We're Back!

We've been on vacation the past week.

We took the camper and the jeep out to Wyoming and Idaho. I guess it rained a TON around here, but we had beautiful weather. (Makes me think of the Jimmy Buffett tune - "The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful...")

We left Friday after work, and drove through to Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota, and spent Saturday night. We took the jeep out for a tour of the 38 mile circle loop tour through the park. We did a few viewpoint hikes of 2 miles and less.

Lots of bison and prairie dogs to see, in addition to the visual treat of the badlands.

It was hotter than heck, though. 95 degrees.

We were glad to leave Sunday morning, and head out to Idaho. We headed out on I-94 to Bozeman, MT - then south through West Yellowstone. We stopped south of West Yellowstone to grab a quick geocache. Now, that was cool and refreshing after arid North Dakota!

We ended up at Grandview National Forest Service Campground in Idaho. It is on Lower Mesa Falls. It's a short hike from Upper Mesa Falls. These two falls are the last unrestricted falls in the Columbia river basin. There's a lovely little park at Upper Mesa Falls, with a boardwalk that lets you get right up to the falls. There's a visitor center made from an old inn.
We did a day of jeeping in the area. We went back into the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, and drove on some rough logging roads. We could drive all the way into Yellowstone National Park on some of these roads. The views were amazing.
After a few nights there, we moved on to Teton Canyon National Forest Service Campground, just down the road from Grand Targhee Ski Area in Wyoming. We got a cool, shady campsite in the tall pines. It got down to 35 degrees one night. brrrrr, Refreshing!

This was our breakfast coffee spot. We walked back about about 20 yards to this pretty little creek, sat on the edge, and watched as the sun emerged into the deep mountain canyon.

This campground was on the west side of the Tetons from Grand Teton National Park. We did more hiking in the area. We spent another day just sitting around in the campground, reading and spinning.

We've been to Grand Targhee many times, skiing, in the winter. This was our first trip to the area in the summer. We spent a day on the ski hill.

We took the Dreamcatcher lift to the top of the mountain, then hiked to Mary's saddle. We could see our campground!
It was a long hike down the mountain. We stopped and grabbed a geocache on the way down. Then home to the campground, and some good Moose Drool beer.

Friday we left our shady camp. We headed over Teton Pass to Jackson, WY and through Grand Teton National Park. Grand Teton had been our original destination, but we were glad we had been flexible and stayed on the west side. The amount of people and traffic congestion was tense and frustrating after our quiet week.

We drove to Shoshoni WY and were tired and hungry. We saw a sign, and decided to stop at Boysen State Park. Turns out there are many campgrounds in Boysen - we just stopped at the first one we saw. It's on a huge reservoir. We got a campsite right on the edge of the water. It was mostly local people, with big fifth wheel campers and boats. Lots of ATVs, too. Looked like a very popular weekend spot.
It was hotter than heck again - 95 degrees. It helped that there was a nice breeze off the water. We had a light supper, then settled in. Left early Saturday morning and drove straight through to home. Arrived home 4:30 am Sunday morning.

We came home on I-90, through the big Harley rally in Sturgis. (Now that could be an interesting post all by itself!)

I did do some spinning, knitting and crocheting. Still catching up on everything, along with returning to work today. I'll have to do that entry tomorrow...