Day 63 - Grand Tetons
I think I have to start this blog out by telling about our night. We had gotten to bed around 11:30. The setup was for me and the 5 kids to sleep in our tent and Gretchen to get a nice quiet night in the camping cabin. Again the MT/WY weather surprised us. As the night started to pass on we noticed that it seemed to continue to get colder. Remember it is the end of July and in any other normal state in the south you would never catch me in a tent because I can’t stand to sweat in my sleep. That was not the case here. I think it got down to at least 40 or below. No one brought winter pajamas and we all woke up with our heads inside our sleeping bags. Rebecca, Caleb, Sarah and I didn’t sleep very well.
This day our plan was to take a trip to the Grand Tetons which was about 2 hours below Yellowstone. As we traveled south we saw the entrance to Old Faithful and couldn’t resist so we stopped and it was going to be an hour before it went off so we got back in the car and headed for the Tetons. The Tetons are amazing in size and vastness. We stopped at the lake that reflects them and had lunch.
After lunch we continued down the road getting better views of the different peaks of the Tetons. The Grand Teton is around 13k feet above sea level (amazing). We found the visitor center and got some information on where we might see some wildlife. Part of that information was that there was a lake that had a beach. Being from the south and missing the beach this summer sent us straight to this spot. This was a beautiful lake that sat at the bottom of the Grand Teton and there were lots of people swimming, wind surfing and canoeing.
As we traveled out of the Grand Teton National Park we were still amazed at their height and amazing beauty. There was a glacier on one of them (our 2nd one of the summer). We traveled back into the Yellowstone and tried to see Old faithful one more time but again it was going to be more than an hour before it went off so we got back in the car and headed to the KOA campground.
We got to the campground at a decent hour and found that a new bus of kids had moved in across from us and a rodeo was going on outside the campground. We got out our handy grill and had some good old fashioned hot dogs and hamburgers. Afterwards the boys spent some time putting together wood in just the right formation to start a great campfire. Of course, if you have a campfire you have to have smores. We finally got everyone to bed around 10:30 at least an hour earlier than the previous night.