The Coussoules' Great Western Adventure: Days 5 and 6 - Grand Teton National Park

I don't think there is a moonset and sunrise that is anything less than spectacular in the Grand Teton National Park:

The only thing better than that view on Monday morning was what came immediately after this:

John woke up fever free, feeling totally normal, and acting like his old self. Thank you to everyone for all of your concern, advice and prayers - the only aftermath of the three days of fever and headaches was a few hours spent burning off all of the pent-up silliness!!

Back to normal, time to get the adventure going!

As part of the adventure, my dear friend Melissa who works for the National Park Service sent the kids their own National Park Passports to begin their collection of Park stamps. What fun to find the stamp station inside the Visitor Center at Colter Bay! Caroline and John got two stamps that day: Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway.

With the stamps secured, it was time to head to the marina for a scenic boat cruise on Jackson Lake. The mountains are beautiful any way you look at them, but in the reflection of the glassy water, you get the feeling that you're in the middle of a snapshot of America at its finest. Though all of the mountains in the 40 mile Teton Range are picturesque, the Skillet Glacier on Mount Moran was striking. After over 500" of snow this past winter, the mountains still had both the perennial ice of the glaciers and some snow pack left, as well.

We had the good fortune to see the emblem of American freedom, perched high in a tree looking down at the water in search of the next meal:

We grabbed a quick lunch at Colter Bay following the cruise and then headed back south to Jenny Lake, crossing Jackson Lake dam and taking the scenic route at the foot of the mountains. It was a beautiful day for an easy walk on a short loop close to the water's edge:

Not long after we arrived at Jenny Lake, though, the weather took a precipitous turn for the worse, and the skies indicated it was time to head back to the cottage for a while:

As bad as it looked, what we've realized about the weather up here is that you can see storms that are miles and miles away. A threatening sky that seems to be moving your way may never make it, because you can see for 50+ miles over a mountain range that can change the weather as it moves through. We barely got a drop of rain by the time we returned to our room, so we took advantage of the gift of sun by taking a short hike to Christian Pond.

Despite it being midsummer, the wildflowers are in full bloom as if it's spring down south. Pictures are inadequate to truly capture the intensity of the colors of the flowers:

The hike was just long enough for us to enjoy without getting too tired for - what else - swimming in the pool! Justin had to load up the van to be ready to go first thing in the morning, so I took the kids over to the pool to swim while I worked on updating my blog - my travel journal, if you will! Instead of going back to the restaurant, we got sandwiches to go and had a picnic inside of our room, enjoying the quiet after several meals in the company of a crowd. As it turns out, you couldn't beat the view of the sunset:

On Tuesday morning, once again, the Teton morning dawned in its infinite glory:

Day 6: adventure awaits! Next up, what I had looked forward to for months: a float on the Snake River, courtesy of Triangle X Ranch.

After a slight hiccup where they didn't have our reservation (yep, that happened, but it was quickly remedied), we entered our raft with our phenomenal river guide Jack, and started our way down the river.

We got lucky to have another family in the raft with us whose kids were about the same age as ours. Caroline and John had a blast hanging out with them while Justin and I enjoyed the company of their parents on our end of the boat. Having seen the vistas of the park from the level of the flats, it was a totally new perspective to see them from much lower down on the Snake River. Over and over I am awestruck at the landscape and the forces that shaped this part of the U.S. Glaciers from the last ice age had left moraine that created bluffs leading up to the flats, visible from the erosion caused by the river over the centuries.

If you ever find yourself planning a vacation to Grand Teton National Park, I highly recommend booking a float trip, and even more strongly encourage you to book with Triangle X. There are four different companies that do the floats, and we chose Triangle X simply by Googling options. Our experience was absolutely top notch, from their swift handling of the issue with the missing reservation to our wonderful guide, Jack. If we ever are able to make a return trip, we would even look into staying at the Triangle X, which is a dude ranch that offers multiple excursions in the area. We felt so fortunate to have had the perfect morning for the float, and a guide who made it a definite highlight of the trip.

As we had taken the 8:15 float, it was just now time for lunch after an hour and a half on the water. We took the scenic route through the Grand Tetons for the last time, stopping at the Signal Mountain Lodge for lunch where I split their Mile High Nachos with Justin and then indulged in a piece of blackberry pie (which was definitely as delicious as it looks!!).

On on, Coussoule clan! Our two days in Grand Teton were amazing, and we'd enjoyed every minute of our visit.

We once again buckled our seat belts, checked the map, and pointed the van toward our next destination: Yellowstone National Park, the epitome of American travel and tourism. I'm not sure what awaits us in the world's first national park, but I know it will be difficult to top the stunning vistas, serene lake waters, and glorious sunrises we enjoyed for the last two days. I hope to come back to Grand Teton someday, staying for many more days and exploring more of the trails in the park.

The Coussoules' Great Western Adventure: Day 4 across Wyoming

Sunday dawned bright and clear, perfect for another morning run, this time around the Colorado State University campus. You'll forgive me the workout selfie; solitary runs at 5:30AM on a Sunday in a town I'm just passing through aren't conducive to having someone else along to snap a photo.

Added bonus of the morning run: I found a Hawaii license plate in the parking lot of the University!!

Kids were thrilled - license plate bingo has become our trip obsession, and we thought there was no way we were going to get that one. Mommy rocks!

With standing room only church on Saturday, we hoped to hit Sunday mass, but with John still feeling terribly, we chose to divide and conquer: Justin and Caroline would go to church, I would stay at the hotel and let him sleep in and rest as much as possible before driving north. He'd had a rough night, waking up crying around 2AM, and it unfortunately didn't get better with the dawn. A terrible headache, fever, and nausea that made it hard to keep any medicine down had me really worried about the eight hour drive ahead of us.

If there was ever any question whether the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, though, he sucked it up in true my-kid fashion. He managed to eat a little bit of cereal, kept some water down, and once Daddy and Caroline were back from church, we loaded up the van and pointed it north to Wyoming.

Grand Teton National Park or BUST!!!

Justin and I have been excited not just about the destinations along the way and the landmarks we would visit, but the drives between points A and B (well, and C, D, E, F and G, for that matter). We joked that to this point in our lives, the American West had basically been the "fly over" zone. As in, I've been to California several times but only flown over the states in between here and there.

As we left Colorado and read our state worksheet and fun facts about Wyoming, it hit us that in the least populous state in the U.S., we might want to hedge our bets against finding gas stations every five or ten miles. We decided that as the biggest city along the way, it was worth stopping in Laramie to fill up and, of course, take the requisite picture to prove we'd been there:

I knew the drive would bring unexpected delights in the scenery; I knew there would be the grandeur that is America's western states. What I didn't know was how many different drives we would have in one day, across one state. Wyoming is astonishingly diverse; unreal in its vastness; beautiful in its immensity.

The expansive grasslands and endless plains:

The towering rocks that shoot up out of the plains unexpectedly:

The painted rocks in an arid, desert-like landscape:

The sheer walls of the towering mountains and rock formations are a window into the ancient and violent geological past; we were traveling back in time as we drove north, then west, then northwest toward Grand Teton.

After hours amidst plains, mountains, the Great Divide Basin, and valleys beyond the sheer drop of the cliffs, we suddenly found ourselves in an alpine forest as we entered the Shoshone National Forest:

Then, after around seven hours of drive time, we finally saw the Teton Range in the distance. We were almost there - our first National Park on the trip, four days into the vacation.

We pulled into the Jackson Lake Lodge right around 6PM Sunday evening, thrilled to be there and ready to be done with the drive for the day. We checked in, confirmed our reservations for the boat tour in the morning, and headed to the cottage to unpack.

Now, we are lugging around a lot of stuff. I mean, a LOT. We figured if we're driving, we may as well bring it - two weeks away from home, be as prepared as possible for weather and itinerary contingencies. But it's also a little bit overwhelming to be crowded in the van by all of those bags and at this point, Justin decreed that we would 100% unpack the van, bring it all inside, and put it back after we'd reorganized and retrenched.

Bags out; coolers out; kids out. I walked into the room and POW:

Are you kidding me? What a view! Eight hours on the road melted away, just like that. Reenergized, we got everything in, unpacked, straightened out, and John got a little bit of rest before we went over to the Pioneer Grill for dinner.

By the end of dinner, John was about as wilted as I'd seen him. We'd alternated acetaminophen and ibuprofen along the way, but you could tell he was just about done. He complained of a piercing headache, and after a couple of friends mentioned the possibility of altitude sickness, I began to think it wasn't just a simple virus. What could we do, though? We were in northwest Wyoming, at our destination, and there wasn't a viable alternative.

Back to the room, showers and bed time, and fervent prayers by Mommy, Daddy, and so many others who've been sharing my story of our journey that the little man would finally sleep it off and wake up his normal, energetic self. I watched the sun set behind the purple mountains right outside our bedroom window, grateful for another amazing day on our family adventure.