Grand Tetons

While driving through Idaho and Wyoming last weekend I must have seen every motorcycle owner in the entire northwest headed east to South Dakota for the 71st Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The rally started August 8th and I'm sure I saw more motorcycles on the road than cars. There was a big group meeting up outside of Twin Falls, but mostly they traveled single or in pairs.

As soon as I headed out of Idaho Falls the landscape got greener,


This is Swan Valley,


I'm too busy looking at the view and I missed my turn to Victor and went down to Alpine and back north to Jackson, which cost me more than half an hour. I guess they call it Jackson instead of Jackson Hole now. I walked around Jackson and could have spent a few grand in the Pendleton store, but I didn't. The galleries were closed, since it was Sunday, although I did see a small Terpning in the window of one, so I ate breakfast in Cafe Genevieve.

My family went on two big driving trips, one when I was around 10 across the US to Michigan and back, and one when I was 15 north through Washington to Canada and then back down through Yellowstone. My dad took a whole lot of pictures and I remember a whole lot of waiting around bored until he was done, so I never wanted to subject anyone to waiting for me to do the same, but by the time I was sitting in Cafe Genevieve, I was tired of being by myself. Maybe it was because I was sitting at the bar next to a hung over guy having a Bloody Mary and watching a group of bikers forget their jackets and not sitting on the patio having a conversation with my breakfast. Anyway, Jackson Hole was one of the few towns that I've seen in the last 5 years that did not look sad, it looked like it was doing really well.


Outside of Jackson Hole is the National Elk Refuge,



Then I am in Grand Teton National Park,






I'm not sure I want to live anywhere where the wildflowers do not come out until august, but I really liked the forest there, especially the Targhee Forest, because it was full of aspen and not just pine trees. The best wildflowers I saw were on my way out of the park, towards Victor, the way I should have gone the first time, but there was no place to stop and the grade was so steep going up that all I could think about was that my car was going to explode going 40 mph.

From Victor I went north to Driggs and the Grand Targhee Resort, because I heard that there is a better view of the Grand Tetons from the Idaho side.




Then back to Swan Valley,





I thought the landscape from Victor to Swan Valley looked like what I think Wyoming looks like, but this is still Idaho. Driggs was full of partly finished planned communities with giant homes that must have got caught in the housing crash, but I wondered what in the world people did in Driggs, Idaho, population 1,100, to pay for a giant house.

When I got back to Idaho Falls it rained again and I got some cloud and sun drama,


Does it rain every summer night in Idaho Falls? People said they had a long winter that lasted to June.