Our trip to Jackson / Rexburg

Each year we try to incorporate two activities into one week since they are across the mountains from each other; going to Jackson and then BYU-Idaho education week. We left Monday and arrived at our yearly campground at Hoback. For the 2nd year in a row we got camp site #2 right next to the river. We set up the tent trailer and no sooner than it was all set up there was a downpour. It was amazing and we were nice and dry.

It cleared up in twenty minutes and then we read for a little bit then off to the first evenings event; dinner and a show at the Bar J. It never disappoints. We stood in line next to a couple from Ohio and it was their first time to the Bar J. So we talked about lots of things and what to expect. We got our table, went and had a dutch oven biscuit and saw the only bear and moose that we would see and then played games.

We set across from two couples from Pinedale, Wyo. The one does a pitchfork steak fry in Pinedale that we will have to try.  Then the show started and we laughed and enjoyed the music.

The next morning we were in no hurry so we read for a little while next to the river.

The fireweed was in bloom in the camp ground and the humming birds were flying around.

We then went into the Grand Teton Park. We decided to do some new things so we rode our bikes for awhile and then got to a trailhead to Taggert Lake and did a hike. Each step brought us closer to the mountains and  some great views of Grand Teton Peak.

 

There were more great views along the trail and wildflowers were out.  

We came to an overlook onto Taggert Lake. We decided to rest there for a while.

We then headed back but would stop and look at the mountains. This photo looked up one of the canyons and I zoomed in on one waterfall. 

We then had lunch at Lilly Lake. Then we took a bike ride along the one way road to Jenny Lake.

Once we reached the end of the one way road the bike trail also ended  so we had to make our way back to the car on the main road. It was a 7 mile bike ride. As Cindy said, half the ride was beautiful and the other half not so fun. 

We then took a dirt road from Moose to Teton Village. We came across some elk while we were doing this drive. We then went to camp had dinner and mark this down; I won scrabble. 242 points to 231. Oh what a day.

Wednesday we left to spend a day in Yellowstone. We had a different view of the Tetons on  our way to Yellowstone. We had some time to take pictures as there were three road construction projects that we had to wait for.

 We stopped and had lunch near the continental divide.

We then stopped to Belcher Falls.

Next we got our bikes out and rode to Lone Star Geyser. We had never been here before as it was off the beaten path. We arrived at the geyser just as it was going off. We found out however this was just the first stage of its eruption.

After waiting 25 minutes the main eruption goes off and it lasted for almost 20 minutes. 

We stayed for the whole time until the last puff of steam was seen. It would be three hours before it would go off again.

We made our way back to the car going along the Belcher River.

The next stop was Old Faithful. We arrived in time to watch it go off without much wait.

From there we got on our bikes and went down the path to get to Daisy Geyser just as it was going off. We waited till it was done.

We then rode our bikes on a dirt trail that goes from Daisy to another area. We followed the trail in a loop and came across some hot springs along the side of the trail.

We made our way back and passed Castle Geyser. It went off before we could get up close. We then continued on and saw another one go off  and then it was off to to Old Faithful to watch it go off again.

After that we headed to the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake to a geyser basin there. We had dinner first and a large bull elk came walking through.

After he passed we went along the lake edge were this geyser/ hot spring area is and saw some more elk.

We got to the car to head back to camp and it started to rain. We traveled through the storm and turned back to see a double rainbow.

We got back to the Tetons at dusk and took this picture from Jackson Lake and then the other picture from the Oxbow of Mt. Moran.

Thursday was time to pack up and head over to Rexburg and education week. We traded in out camping for a hotel in Idaho Falls.

We met Tammy at BYU -Idaho and had a few classes in the afternoon. They had a picnic in the evening in the middle of campus and Heart Bound sang for everyone there.

 During their performance there was a photographer going around documenting the events of the week. He took a couple pictures of us; one of which made the Saturday slide show they held prior to the devotional  of the weeks events.


On the way to our hotel in Idaho Falls we had a wonderful sunset.

Friday was classes all day long.

 In the evening was the Nashville Tribute Band. They were great and near the end of the performance they talked about an awesome mission president that they had in Nashville and about his wife who had a heart attack and stroke and that it was a miracle that she had survived. They then said that they were there tonight and wanted the family to come to the stage and sing with them. It was Bill and Renae, Cindy's old college roommate. They just got home that Monday. We were so excited because after they sang they sat not too far away from us. After the show we got to talk with them and told them how great it was to see them and how we had prayed for them and learned from them. This was one of those tender mercies because even if we went up to their home coming we would not of had as much time to talk with them as we did this night. It was a great end to a perfect day and a week of activities.