Advertisement
Rawlins, WY - Rock Springs, WY - Jackson, WY - Grand Teton NP, WY - Flagg Ranch Campground
Amy gets everyone up bright an early - around 6am - so that we can get an early start. Today we have about 300 miles to drive to our next campground. The day starts with bowls of cereal in the RV as we wait for the campground office to open at 7am. This is so that we can use their showers which can only be accessed through the office entrance. I guess this is so that the more unsavory campers don’t trash them. Surprisingly, the showers are extremely spotless and much cleaner - and roomier - than we had expected. You have to understand, Rawlins in no vacation spot. No offence to the fine citizens of this backwater town, but there is nothing here. It’s a dusty little spot 100 miles from any other civilization. A stop on the way to somewhere else. But a pleasantly surprising fine one. We all give this one a thumbs up.
After showers, we embark on our 2nd day of travel. It is 8am. Our first stop is after a quick 100 mile drive -
Day2-Wyoming011
Our first campground in Rawlins, WY...where are we again?through more nothingness - to Rock Springs. Here everyone fuels up for our second breakfast at McDonalds. Isn’t that one of things you do on vacation - eat endlessly? I know that our gang usually does. After this quick pit stop, we head north for another 180 miles on our way to Jackson Hole and Grand Teton.
After about 2 hours the scenery finally changes…FINALLY. We start seeing huge snow covered mountain peaks - the Wind River Range. For the next 2 hours we follow this absolutely gorgeous mountain range and it’s ever changing vistas. This is what truly makes driving in the American west a ceaseless joy. Quaint towns and neighborhoods made up mostly of log homes greet us along the way. Now these aren’t just your everyday old west log structures. They're typical family homes with modern amenities and some of the homes are mansions. Sprawling mammoth-like structures perched high atop hills in the distance, surveying the grand pastures laid out below them.
We talk jokingly about the people that must live in these homes out here in the “wilderness” as they don’t seem to have any of the abundant choices of places from which to
Day2-Wyoming012
The intrepid travelers survive their first night of RV "adventure" purchase the necessities of life that we so enjoy back home. “OK, honey, I’m gonna go grocery shopping now. See ya in a week”. But then you can’t help but imagine an idyllic life out here in the mountain wilderness, living in a beautiful home among all of this wondrous nature. Waking up with your morning coffee, walking out your front door and viewing these grand vistas. OK, Mark, back to reality. We move on.
The next major “city”, er, town is Jackson. Or is that Jackson Hole? No one can seem to agree as all the signs in town say Jackson. All the maps say Jackson. This must be Jackson. So then where the hell is Jackson Hole? An argument ensues as to what the difference between Jackson and Jackson Hole might be. Amy insists we are in Jackson Hole and this where all the stars come to vacation, that Jackson is just a misnomer or something. Everyone else thinks that maybe Jackson Hole is the next town and we haven’t reached it yet. Well, there is no next town, city, whatever. What we just passed through MUST have been Jackson Hole, and that Jackson and Jackson Hole
Day2-Wyoming013
On the way from Rawlins to Rock Ridge...I mean Rock Springs. From here, as in many places in Wyoming, you can view the vast nothingness that is Wyoming. are one in the same.
At this point the jury is still out on the final answer for that one. But, I will say that Jackson - or Jackson Hole - is certainly no hole. However, I really don’t think that it would warrant a stop on this trip. Jackson is a very nice town, don’t get me wrong. It’s Old West town streets are impeccably clean and lined with countless boutique shops and trendy restaurants, throngs of tourists covering the sidewalks, weaving in and out of lines of traffic just trying to get through town. I’m sure it’s a great tourist destination if “that’s what your looking for". But it won’t fit into this trip…maybe some other time. This train’s gotta get moving - we have places to go.
Shortly after we breach the confines of the town, we reach our first actual destination on this trip: Grand Teton National Park. The Grand Teton range of mountains is truly awe inspiring. And yes, they are quite grand. We pull over at the entrance and take pictures at the entrance sign for the park, using the majestic mountain range as a backdrop, to document our arrival. Break out
Day2-Wyoming015
On the way from Rock Springs to Jackson. What's that in the distance? Clouds? No, that's mountains: the Wind River Range. the cameras kids, we’ve finally arrived.
After a quick stop, we load back in the land yacht to make our way to the first destination in the park: Jenny Lake and Hidden Falls. The park is filled with lakes carved out by glaciers from the last ice age. Jenny Lake is by no means the largest, but it is quite beautiful nonetheless.
First we approached the edge of the lake and peer into the water. All of us just marvel at the absolute clarity of the water. It is crystal clear; you can see straight to bottom, it looks good enough to drink…not that I would. But we just don’t have bodies of water like this on the east coast, so a sight like this warrants an extra long look. Apparently the water empties out into a creek on the southern end of the lake and is constantly replenished by melting glaciers high up in the Teton Range. As wonderful as this is, it was not our primary purpose of stopping. The real destination lies on the other side of the lake.
After a short boat ride across the lake, we arrive at the other side. Now
Day2-Wyoming014
This was a very long stretch of desolate road, Rt. 191 north of Rock Springs. The road crews working on this stretch of highway live in work camps, like this one, 80 miles from any major town. we could have hiked around the lake, but we had 2 tired 10 year olds and it was late in the day. We must see Hidden Falls before we move on. At the shoreline we take a short hike up the foothills of the mountain where we are greeted by the sounds of roaring water. Wow, are we there already? Out in the middle of this wooded hiking trail are these raging torrents of water; rapidly flowing down the side of this mountain at enormous speeds, thousands of gallons every second. By we are soon to find out, as impressive as this site is that this is not the falls. We continue on.
Further up the trail we happen upon some snow. Now nothing is more enticing for a bunch of “east coasters” to let alone just see snow, but see it in June. We just came from Delaware, where the weather had been hovering in the 90’s for the past couple of weeks. And I can’t even remember the last time we got a significant snowfall. The urge was just too much to bear. I had to grab a handful and throw it at someone. My first victim
Day2-Wyoming-006
On the way to Jackson, WY...is that the Grand Tetons in the distance? was Amy who got a fistful of this frozen treat right down her back. And to make things better, she had her shirt tucked in. Hee hee. That must have been fun to get out, but I didn’t stick around to watch. This of course started an impromptu snowball fight - out in the warm summer heat - but that novelty wore off quick. We continued on our hike.
Before long, we reached a fork in the trail. We could continue another half mile up a steep trail to Inspiration Point where you get a close up look of at the top of the falls or journey left a couple hundred more feet to get a more distant view. The trail to Inspiration Point seemed to be too much to bear. Fortunately, our decision was made easily for us as we peered into the distance. There were the falls, a wonderful vantage point just a quick walk away. We hiked the short trail to the left where we were quickly greeted by cool blasts of mist coming from the base of the falls. After the sweaty hike to our destination, this was some needed relief. The vantage point here
Day2-Wyoming-Jackson 007
On the way to Grand Teton was spectacular. We all jostled for a picture of ourselves in front of the falls, like posing with a famous movie star out on the town. Now this is what it’s all about. An awe inspiring glimpse into the marvels of nature that are created through simple coincidence; all of the right things in the right place at the right time, something completely unplanned just happening all on its own. Again, the feeling of insignificance in the face of God’s “creations”.
Unfortunately, we are up against the clock as the last boat leaves at 6pm. We rue the thought of having to walk back (it’s because of the kids, OK?) to the parking lot and quickly make our way back to the boat dock. We arrive just in time to board a departing boat back to the other side of the lake. A quick stop into the gift shop for ice cream bars and we are on our way.
Andy and I go back and forth, checking the maps, looking through the guidebooks to make sure we aren’t missing anything else, trying to decide where we should go next. The clock made the final decision for us. It
was getting late, Flagg Ranch was still a ways up the road still, and I thought we should try to get there before dark. So we went straight to the campground.
We arrive at Flagg Ranch at 7pm, procure one of the last RV sites - thank God we had reservations - and go about settling in for the night. We get the RV situated, and I fire up some charcoal for a quick dinner of franks and beans. After dinner, Andy and I take the kids to the woods to hunt for firewood. We bring back our ill-gotten booty, and build a small campfire. After sitting by the fire for about a half hour, everyone decides to call it a night. This traveling has kind of worn on everybody and we finally call it a night around 10pm. Tomorrow we leave for Yellowstone.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.151s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 10; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0962s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Visted by Mark & Carolyn 
Visited by Mark 
Visited by all of us 
J.C. Petty
non-member comment
You should be a writer/journalist!
I'm not sure who wrote this blog, but I've read a lot, I mean A LOT, of blogs, and I really enjoy your writing style. Are you per chance a writer, journalist, or novelist by profession? If not, you shold be!