Monday, June 21: Travel Day to Wyoming
The plan for the day was to get up relatively early, pack up our gear and head to The Flying Saddle Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was supposed to be about a 9 hour drive. Since it rained in the night, that slowed our packing a bit as we spent some time drying off the camper and canopy before we left. We had planned to get breakfast in nearby Custer and eat breakfast on the way. As we pulled into Custer, I filled up on gas and then drove on in search of food. We passed a Dairy Queen which didn’t seem appropriate for breakfast and next thing we knew we were out of town already. We had the trusty GPS search for food but the nearest food option was another 75 miles away! Oh, well. I guess we’ll be snacking on Chex Mix and Oreos until then.
In South Dakota we had become accustomed to seeing billboard after billboard. As we drove through eastern Wyoming there were literally none. No billboards, meant no businesses. No businesses meant no people. I was thinking about the movie Breakdown and thinking to myself, Please don’t breakdown here. Just to confirm my suspicions, we passed a town called Lost Springs with a population of 1.
Despite the fact it was desolate, the drive through Wyoming was really beautiful. As we rose in altitude the clouds seemed to hover right above you. Mule deer and prong horn were easy to spot and fortunately stayed out of the road. You also could see this plant that looks like the low level shrubbery that many people use as landscaping in front of their house. It was everywhere. Interesting rock structures were everywhere and the Rockies began to show on the horizon.
Don't drop the camera out the window, Jen!
The kids traveled well and didn't fight too much. They spent most of their time reading, playing DS, listening to their ipods, or watching movies. When I traveled out west years ago I mostly did one thing - sleep.
We finally made it to a place to eat in a town called Gillete, Wyoming at about 11:00. We stopped in a restaurant called the Village Inn and had a great Bob Evans-type breakfast for just $15. We tipped the helpful waitress extra for whispering a way to order to keep our bill low. We refueled and hit the road.
On the way in to Jackson, the elevation began to rise and rise. Our ears began to pop. The roads became curvier and steeper. Soon we noticed something we had not seen in a long time - snow!
We arrived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming around 7:00 and pulled into the Visitor's Center. They have a great Visitor's Center with tons of maps, guide books, brochures, and a really helpful staff. We asked one of the guides about Gros Ventre Campground where we were planning to stay in Jackson. We had pronounced it like "Gross Venture" but it was actually a French word and pronounced more like "Grow Vawnt." The guide talked to us a little and thoughtfully warned us about the bison, wolves, and bears (oh my!)
From there we traveled to the hotel. It was supposed to be in Jackson Hole when in reality it was in Alpine, WY another 25 miles away. Oops! Oh well, we've driven 9 hours, what's another 30 minutes going to hurt. The hotel (resort) was actually really nice and the kids couldn't wait to explore it in the morning.
The kids watched a little TV and then got ready for bed while Jen started some laundry. She did loads until 1:00 in the morning so we would have clean clothes when we camped. Everyone was pooped so we decided to sleep in a little the next day.
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