Rocky Mountain High

I'm finding it harder to blog.... After keeping up with every day it became almost chore-like and that is not how it should be. So after nearly a week of not blogging here I am. Now the problem is trying to go back a few days and write about what we did. I find myself asking around for everything; what was the name of that one hike??? Did we do this before that or that before this?? So here it goes; I'm giving it my best try.

I was going to skip the two days where we drove from the stockade lake campground in SD to our new campsite in Wyoming, but we actually did a lot of stuff in those days, so I'll fill you in briefly. We left stockade lake on Wed, the 21st, and headed west toward The Bighorn mountains. On the way we stopped by Devil's Tower, the very first national monument and hiked (comfortably strolled along a paved path) around the base of it.

Elly gave her spiel about the huge rock structure, as camera crews about 20ft away gave us dirty looks. Apparently they were filming for some travel show, and I couldn't help but feel bitter that they didn't want us on their show.... Oh well.

I also ran into Mrs. Clause on my way around the tower, and I

raced to try and keep up with her to ask her about her vacationing and to suck up in order to secure my spot on the nice list. She had no comments except for "why is this crazy american in all black following me?!" Ohhh Mrs. Clause you crack me up!

Back on the road again. We got to Buffalo and stumbled upon a campground for the night, appropriately called Deer Park, since a herd of deer sprinted away as we pulled into our site. There were laundry machines and it was wonderful! And the campsite was surprisingly awesome. I borrowed a phone to call my parents, seeing as the only communication I had had with them so far was to text them "I'm alive" in my fleeting moments of cell service. The west does not like Sprint, just an fyi. Waking up the next day, the campsite looked like a scene from Bambi, and the grass and flowers sparkled with dew.

Not to mention we were all buzzing with excitement knowing that at the tail end of the day's drive, a glorious hotel awaited us.

More driving.
We drove up through the Bighorn Mtns. and made a few stops along the way. I have to say our lunch spot had quite the view, and we were all pretty excited to be swapping the plains for a little bit more exciting terrain, a terrain that proved more than adequate for our epic snowball fights.

The hotel was amazing. Hot showers, 24/7 frosted flakes, ecclectic people, and late night SNL re-runs. What more could I even ask for??

Perhaps more driving?

More driving.

Clean and well-rested, our spirits were high enough to tackle the driving, and of course enjoy the views as we approached the Grand Tetons. We stopped in a quaint town to eat our lunches, and I got my hands on an iced coffee. Oh yeah, I also rode on a giant Jackalope (complete tourist trap), see instagram or facebook for those photographic gems. I adorned my head with a flower child crown of weeds and kept it on all day. The views we saw of the Tetons were breathtaking. These are the kinds of mountains that inspire artists and make you feel smaller than an ant, seriously. The Gros Ventre ("grow-vaunt") campsite was awesome too, our tents sat at the edge of a seemingly infinite sage brush field, and the horizon beyond was decked out in hills under the shadows of the looming Tetons. With another spectacular sunset, we capped off the all day driving for a while and settled into our home for the next 5 nights.