North by Northeast–A Weekend in Idaho and Wyoming

Another weekend, another chance to explore…

This past weekend, we planned to meet Susan’s sister (Laura) and her family while they were on their annual vacation to Montana.  The meeting location was planned to be somewhere in SE Idaho, which just happens to be in a beautiful area of the country and right at the backdoor of Grand Teton National Park, so of course we decided to make a weekend of it.

After Susan got off work on Friday, we picked up some supplies (sleeping bags and pads) and made our way to Idaho.  The drive in southern Idaho through the northern Cache Valley was beautiful, as most of the scenery here is, and culminated with Susan getting her BW3 fix in Pocatello before us watching a colorful sunset.  We finished the drive in the dark and ended up at a campground in Tetonia, ID.

Sunset on Friday night

After a chilly night of car camping where the temperature dropped to 34 degrees, we were confident in the abilities of our new sleeping bags to handle the cold…it was very snug in the new bags.  I attempted to get a run in the early morning, but cut it short after my hands went numb.  Instead, we drove a few miles south to Driggs, ID to grab coffee before heading to Grand Teton NP.

Checking out the gear

Classy

We started our National Park day later than expected, so called an audible on the original hike plan.  Instead, we drove into the park on a scenic route (and saw a moose-ette) and then parked near Jackson Lake.  From here, we hiked a 6 mile round trip up to Signal Mountain with a stop at the top for some snacking/picture taking.

Mountains, Fog/Smoke, Trees.. Cool view

Looks like the mountains are in the clouds

The grand teton

Moose at the visitor’s center  &  reminder to be bear aware!

Our hike

Tall trees are pretty

Susan bending with nature

Pica   &   Birdy

At the top!

View from the top

More photos at the top

Strong man Jeff

Hanging by Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake from the shoreline

When we returned to the car we were beat.  The original plan was to return to the park in the evening for wildlife watching, but instead we just found a leisurely place for dinner and watched another pitiful UK performance before re-crossing the Teton pass for the return trip to Tetonia.

Tomorrow we meet the Berzonskis near Island Park before returning to Logan.