Jackson, WY – July 8th- July 14th,
2012
July 8th
Nut and I got up early this morning to make our way to
Jackson. Originally when I looked at the driving distance, it said it would
take about 8 hours to get there. This is not that bad considering the long days
of driving with Mom when I first moved out to Colorado.
We took Highway 25 North right up to Cheyenne and then drove
northwest the rest of the way. Our first stop was some rest-stop to stretch out
legs and drain our bladders. It also happened to a historic stop, a fort by the
train tracks. It was interesting to imagine how desolate and in the middle of
nowhere the fort was. I can’t imagine living there. It takes forever to drive
to the next town. It must’ve taken days by horseback!
Our next stop was in Rawlins to check out the old state
penitentiary/ Frontier prison that is now a museum opened in 1901. How could we
resist? A film called ‘Prison” (clever huh), was shot there. There are remnants
of old, splattered, fake blood on the walls. The filmmakers promised to clean
up the mess when the movie became a hit, but it never did… so the old stains
remain.
Here’s some small information about the prison that I
grabbed from the website:
From 1901 to 1981, the prison housed 13,500 male inmates in
addition to 11 women at one point because the other prisons were too full.
There were several different means of discipline in the prison including a
dungeon, a punishment pole to which men were strapped to a pole and whipped
with a rubber hose- this form of punishment didn’t end until 1930. It also used
different methods of execution including the gallows and a gas chamber. Nine
men were hanged and 5 were executed in the gas chamber. The prison also
produced good to keep up with local industries including a broom factory, shirt
factory, wool, and license plates.
It was a really cool place to visit although, the people who
wanted their photo taken while sitting in the gas chamber. That seemed to cross
the line a little bit. Anyway, it was a great pit stop on our way.
There was a wild horse refuge in Rawlins, which we stopped
at and drove through but the horses were very difficult to see. It was kind of
a bummer but they were there and we kinda, sorta saw them!
At one point driving through the mountains the smell of pine
trees was overwhelming and amazing! We kept our windows down the rest of the
way, stopped at The Bird, which was on the list of places to eat, had a badass
burger, then checked into our hotel and passed out!
July 9th, 2012
Good morning, Jackson!
Today our plans are to stay local, get our feet on the
ground and just check out the surrounding area. We made some phone calls today
to set up our plans for the rest of the week.
We walked around the town of Jackson, which is very
old-western and very touristy. It’s cute! It might have too many t-shirt shops
but that seems to be the trend in any popular tourist town. The town square has
four entrances that open with high arches comprised of elk antlers that were
all found by local boy scouts. It’s kind of gross but cool that all of them
were found after the elk have shed them.
Then we headed to Bar T-5 for an authentic, old fashioned
chuck-wagon ride and dinner. After a brief introduction we all headed into the
chuck-wagon, lead by two horses and up a hill (totally Oregon Trail style),
where we sat under tents and had an awesome barbeque dinner, live music, and a
little show! It was really great!
July 10, 2012
Today we met up with a guide group that took us into
Yellowstone to see all that we could see in one day, which was mostly the lower
half of the park, which was MORE than enough!
Below are photos of our trip. Enjoy!
There's always time to be silly!
Cascading Falls
It's not old faithful geyser, but he's one interesting old geezer!
It was really crowded and about 20 minutes late but really cool!
Geo-thermal pools. Hot tub anyone?
Buffalo!
Artist's point. Artist, Thomas Moran made Yellowstone famous with his landscape paintings of Yellowstone (see below)
Dragon's breath cave
July 11, 2012
Today we woke up early to see the sun rise over the Grand
Tetons. It was sooooo beautiful!
Then we went on a tour of Grand Teton National Park with our
guide who was chock full of knowledge and another older gentleman named Bill
who flew to Jackson for two days all the way from Arizona. Matt, our guide took
us to some scenic overlooks, Jenny Lake, searching for wildlife, taking a
mountain tram to the top of a mountain, and so on. Pictures are below.
And old western shootout!
Cowboy bar has saddles on the bar
Yellowstone cutthroat trout
Jenny Lake
Mama Moose (her baby is in there somewhere)
July 12, 2012
Today was our last full day and we decided to hike around
Jenny Lake to maybe work off half of the very delicious, yet not very health
food that we ate. It was a hot day but a beautiful walk and well worth it.
Then we took a scenic boat ride down Snake River in hopes of
seeing a moose or a bear, but to no avail. Although we did see many bald eagles
and beavers. It was a beautiful and relaxing boat ride and I can’t think of any
other way to end our day!
Chomping down on an otter snack
Bald Eagle!
The results of a long day of hiking
