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Day 8 – Yellowstone to Tetons and back

Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park

This is our 4th and final day at the wonderful West Yellowstone Grizzly campground which we grade a 5-star class resort campground.? On our 8th day of vacation but 4th day at Yellowstone we left the campground and drove down to the Tetons via Yellowstone and came out the South entrance.? We had paid $30 for a weeks entrance fee to Yellowstone which covered our fee to the Tetons NP as well.

Welcome to Tetons National Park
Welcome to Tetons National Park

This was supposed to be a 2.5 hour trip, but due to road construction and wildlife sitings it took closer to 3 hours to get to the entry of the Tetons NP.?? There was a very nice young couple that asked us to take their photo together at the sign, and they reciprocated. with the photo here.? The park had been highly recommended, and it was obvious why once we got to the point where we could see the sharp snowy mountains the the clear calm lakes below.? It really was breathtaking.

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We arrived in the Tetons National Park around 1:00 pm local time and had lunch at a first class diner in the Signal Mountain Lodge.? The service was good and food was even better.?? They had a few things that Steven could eat as well.? We had a blackberry pie for dessert which was AWESOME.?? The waiter didn’t understand what blackberry cobbler was, so he wanted to clarify that this would be pie, not cobbler :-)??? I was happy with either.

We consumed about a 1/2 tank of gas making the round trip which consisted of an outer Yellowstone return to West Yellowstone Grizzly campground. ? It took about 3 hours to get there, and we visited for about 3 hours, and the return trip was a bit longer since we took the long way back to see different scenery. ? We saw more real life scenery coming back through Idaho back into Montana.?? There were ranches, farms, and fields of “mint” that smelled wonderful.? We didn’t know what it was at first, but the aroma and a little google searching confirmed it was mint.

Please enjoy a few of the photos we took from today below.

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Day 7 Yellowstone – zip line and white water rafting

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Today was the day to do what our son had selected as his adventure for the trip.? When we were planning and budgeting, I told him that if he was going to some of the RV driving and all the toad driving at each destination on our “tour-de-America” trip, then I would join him on his selection.
He selected zip lining and white water rafting.? He signed up for both of us to do the zip lining first while the morning was still cool in the mountains.? The plan was for us to do the white water rafting adventure in the afternoon when the sun had heated the day up (but the water was still ice-cold).?? I am not a high adventure kind of guy.? My idea of high adventure is to try to beat the crowd to the buffet.
all-on-the-platform-smallWe selected Montana WhiteWater in Gardiner Montana because they offer both adventures from the same location. ? They are located just outside the North entrance at Yellowstone in a small little town of 600 population. ? This was about 2 hours from our west side campground but is still a breathtaking view of scenery and wildlife.
Our zip line guides were Chris and Libby and they couldn’t have been better.? They made it seem like there was nothing to it and inspired confidence in even this old fat man.? One guide would go first to make sure to catch us as we get to each stop platform.? The other guide then would stay with us and make sure we were each properly connected to the line and send us off and join the group last at each landing.
The one detail that the didn’t tell us is that when we arrived at the last platform which was 60 feet off the ground, there are no steps to get down.?? We had to free jump with nothing but a rope inside a self breaking pulley mechanism.? This old fat man did not like that part as it was a free fall for the first 1/2 the way down, then it worked by slowing you down before you hit the ground.? Clearly since I am writing this article, I lived to tell about it.
The white water adventure was later in the day after the sun had heated the day up.? The water was still around 50 degrees, but the company provided wet suites, and vinyl pull over coats that provided adequate insulation from the water.?? That made the trip much more enjoyable.
use-this-one-3There were 4 rafts that took the tour at the same time with each raft having its own guide.? I found this to be fun once we were headed down the Yellowstone river.? This adventure to me was much more like work as we had to carry the raft to the river from the bus.? Then we had to do a lot of paddling forward and back during most of the trip.?? I was quite tired and am now sore as a result of this activity.? However, All-in-all, it was fun.