The Snake River at Jackson Lake.
Snow drift. To my shoulders. Yeah.
Longbeard, Shortbeard, and Nobeard. And Grand Teton.
Grand Teton (big peak in the middle)
It was really bright and windy. Thus, the squinty/closed eyes.
Birthday wine for Kip. Ice cold red wine + 8am = Nasty
Trapper Andy cooking breakfast.
Phelps Lake, iced/snowed over.
View from outside the tent. Lots o' snow.
Flaming Gorge, Utah.
Last week Kip, Andy and I drove out to Jackson, Wyoming for Spring Break. The first day we drove from LR to Golden, Colorado, experiencing the utter boredom that comes with Kansas and the confusion that is Golden, Colorado (13th Street becomes 38th Street...uh). Sunday we drove through West CO, then the tip of Utah and through Flaming Gorge NP to Jackson. Monday it started snowing while we were out getting food and last minute equipment for our backpacking trip. The only real excitement was the door on our hotel room breaking and the maintenance guy having to kick the door in so we could get our stuff out. Tuesday morning we hit the trail and learned that snowshoes are hard to walk in, especially with heavy packs. We persevered, though and finally made our campsite for the night. Well sort of. Lots of snow makes trails hard to find, so very early on we lost the trail and sort of blazed our own through the woods. We ended up at Phelps Lake, our intended destination, but on the complete opposite side...oh well. We set up camp, cooked dinner, then settled into our tents for the 16 degree, snowy evening. We woke up the next morning to 8 new inches and a fair amount still falling. It took a while to get moving (remember 16 degrees), then we headed out. Our next campsite was a ways away, so we had a long way to go. About 3 in the afternoon the wind began to pick up and snow started falling more heavily. We were getting close to where we needed to turn to make our campground, but decided instead to head for the ranger station close by. It was getting pretty dark and we thought we would cheat a bit by walking up to the car, driving down, picking up our stuff from the ranger station, then hiking the mile or so to camp. So, Andy and I left Kip with our bags and headed the three miles to the trailhead and our car. Along the way, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees and snow began falling so heavily that we could only see about 5 feet in front. We decided then and there that we were not going to spend the night out in that. Once we got back to Kip, we told him our plan and his response was "I've already made hotel reservations." Good thinking. That night the temperature dropped well below zero and the campground got about 22 inches of new snow. Again, good thinking. That night we went to Snake River Brewery and had great local brew and buffalo burgers, then slept in nice, warm beds. Thursday we drove up to Yellowstone, stopping at all the turnouts to take pictures of the mountains we hadn't seen yet (because of all the snow!) It was great! Friday morning we left for LR, making it as far as Hays, Kansas. Then we got caught (Saturday) in the mother of all midwest snow storms. Our 8 hour trip from Hays to LR ended up taking 13. Salina to Wichita should have been closed. Every toll road in OK was even worse. But, we made it safe to nice, warm, dry Arkansas. Great trip!
