munching on some food in a stream. It was pretty cool to witness such an animal! There were plenty of opportunities to see bison and antelope. We even saw “Mormon Row”, which were some preserved farmsteads that a group of Mormon’s set up in the early 1900’s. It’s great to see history in beautiful places like this!
We spent some time in Jackson as well, checking out their downtown. There is a “local” ski hill called Snow King and it is literally blocks from downtown! We drove over just to check it out, and ended up on alpine slides and an alpine coaster! The boys even did a fun outdoor maze, something they hadn’t done in ages. We finished off the afternoon at the Snake River Brewery, Jesse wasn’t afraid of this beer! There was even a “touch a truck” event going on in town. We saw it from afar, but it brought back good memories of all the similar events we’ve taken the boys to in the past! (MT)
Road Schooling with the Tischers 