Jackson Hole Vacation - Part 1

This weekend Peter and I took Friday and Monday off to go up to Jackson Hole, WY for a little vacation.  We had a blast.

Thursday

We left just after work on Thursday evening to drive the 5ish hours up to Jackson.  We were disappointed that we weren't able to find our traditional road trip departure Icee's at either the gas station where we stopped to fuel up or the one across the street!  We had a little detour when we got off the freeway one exit too late for the good dinner stop and then couldn't find a way to get back on, but we eventually found both a Wendy's to eat at and an on-ramp to get back on the freeway. 

The classic 'we just left' picture.

We decided to take the scenic route, rather than taking I-15 most of the way up, so there was a little overlook shortly after we left town where we stopped to take a picture!

I had already taken my shoes off, so Peter gave me a
piggy-back ride to take the picture.

We had slightly poor planning in that we left a little later than planned, so it got quite dark before we arrived.  We were quite concerned about hitting deer up in the back roads of Wyoming, especially since we already had a run-in with a Kamikaze deer in Texas last year when we went to visit my brother's family for Spring break, so the last hour of the drive was a little nerve-wracking.  Luckily, we hit no wildlife and made it safely to our hotel.

Sunset at a gas station where we stopped for a potty-break
and to clean bugs off of the windshield.   (We had a ton!)

Friday

First thing Friday morning, we had our breakfast-scenic float-white water rafting-combo adventure!  We started with a scenic float down the river, stopped at a campsite for a hot breakfast, then got back on the river for white-water rafting!!!

I realized in the car I had forgotten my hoodie, and it was in the upper 40s, lower 50s at 7am when we arrived for our tour.  We knew it would be even cooler on the water, so we bought our first souvenir of the trip-a Jacksonville, white-water rafting hoodie!

Before-the-water selfie!

For the scenic part of the trip, they told us we could bring cell phones and cameras, so we got to take some pictures on the water.

On-the-water-selfie!

I kicked myself the whole way down the river, though, because I grabbed my camera but didn't realize until I started taking pictures from the boat that I would want my telephoto lens!  There was so much wildlife that could be seen from the river, but I couldn't get close enough pictures to make them stand out.  I tried to trim down the pictures to focus on the wildlife, but if you don't see anything at first, look closer!

I didn't trim this one because the deer looks so majestic
with the mountain behind it!

(P.S. there are actually two deer in that picture-see if you can spot the second one!)

((hint: check the bottom left corner))

Just  a pretty landscape with morning
sun shining on the water 

Bald Eagle 

Bald Eagle Nest

We were running ahead of schedule, so we stopped to take a little hike to see this old WWII tank that was left out in the middle of the woods.  Apparently it was used to haul mining equipment and workers up to mines that used to be in the area, and when it broke down they didn't have anyone to fix it, so they left it there.

Btw, I think it's time for a disclaimer: our river guide loved to make up stories to see if he could trick us.  I think I was able to sort fact from fiction, but I could be wrong.  

More scenery

Osprey

As an example of one of our guide's made up stories, he told us that Ospreys like to nest on top of power line poles because they had learned to harness the static electricity to shock the fish they were catching.

We stopped at camp and had a yummy breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and fruit.  

These were the tents they used 

Inside the Tent

One of these startled me as I was walking along the path at
camp.  We later learned these ground squirrels are
everywhere up there.

We decided to purchase some pictures a photography company called Floatographs took of us.  So, photo-creds to them!

Peter sat in the front of the boat and got absolutely soaked!  I got pretty wet, too, but he was drenched.

After-the-water selfie!

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was around 1:30pm.  We took our time to shower and get dressed before going to down-town Jackson.  We wandered around a little, perusing shops and looking for a good lunch spot.  We also took some pictures at the George Washington Memorial Park downtown.

We finally decided to eat at Sidewinder's, and it was good enough that we went back later.  Mainly we went back for this little beauty you see below - a soft pretzel with mozzarella cheese inside.  Yum! 

After lunch, we were both tired, so we headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a little while.  We went back down town around 6pm for the "Gun Fight" show at town square.  It was really cheesy, and we weren't as impressed as we could have been.  (And our expectations really aren't that high haha) But here are some pictures, anyway :)

We wandered around a bit more downtown.  We both wanted ice cream and decided to try Moo's, which was a local ice cream place that made their own ice cream.  We tested a few flavors, but had a hard time finding ones we really liked.   We both finally picked something, but we were rather disappointed with our ice cream cones.  This was probably the only disappointing part of our vacation.  

However, we wandered town a little more and found a bookstore where both of us were able to find a new book to read (of course!).  This saved the evening because we went back to the hotel and read, which cheered us both up.

Stay tuned! Part II coming soon!