On our first full day in Grand Teton National Park, we woke to amazing views out of the cabin window at the Jackson Lake Lodge.   We had a quick, but enjoyable, breakfast at the Pioneer Grill inside of the lodge.   From there we drove out to Jenny Lake for an early hike toward Inspiration Point.   We had already decided to skip the ferry across the lake, and good thing we did, as we were too early and it wasn’t open yet.   We detoured from the trail for a quick attempt to see Moose at the Moose Ponds, but didn’t have any luck.

The hike around Jenny Lake was very nice  and relatively flat.   The trail didn’t start gaining elevation until we approached Hidden Falls and then the short remainder  of the hike up to Inspiration Point.   We sat here and enjoyed the view for a bit.   Afterward, we decided to continue to hike up into the Cascade Canyon, which I am really glad we did.   It didn’t take long for the views of the Canyon to be really great.   It was already getting late in the day, and we were pretty tired, so we decided to take the ferry back toward our car, cutting out a couple of miles on the return hike.

Once back in the car, we drove out to Moose-Wilson Road hoping to spot some wildlife.   We were quickly rewarded with great views of a moose cow.   She was busy feeding in a pond and didn’t mind the crowd of photographers.   As we were starting to get hungry for dinner, we started the drive back north towards the lodge.   We stopped at Signal Mountain for a quick drive to the top for views of the Teton Valley.   While in the neighborhood, we decided to have dinner at the Trapper Grill inside the Signal Mountain Lodge.   The meal was good, with food much better in quality than what we had while in Yellowstone.   In fact, all meals at Grand Teton were better than Yellowstone’s.   After dinner we headed back to the room to rest up for another full day in the park.

Jackson Hole on Dwellable

We were able to sleep in a little at the Lehrkind Mansion, as breakfast wasn’t served until 8:30.   Actually we couldn’t really sleep in anyway, so we packed up the car before heading to the dining room.   There we met two other couples who had stayed the night and exchanged vacation stories and advice.   Shortly afterward, breakfast was served.   The owners of the bed and breakfast honored my request  for no omelet or egg heavy dishes, and we were served bowls of fresh fruit, pancakes with blueberries and peaches, and thick-cut pieces of bacon.   It was delicious!

After our breakfast we decided to swing past the Museum of the Rockies before leaving Bozeman.   It receives great reviews, and one of the Lehrkind owners praised the dinosaur exhibit.   I wasn’t expecting much for this museum, but I was completely blown away.      It houses the largest collection of dinosaur remains in the United States and possesses the largest Tyrannosaurus skull ever discovered.   I spent a good chunk of time in the dinosaur exhibit before realizing that there were other exhibits as well.   We had already spent hours inside, so I just briefly glimpsed at some of the other exhibits before it was time for the planetarium, featuring a movie about Mars.

Once we finally made it out of the museum, we started the drive back south toward the town of West Yellowstone via US-191.   Along the way we stopped in Big Sky for an appetizer and beer at the Lone Peak Brewery.   After our quick stop there we continued down to West Yellowstone, where we hopped on US-20 heading west into Idaho, which became my 48th visited state.   We continued south through  the Targhee  National Forest, before detouring  on to  the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway.   This not only provided views of Mesa Falls it also provided our first view of the Grand Tetons, though it was from quite a distance.

Before reconnecting back to US-20, we hopped on to  Idaho Route 32 through Drummond and then Route 33 through Driggs and Victor.   We stopped in Victor at the Grand Teton Brewing Company  for a few drinks in the tasting room.   While I sampled Black Cauldron Imperial Stout  and Trout Hop Black IPA, Kim enjoyed some Teton Jack Ginger Ale.   It was easily my favorite beer stop of the trip.   Afterward, we had dinner at the nearby Wildlife Brewing, which consisted of pizza and grizzly fries.   Once dinner was over, we continued south and then east over Teton Pass and into Grand Teton National Park.   We eventually made it to our hotel for the next few nights, Jackson Lake Lodge, just a little later than I originally expected.

Big Sky on Dwellable

Per usual, we woke up early on our fourth day inside Yellowstone National Park.   We packed the car, dropped of our room keys, and immediately drove down to the Hayden Valley.   There we were greeted  with some amazing views of the sunrise.   We didn’t see much wildlife activity so we left the area and drove over to the Mount Washburn area, which we were told is prime grizzly territory.   We completed the drive all the way to the road closing (due to the Antelope Fire) without seeing much wildlife, but that all changes once we turned around and started heading back down toward the Canyon Village.

I spotted an small  RV that was pulling to the side of the road, while the passenger was reaching a large camera out the window taking pictures.   We were passing on the other side, so I quickly parked the car and hopped out to see what it was.   I was shocked  when I realized it was a grizzly cub!   I sprinted back to the car as quick as possible, realizing that the mother grizzly must be somewhere nearby.   Once in the car, two cubs and their mom appeared right on the side of the road in front of us.   We watched them for well over five minutes, until a park ranger showed up to scare them back away from the road.   I captured some great pictures of the bears.

Before spotting the bears, we had decided to do a nearby hike to Cascade Lake.   We were a little hesitant to do it after the bear sighting, but we continued on to the trailhead and started the hike.   We didn’t see any more bears, just a few bison that were really close to the trail.   The hike was nice and flat and only around four and a half miles roundtrip.   It was a lovely day for a hike.   After the hike, we continued down to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which seemed like  the only part of the park that we hadn’t seen yet.   We spent some time viewing the waterfalls, taking short hikes to viewing points, and enjoying the nice views.   We ran out of time before we got to explore the south rim, but I feel like we saw enough of it.

With that we headed back for the car to start the drive to Bozeman, Montana.   We drove through a few parts of the park that we had already seen, including Mammoth Hot Springs, before reaching the northern entrance  at Gardiner, Montana.   The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, and we made it to Bozeman in a few hours, in time for our check-in at the Lehrkind  Mansion Bed & Breakfast.   I had never done the bed and breakfast thing before, but figured how bad could it be since the house was built  by  an old brewmaster  in the late 1800’s.   After settling in and cleaning up, we headed into downtown Bozeman for dinner.   We ended up at the MacKenzie River Pizza Company, which was awesome.   We also had an enjoyable stop at Montana Ale Works for drinks and desert before heading back to our room for the night.

Bozeman on Dwellable

We woke up early again on the third day in Yellowstone to get a start on a long car ride out to the Lamar Valley, one of the park’s premier wildlife viewing areas.   Normally it wouldn’t be a long drive from the Canyon Lodge, but the Grand Loop Road was closed  between Canyon and Tower-Roosevelt due to the still burning Antelope Fire.   We didn’t stop for breakfast, just snacked in the car along the way.   It didn’t take long on our drive for us to spot more bison and elk, as well as a group of trumpeter swans.   The morning sunrise provided some great photos.

Once we made it out to the Lamar Valley, we immediately saw a ton more bison, by far the largest herd  we had seen in the park.   Further down the road,  a group of  people  were all sitting at a roadside pullout with scopes pointing toward a nearby treeline.   We stopped to checked it out, and were told  that there was an animal carcass  at the treeline that had attracted both grizzlies and wolves in the past days.   We sat for a while hoping to catch a glimpse but left once it was too late in the day to expect much activity.

We then drove back toward Tower-Roosevelt and checked out the northern parts of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, along with Tower Falls.   Back on the road towards Mammoth we spotted a very playful coyote that provided some great photo opportunities  for a few minutes.   Back in Mammoth, we were greeted by a few elk who had claimed their place on the manicured lawns of town.   We stopped for lunch at the Mammoth Hot Springs Dining Room for what became the best meal we had in the park.       After lunch we walked around the Mammoth Hot Springs area before continuing the drive back south to make the loop toward Canyon.

Along the way we stopped at the Sheepeater  Cliffs, before driving all the way back down to the Hayden Valley.   As it was already approaching sunset, we were quickly greeted by a large herd of elk, along with a bull who appeared to be  the largest we had seen in the park.   We also spotted a few more coyotes while staking out the valley for wolves.   We did spot the same wolves as the night before, but again they were very far out and impossible to photograph.   To round out the night, we drove all the way down to the Lake Lodge Cafeteria for dinner.   Even without table-side service, this cafeteria proved to offer better food than available in the Canyon Lodge.   The drive back to Canyon was dark, but we still were able to spot more elk and coyotes along the way.   It was a great day of wildlife viewing.

Yellowstone on Dwellable

After waking up at the Old Faithful Inn on our second day inside of Yellowstone, we quickly grabbed breakfast at the Old Faithful Dining Room.   We rushed through eating so we could run outside and catch an early daylight eruption of the Old Faithful Geyser.   Unfortunately, the predicting clock inside the Inn was not accurately updated, so we only caught the tail end of the eruption.   To make sure we wouldn’t miss anymore eruptions, we next made a quick stop at the brand new Old Faithful Visitors Center, which predicts six of the many geysers in the geyser basin.

We were told that Daisy Geyser would be erupting soon, so we quickly walked the mile long trail to it.   We waited for around a half hour for the eruption which lasted a few minutes.   It was our first of multiple eruptions that we would catch.   From there we continued walking a little farther out to the Morning Glory Pool, the first of many colorful, bacteria filled, hot spring we would see.   We then continued to walk throughout the Upper Geyser Basin, taking the longer route back toward Old Faithful.   Once there we waited another fifteen or twenty minutes for another Old Faithful eruption.   Pictures don’t really do the geyser much justice, but it can shoot up to 180 feet in the air!

After having our fill of Old Faithful, we packed up the car and drove over to the Black Sand Basin area.   Before exploring that area, we actually walked back over to the Upper Geyser Basin that we had already seen, so that we could catch an eruption of  Riverside Geyser.   We found a nice place to sit and wait for Riverside, which is only predictable to within an hour or two.   While waiting we were fortunate to catch an eruption of Grotto Geyser, which was quickly followed by the Riverside eruption.   We didn’t get to see  a rainbow at Riverside, which is what makes it famous, but it was still another cool eruption to watch.   Having our fill of geysers for the day, we continued back to the Black Sand Basin area for a quick visit, and then on to Midway Geyser Basin.

The primary attraction at the Midway Geyser Basin is Grand Prismatic Spring, which is the park’s largest and deepest hot spring.   A friend told me that the view from the geyser basin wasn’t very good, but we decided to check it out anyway.   He couldn’t have been more correct though.   So we backtracked to the Fairy Falls Trailhead, for a two-mile roundtrip hike up to a ridge for unbelievable views of this very colorful thermal feature.   I would highly recommend this short hike for some of the coolest scenery you can see in the park.

From there it was on to the Lower Geyser Basin to check out the Fountain Paint Pot, and a few other geysers and pools.   The Fountain Paint Pot is a mud pot, which is basically a mud filled hole that has many vents through it causing the mud to create gooey bubbles.   Again, photos don’t compare to actually sitting and watching this feature for a few minutes.   It is by far the weirdest thermal area in the park.   From here we had definitely had our fill of thermals for the day, so we started the drive over toward the Canyon Village, where we would stay for the next couple of nights.

Along this drive we encountered  many bison, some of which were just standing in the middle of the road.   They seem  to be  completely fearless animals, but it provided for some nice photo opportunities.   We also made a couple of detours to check out the Firehole  Falls and Virginia Cascade, before finally reaching the Canyon Lodge.   After checking in, we ventured back out and drove south toward Hayden Valley, which is a great wildlife viewing spot.   We spotted many more bison along the way, and even some wolves far out in the distance.     Once the sun had set, we headed back toward Canyon and had a mediocre dinner at the Canyon Lodge Dining Room before retiring for the night completely exhausted.

West Yellowstone on Dwellable

We woke up early two Sundays ago to start the drive north to Yellowstone.   On the way up we decided to take I-25 to Casper and then US-20 all the way into the park through Thermopolis and Cody.   We had lunch at the Thermopolis Cafe, which was a nice little home cooking place.   We also stopped near Cody to check out the Buffalo Bill Dam.   From there it was  on to  Yellowstone, which we entered through the East Entrance station.

Once inside, we continued the drive along US-20 toward our destination for the night, the Old Faithful Inn.   We stopped along the way at the Lake Butte Overlook, Mary Bay, a hike along the Storm Point Trail, and some wildlife spottings  around the Fishing Bridge Junction and the West Thumb Geyser Basin.   Eventually me made it to the inn, though it was a little later than I was expecting it to be.   The park had already captivated us and we had only just begun.   Fortunately we were able to catch an eruption of Old Faithful just after sunset, before having dinner at the Old Faithful Inn Dining Room.   From there it was off to get some sleep for an early morning again the next day.

Cody on Dwellable

Last week Kim and I traveled through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.   We also made stops along the way in Bozeman, Montana and Victor, Idaho, my forty-seventh  and forty-eighth visited states.   Idaho was also Kim’s forty-eighth visited state.   Now we both have Oregon and Delaware left to see to complete the full fifty.   Here is a map showing the route we took and some of the places we visited along the way.

View Yellowstone in a larger map

I have a bunch of pictures on my camera, but I haven’t had the time to start sorting through them yet. I will slowly post them over the next week or two, as I did with our trip to Alaska last year. For now here are a few videos that I took on our first full day inside of Yellowstone.

Old Faithful:

Riverside Geyser:

Fountain Paint Pot:

Wyoming on Dwellable

While back in Cincinnati I also got the chance to see the WEBN Fireworks  for the first time in a while.   My family used to head down to the Serpentine Wall early each Sunday morning  before Labor Day with blankets, games for entertainment, and a bucket of chicken.   The seating on the wall is a prime location  for watching the fireworks which are launched  from barges on the Ohio River.   From this viewpoint, you are seated  just over 500 feet from the fireworks launching position on the barges.   Needless to say it is very loud, but well worth it for the gorgeous view of the fireworks.   Here is a video I shot with my iPhone during the finale of the show.

You know it’s loud when the microphone on your phone stops working! I didn’t have anything other than my camera phone, so I left the real picture-taking for my mom. Also included in this photo set are photos from the second baby shower over at Kim’s parents’ house.

Kim and I traveled back to Cincinnati over the weekend.   Our families hosted a couple of baby showers for the ladies  on both Saturday and Sunday.   Saturday was at my parents house, while Sunday was at the Hais’ house.   Many of the guys got together on Saturday afternoon to play a quick round of golf before heading over to my parents for a mini Pig-Fest  party.   My parents decided not to have their annual summer blowout this year, and instead had a small family gathering with pulled pork sandwiches, cornhole, and a giant TV screen to watch videos and football.

Despite not having a band, wiffle  ball, or other Pig-Fest staples, we had a great time.   It was definitely way more low-key than past parties, but I think many people enjoyed that.   Time will tell if my parents will go back to having a big “Pig” but I’m hoping that they do.   How can our future child never experience one of these legendary parties?   Here are some pictures my mom took from the baby shower and mini Pig-Fest.

After celebrating our friends’ wedding in Newport, Rhode Island, we spent the next day exploring parts of Connecticut.   Rhode Island was my forty-fourth visited state, and Massachusetts was number forty-five, making Connecticut number forty-six.   Rather than taking the interstate between Newport and Mystic, CT, we drove the entire way on highway 1, which included a couple of scenic moments.   It wasn’t nearly as pretty as I had hoped, but it was better than the highway, which we later took back to Providence for our flight out.

Our friends Tracey and Kevin came along for the adventure in Connecticut.   Our first stop was for lunch at the famous Mystic Pizza.   Prior to our trip I had never heard of the movie with the same name, but I was able to view clips of  it on the restaurants TV sets  as we enjoyed some pizza.   It wasn’t the best pizza I had ever had, but it was good enough to satisfy a very hungry group of four.   After lunch we decided to check out the Mystic Seaport.   Admission was a little pricey, but once inside I realized there was a full day of entertainment available.   It was a little hot for my liking, but we gave our best effort to see as much as we could and actually stayed all the way until closing.

After the Seaport, Kevin decided to start his drive back to New Jersey, leaving Tracey to explore with us for the rest of the day.   Eventually we made our way over to our hotel in the nearby town of New London, and after getting settled, decided to drive back over to Mystic for dinner at the Captain Danial  Packer Inne Restaurant and Pub.   After checking out the upstairs menu, we decided to eat at the more casual downstairs pub.   Fortunately many of the dishes served upstairs are also available downstairs and at a discounted price.   This was another of my favorite meals!   The Lemon Peppered Chicken was delicious.

The next day we explored the boardwalk of another nearby town called Niantic.   Part of the boardwalk was closed, but we still enjoyed the limited time on the rocky shores of this tiny town.   We had one last meal at Dad’s Restaurant before making our way back to Providence for our flights out-of-town.   We had a great time exploring New England, and I’m happy that there are now only four states remaining that I have not yet visited.

Mystic on Dwellable