I feel like we've traveled a ton in the last few months! We'd planned this family trip before we found out about New Zealand, but it really felt like I'd only just gotten up packed and then I got repacked again for our summer family trip! Our first destination was Craters of the Moon National Monument.
Can you see how windy it was?? The cool temperature + wind + cloud cover made it feel very cold. The kids didn't love that. We tried to hike to the top of this giant volcanic cone/mound, but the wind kept getting stronger the higher we went up, so we stopped about half way and ran back to the car.
We instead visited some nearby spatter cones. We climbed one of them that had a bit of shelter from the wind, but opted not to attempt the others because the kids were having none of that.
Dewdrop Cave was not terribly large, tall enough to stand up in but not very deep.
We carried on a bit further, passing several other craters before arriving at Indian Tunnel
Laszlo and Arthur were a bit scared of the darkest cave (it was totally pitch black in there) but overall I think everyone loved it. Laszlo even said it was his favorite thing of the whole trip.
By the time we'd finished exploring Indian Tunnel, the sun came out! Hallelujah. After scrambling over rocks and climbing around caves, our bodies were feeling much warmer too, so there was significantly less complaining.
Our drive back was rather stressful. Let's just put it this way, we now know how low the battery in our car can get and still stay on the road. It's a good thing to know, but not exactly something you want to have to learn. But when remote, rural chargers turn out to not work...you do what you must. So we drove to Idaho Falls and visited a riverside rock garden and ate dinner while our car was plugged in. Paul has requested we visit this same park and restaurant again, so, silver lining, I guess it was a pretty fun stop.
Arthur really loved this bear at the restaurant. He wanted a photo with it so badly.
We made it back to our Pocatello hotel for bedtime and the next morning we checked out and headed to our next destination: Lava Hot Springs. This is gonna sound like a totally stupid thing to say but... the hot springs were too hot.
There was one pool that was a normal hot tub temperature, but all the rest were 105F or higher. The hottest was 112F. Even though it was only 50F outside, none of us could stay in the hotter pools, even just sticking our feet in for very long at all. As a result, we didn't last as long in the pools as I had hoped. But we did have a nice picnic lunch at the park across the street. After lunch we walked around the Sunken Gardens that are right next to the hot springs.
Walking around the garden was really nice, even the kids liked running along all the different paths.
We finished our drive up to Jackson Hole, and made it to our hostel in Teton Village by dinner time.
Teton Village is basically a ski resort. There's just a bunch of hotels and rich people vacation homes and one hostel for the less pretentious skiers. I'm not gonna lie, for what it was it was very expensive. But it is literally the cheapest place to stay in Teton Village and one of the cheapest in the Jackson area. There was a lot of fridge space and an outdoor grill, so we were able to cook our own food. After dinner we went for a walk to explore the area.
We found a playground. What more could you ask for?
The next day we decided to stay in Teton Village and avoid driving (we'd done plenty of driving for the last few days) Besides, where we were going, we didn't need roads. We needed a tram capable of making a 4,000 ft elevation change in 10 minutes.
We got lift tickets so we could use the trams and gondolas and head up to the mountain tops.
I'm not sure if it's obvious, but it was pretty chilly up there. Still lots of snow in mid-late June.
At over 10,000 ft above sea level, the air is noticeably thinner. But it does provide a fantastic opportunity for hang gliding. We saw people on the tram with enormous packs on their backs, once we got to the top it became clear what they were for:
ride the tram, unpack your gear, and then just jump off a cliff. It looked like a lot of fun.
We didn't indulge in any extreme sports. We did indulge in waffles. There is a waffle restaurant at the top on the mountain and it was delicious.
I think the kids liked the tram ride more than being out on a cold mountain top, but the views were fantastic for both.
The lift ticket allowed for unlimited rides all day, we did ride the tram twice and after that we hopped on the Sweetwater gondola. It didn't go up nearly so high, but we did get to ride in our own little car and stay on as long as we wanted.
We found there was a playground at the midpoint stop of the gondola, so we hopped off the check it out. I'm glad we did because it rocked.
There were several different little playground structures, swings, and slides all nestled under these lovely pine trees. The kids had a blast.
But Arthur's favorite was the old Jackson Hole tram. It just sits on the ground near the tram departure point, he just wanted to play tram driver all day.
After a dinner break we took an evening ride up the Bridger Gondola. This one goes up really high, but not quite as high as the tram.
The kids will tell you that the best part of this stop was the green gondola car. All the gondolas are red except ONE. It's green and has recycling symbols on it. As soon as they saw that it exists, they were begging, "Mom, can we please ride the green one?" So we waited at the top watching for the green gondola to come back. And it was a long wait, probably at least 20 minutes. But they were determined and just ridiculously excited when we saw the green one coming up the mountainside.
The next morning it was back to the car for a moderately short drive to Grand Teton National Park. The drive was short, but had to pass into and out of the park twice, which meant waiting in line at two different pay stations. We headed to Jenny Lake, which was very busy, planning to take the ferry boat across the lake, but with the long lines for the boat (over an hour wait) I decided we were hiking around to the other side of the lake instead. I figured we could do it in an hour, and I'm pretty sure I was right.
Did my kids love that I made them do extra hiking? No. But I think the scenery was worth it. Next time we'll have to just borrow canoes or something.
Once we got to the other side of the lake, Paul was ready to be done. I told him we still needed to do a little bit of hiking to get to Hidden Falls and I think I just about broke he spirit with that news.
But it really was very close and it was a pretty fantastic waterfall.
I had wanted to go to inspiration point, but we had used up a lot of kid energy and good will on the hike around the lake, so we stopped about halfway up.
To be fair, I felt pretty inspired with just that much height, so no regrets.
We decided we'd ride the ferry back across the lake, just doing a one way trip. So we hiked along the river back to the boat dock.
There was still a substantial line to get on the ferry, but the kids were adamant about waiting and not doing anymore walking.
On the one hand, it was a 40 minute wait. On the other hand, the views from the boat were pretty fantastic.
We topped off on snacks and said good-bye to Jenny Lake.
We made a stop off to see some historic pioneer structures, nicknamed "Mormon Row". I believe the big barn has been called the most photographed building in the country. I don't know if that's true, but it does seem like a popular place for all sorts of photographers.
The view is so beautiful, even my monstrous monkeys couldn't ruin the shot.
The challenge is to frame shots so as to cut out all the instagram models that will inevitably be in the background.
We had, by this point, used up the children's good will. We decided to get some pizza for dinner to buy some of it back. Paul wasn't thrilled to be sitting outside to eat. In fairness, it had been pleasant and overcast. As soon as we sat down the sun came out and the gentle breeze stopped, making it much less pleasant than it had been.
We were at a restaurant right by the snake river, so we walked down to the water after we finished eating. This used to be a ferry landing apparently. Lee and I wanted to see the historic ferry buildings across the river, the kids didn't, so we compromised.
Once on the other side of the river, we parked and let the kids sit in the car and watch a movie while we walked around. They rolled down all the windows and propped a door open so the movie would keep playing.
We had a nice, quiet time reading all the signage and the kids had a nice time not walking. Win, win.
Back at the hostel, movies, and billiards abound. I'm pretty sure the boys would have preferred to never go anywhere else at all.
We checked out of the hostel the next morning, but we weren't quite done with our vacation yet. I was planning on a hike to Taggart Lake, but we first made a stop at a little river overlook where moose are commonly spotted and we found one! Huzzah!!
Here is a veritable bouquet of wild flowers that I collected on our various hikes in Teton. I much prefer this form of flower picking than the physical type.
After some thought and map searching, we decided to hike to Phelps Lake instead of Taggart Lake. It was a little closer (no exiting and re-entering the park) and a bit less crowded because trail access is from the Rockefeller preserve.
The trailhead/visitors center parking lot is not large and there is no parking allowed on the side of the road. Apparently that was a demand from good ol' Laurance S. Rockefeller himself. He didn't want it to feel too crowded. We didn't actually have to wait very long before a spot opened up. Lucky us!
I said earlier that Laszlo's favorite was the caves and tunnels, well it was his favorite. Until this happened:
A fuzzy caterpillar crawled onto his shoe. That was a show stopping moment, better than seeing moose or exploring a cave. A caterpillar.
Somewhere along our way we crossed paths with a ranger who alerted us to the presence of a young male black bear in the area. He made sure the kids knew what to do if we saw a bear and knew to stay close to us, not getting far ahead or behind the adults. Spoiler alert: we didn't see a bear. Our kids are good at one thing: making lots of noise. If that bear had been nearby, it wouldn't stick around with that unholy racket moving ever nearer. He clearly made the wise choice to escape before we got too close.
The lake was cold. but we didn't let that stop us from wading. It was a beautiful spot for a little rest, but the presence of bears made it less than ideal for snacking. We didn't want to accidentally leave human food for the guy to munch on.
It was a very quiet area, especially compared to Jenny Lake the day before, and the trail wasn't too difficult. Once we'd finished our hike we started our drive home. It was a nice change of pace to be up in the mountains where it isn't so hot, and we got to spend a little more time in Grand Teton than on our last visit.
