Grand Tetons National Park

After waking in Salt Lake City we visited another Whole Foods, and heading to the Grand Tetons. After having a classic American lunch of way too many wings, we checked in to our campsite home for two nights – Gros Ventre. We set up camp, had dumplings and went to bed. The next day was our big hike to Surprise Lake. This ended up being my favourite hike of the whole time. We worked our way up the Alpine Meadows track marveling at amazing views over the plateau and lakes of the Grand Tetons. The landscape changed from forest to alpine, to sheer rocky cliffs. We reached the stunning lake and had yum wraps for lunch lakeside. Grace hadn’t been feeling that great but had pushed through for the whole walk so far the little legend, so she sat by the lake as Ben, Scott, and I walked the last little bit to Amphitheater Lake. We met back up with Grace and headed back down. A couple passing us warned us of a black bear further down the track. I think they expected us to be scared but all of our faces lit up with excitement. We ended up spotting the bear itching its fluffy bum on a tree trunk and walking off. SO COOL. We got back into the car feeling the awesome kind of tired you get from exercise and headed back to camp for a very cold but epic dip in the river.

The next day we left our camp and drove to Lake Jenny – a beautiful crystal clear lake surrounded by lush pine forest. We got a boat across and walked around the lake back, stopping for a swim at a gorgeous little pebble beach. This walk was probably the most beautiful, and would have been perfect if a SNAKE HADN’T SLITHERED ACROSS MY FOOT. You heard me. It was brown and skinny. I’m ok though, thanks.

That night we stayed at Colter Bay Campsite and our friend, Chris, who Scott met on exchange in Canada arrived to spend about 30 hours with us. He drove 14 hours from Canada to spend 30 hours with us and drive back. Good guy. Colter Bay campsite was really cool and had the best general store, complete with real coffee.

The next day Scott, Chris and I did a 10 mile hike that was a bit average to be honest. Still, some good views, and good time to all catch up, and also, exercise is good. It also gave us ample time to plan our dinner for that night – mega nachos. You can see the pictures below, it was..mega. After we got back from the walk us three went swimming in the lake, then we all had a few wines, played cards (not me, I don’t really like cards), and slept.

Yellowstone National Park

The next day we all headed to Yellowstone. Chris and Scott left in Chris’s car to do a little exploring before Chris had to leave and Grace, Ben, and I went to check into Norris campground. We met up later at Canyon Village, Chris left, and we headed to hike Mt Washburn. This was a nice mellow 3 hour hike along a road, not a great walk itself but the views from the hut at top were amazing. That night and the following one were f-f-freezing. Like, other people in the campsite were walking around in ski gear. Our towels and Ben’s socks and undies that he left out were completely frozen in the morning.

The next day we hiked the 10 mile Howard Eaton Trail. We started pretty early and came across some Bison and deer thingys. This was again a really nice hike as the terrain changed a lot and there were hardly any people. Afterwards we drove to watch Ye Olde Faithful geyser blow her lid and got the second ice cream of the day.

The next day we dropped Grace and Ben in Yellowstone Village to get their flight that night, and Scott and I started our road trip to San Fran.