Grand Teton National Park

I couldn't imagine a better final destination than Grand Teton National Park. This place embodies natural beauty and my heart felt so full and happy here. I mean, just look at this place, water, mountains, forest, sky...all you need.

This is just a glimpse of Jackson Lake beneath the Teton Range. I wanted so badly to swim out in the clear water, under that sky, and lay in the sun all day but these are deceivingly glacial waters and it was actually pretty cool, I wore pants for the first time on the whole trip! 

We camped at Jenny Lake campground in Teton NP for two nights, spending one day in Yellowstone and one at the Tetons. Neither was enough! There's so much more I'll still be excited to do the next time I visit. But by this time we were pretty beat, choosing easy hikes and improvising more but everything is something to see, something to appreciate. Growing up in a similar ecosystem I've always loved this place. This place with so many layers, where I walk through wildflower coated meadows and evergreen forests with a colossal mountainous backdrop and your mind is free and your heart is happy. This place nearly stole my heart, but I think it will always belong to home, Lake Tahoe. On the last hike we found out our trail had a busted bridge so we went the long way around which led us to both Bradly and Taggart Lakes, and as we doubled back we came across the pack donkeys carrying the wood and supplies for the bridge, so we stopped by to check out the repairs. I love the evidence of glacial activity here, hiking over the forested moraines to reveal sub-alpine lakes like hidden crystals under the mountains. I got one last shot just coming over the moraine and revealing the wild below before my battery finally died.

"There is nothing so American as our National Parks...the fundamental idea behind the parks...is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us." I found this FDR quote in the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center, as it is formally known, which is super rad with tons of interactive information and big panel windows. I have a thing for neat buildings, having grown up with an architect, so I couldn't let this one go unmentioned! Sorry, these last few came from my phone!

No campsite is complete without some campfire art, so I built a rock circle around this campsite's fire ring to begin. What is campfire art you say? Well, it's when I use my pokey stick that has been charred from excessive playing with and rearranging of the logs (I'm not the only one obsessed with playing with the logs right!?), to draw on large, smooth rocks. Hopefully it brings a smile to the next campers!

Devils Tower - The OG

Seven sisters and their brother were playing in the woods one day when suddenly the brother began to grow coarse hair, sharp claws and long teeth. The sisters ran and the bear brother pursued them, growing larger at every step. The girls climbed the tallest hill and climbed to the top of the tallest tree but it was not enough. They prayed to the Great Spirit to help them and the Great Spirit answered. The hill began to rise, shooting straight up out of the earth with the girls on top and the brother down below. But the bear brother began to climb the sides of the tower, growing larger with each moment, clawing and scarring the mountain. As night came, with nowhere left to go, the sisters held hands and lept into the night sky where they became stars together. Although they left bear brother on Earth the sisters can still be seen in the night sky over the tower.

This is one version of a Native American etiological story, although there are many similar explanations, describing the physical appearance of the tower and the star cluster we now recognize as Pleiades. Devils Tower National Monument was actually the first National Monument named so by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906! The columns made from bear brother's "clawing" are mesmerizing as you walk around the tower, often laying crumbled or partially fallen at the base of the tower. There were tiny specks of people climbing the tower and I felt an overwhelming desire to do the same. Mostly because, what's up there? The curiosity and satisfaction of reaching the top, a place shared only with the birds, the clouds and the occasional climber, over 1,200 ' above the landscape - climbing this laccolith just made my bucket list.

I really enjoyed that in this park pamphlet (I told you I went geeky over these things!), next to the etiological story is the real, scientific explanation which I won't bore you with but I will tell you that most of the columns are actually hexagonal! Did anyone else spend a week in geometry talking about hexagons in nature? From the base of the tower, not a bad view!

Driving up to the tower! Also, I mark this place as officially being back in the wild wild West, but sadly this point also marks going on three weeks and nearing the end of this fantastic road trip. Much more to see and so many great things to look back on!