Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier and more!

Amid all of the craziness of Covid-19 we decided to take a vacation anyway!  Paul pretty much decided he needed to have some time away from work and the heat.  I was certainly willing to go along with him!  (School will be starting back up soon.)  So we planned some of it and winged some of it and it turned out to be a great get away to cool and beautiful places.  

We left Tuesday afternoon, July 22nd, and got home yesterday, Tuesday, July 28th, late in the evening.  We spent the night at Jay and Brynn's that night and then we were off to the Tetons.  We got to our hotel too early to check in (at Pinedale Wyoming), so we just changed our clothes in a roadwork garage along side the road and took off for Teton NP.  It was so breathtaking when we got there.  The huge peaks come straight up out of the Jackson Hole Valley - a geological thing caused by plate tectonic movement.  We saw all of the sites we had time to see that day,  including hiking to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point - 5+ miles) and drove back to our motel very late that night in a rainstorm.  We ate dinner in the car along the way.  It was all so beautiful!  The next morning (Thursday) we got  up and went back to finish up in the Tetons by driving the park loop and picnicking along a side road that we had pretty much to ourselves.  We loved it!  (We went to Signal Peak and Mormon Row as well.)

Then we drove on the Yellowstone and decided to see a part of the park less traveled that we had never been to before - the West Thumb Geyser Basin.  It was really cool with lots of different kinds of geothermal things along the side of Yellowstone Lake - which is huge.  This was an area neither of us had ever seen.  We should have had more time planned for Yellowstone.  We drove part of a loop to see more things.  We loved seeing a little part from the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - Upper Falls.  Some of that loop was closed for road construction.  Then we just had to drive by a lot of cool things to get back to our motel for the night.  Still, we loved what we did get to see there.  We'll just have to go back for more at some future date.  The rainbow on the way back to the motel was glorious!

Friday - this was a long day of driving to get over to our next activity - The Route of the Hiawatha - Scenic Rail to Trail bike ride.  It included All downhill 15 mile ride with shuttle back to top/10 tunnels and 7 sky high trestles...all through a beautiful mountain forest.  We drove to stay the night at Thompson Falls for the night.  It was again, a little bit far from our activity, but worked out very well.  The motel was pretty small, but we had good dinner at a little local joint sitting outside by the river to eat.  Afterward we walked a trail across the river to see a cool dam, fish ladder set up and just enjoyed a beautiful walk on an island in the river after a long day of driving.  

We got up early Saturday morning to drive over Thompson Pass to Lookout Pass across the border to Idaho to pick up bikes and get started on our ride.  We took our time and stopped at nearly every historical railway marker along the way.  We ate lunch at one stop and then finished up the ride in the early afternoon.  Oh, along the way over Thompson Pass we saw a moose alongside of the road.  It ran away too fast to be photographed.  Also, on the drive over we tried to stop in at the Sweets Palace in Phillipsburg, but it was such a popular tourist stop they were lined up and we didn't really want to stand in line with so many people.  Another time on that one.  The bike ride was so much fun!  Of course, downhill is always nice and it was that.  The forest was beautiful and the tunnels, especially the one that was just over a mile long, were really a cool (literally) experience.  Crazy dark in that super long one.  In some of the very short ones you didn't need a light, but most of the time you wanted to use your light.  The trestles were amazing - a little disconcerting being so high, but awesome.

  

After the ride we headed over to Kalispell, Montana for two nights. Along the way we enjoyed the hay fields and stopped to see this old Mission.  It's a cool town - we especially liked the beautiful old homes section near our motel and went for a walk one night to enjoy it.  

Sunday morning we got on our way early to go to Glacier.  We messed up our directions with Siri and ended up at the wrong park entrance after a long drive on a dirt road and had to backtrack to get to the right one. Other than that, it was a really beautiful day.  We had an APP that gave great tour directions at all of the parks.  We drove almost the whole Going To the Sun road (the end was closed for road work) and stopped off to do the Three Falls hike and the Hidden Lake hike (boardwalk section) and also stopped in at other beautiful things to see along the way.  We did the Trail of the Cedars too!  All amazing and beautiful.  We found a picnic spot along the river and warmed up chili and had good stuff to go with it for dinner and then headed back to Kalispell for another night.  

Monday was a driving day - and we stopped at Lava Hot Springs planning to go to the hot springs...but it was 92 degrees, so we opted to rent a river tube and did a couple of times down the little river in town.  It was so cool, refreshing and fun!  Then we were off to our motel in Montpelier...which was the worst of the trip, but the town did have a really cool round brick tabernacle.  Other than that, it was a depressing little dying town it seemed like.  

Tuesday we planned our route home with some backroad fun.  We drove through Paris Idaho to see their beautiful Stone/brick tabernacle and then to Minnetonka Cave.  It was really neat.  We had to wear a mask, but they had downed the group size for the tours to only 9 people, so that made it much easier to hear the guide and ask questions.  It was really great for us.  After that we drove to Garden City by Lake Bear Lake and had a very expensive, but good lunch complete with raspberry shakes.  And then it was time to head home...we did back roads, including the Mt. Nebo Loop, until Nephi and then hit it on I-15 to get home about 10:00.  

It was a great trip!  We also listened to some great books and to our Sunday Lesson along the way.  So glad we were able to do this last get away before I head back to school!  So fun to enjoy some couple time and just deciding along the way what to do for the last bit of the trip.  (PS -  We tried to work on our selfie skills, but sometimes we just didn't get it...and those are some of the funniest shots ever!)