Day 74 & 75 - Grand Teton Village

Uncle Steve and Cousins Lanny and Landon were set to arrived today for a two week Yellowstone vacation amid my adventure. I did laundry, thoroughly cleaned my stinky shoes and converted my one-person camper van into a four-person voyage van. I rolled up the bed, broke down the second storage rack and raised the two middle seats in order to make space.

Steve and Lanny missed their connecting flight to Jackson and since the airline didn't fly to Jackson for two more days, they instead flew to Salt Lake City and took a bus up here, arriving 22 hours late. Cousin Landon's flight was on time at 9pm so I picked him up and we went down to Jackson for pizza and beer. The only pic of the day:

The next day Lanny and I set out to hike up to Taggart and Bradley lakes after a lazy morning. The weather was ideal for hiking at mid 60s and sunny. A "wind event" two days ago knocked over dozens of trees into the trail and Rangers were out with chainsaws clearing them. After Bradley Lake the trail climbs up 2000 vertical feet to a canyon cliff edge used as a climbing entrance to Grand Teton. The fallen trees and a lack of time blocked our progress so we turned back and drove on to Jackson to meet Steve and Lannny.

The travel-weary fellows seemed chipper and excited to be here despite their horrid 24 hours of travel cancellations and waitings. We celebrated their arrival with a tasty dinner and drinks at the Mangy Moose bar before walking around the mostly-empty mountain town of Teton Village in search of other party-goers. We walked through the beautiful Four Seasons hotel before enjoying a night-cap at The Spur bar just before it closed.

Comments

Day 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward. On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills. Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising. I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch). After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch. The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead. The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics. By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

Day 42 - Escalante Stevens Arch

The Stevens Arch is so massive that legend says daredevil pilots would fly through it. I was excited to see it! Having napped most of the afternoon, I awoke promptly at 545, packed up my things and hiked down to the Escalante River as the first morning light was pouring into the canyon. Hiking around more waterfalls and ledges and along the stream before anyone else was up was nice. My written directions said to look for sandy hill to my right which led up to my only exit from the canyon-- the Crack-in-the-Wall. I ran into the confluence of the Escalante River, a point which my guidebook noted was passed my exit route, requiring a ten minute backtrack. This was fine though because I had tons of time and wanted to see the Stevens Arch. I crossed the knee-deep Escalante River several times before the Arch came into view. Like a window in the Roman Colloseum, the Arch seemed almost engineered by man in this tall curving canyon wall. I hiked under the arch and couldn't eve...

Road Trip Daily

Search This Blog