Travel day!!! The morning started early for us. We had a 7AM reservation at the Campfire Lodge Cafe for breakfast and a 10AM checkout. Yesterday we had looked at the menu to know what we wanted ahead of time and don’t you know they added two specials that threw a wrench into everything. Bob, the fly fisherman, was already in the shop and Sunday looked like it was going to be a busy one for them.
Our directions had us going back over the pass towards Earthquake Lake then heading south into Idaho. It’s a quicker route than going through Yellowstone National Park. The drive was gorgeous! And the ever changing scenery took us from steep mountain cliffs, to open wheat fields to forests to small roads with no lines.
(Lighter grey color is where the mountain side collapsed in ‘59 from the earthquake)
As we traveled along Garmanita kept trying to get us to turn onto small roads. We had to pull over to get everyone on the same page and re-navigate our journey. Finally we gave in and took the next small narrow road with no lines hoping for the best.
The route took us so far off the beaten path, with no other cars, we were afraid it would either dead end or turn to gravel. Positive … it was a smooth flat road bed. This portion of the days traveling took us through some of the most beautiful rolling wheat and potato fields. It also directed us through a gravel truck route between a bunch of silos that we decided against. Eventually we figured out Garmonita cut a corner saving a good bit of travel time and we finally got onto a road with lines.
Next up we drove through a few adorable towns Driggs and Tetonia. Then the warnings came about the Teton Pass with it’s 10% grade. No biggie we have done a lot of this type of routes and worse towing. Just before we came up to the peak of the pass, traffic came to a halt. There had been an accident ahead. We sat not moving for exactly one hour.
As the traffic finally started slowly moving we saw the tow trucks finishing up. The best we could tell it was a pick-up truck versus motorcycle. The motorcycle was missing the front wheel. Just the handlebars we’re there. The truck looked like the driver’s side was a bit wrinkled. Our guess is that the truck pulled out of the scenic overlook parking, at the pass, right into the path of the motorcycle.
(We were stopped about 1/4 mile down around curve on other side of tow trucks from this traffic camera pic)
Finally we made it to Jackson, Wyoming! We have been here before. This is a Sunday afternoon. We needed to re-stock a few groceries. The decision was made to stop at the Albertsons in town that we would pass. Big mistake. It was soooo busy. There was no where to park! This made us go two miles out of town to a Smith’s grocery that we have been to previously. They were busy too but at least our parking space on the side of the building was available. Our four hour journey slowly turned into six plus hours.
After shopping we had to drive back past Albertsons and right through the middle of town. Wow! There were so many cars, RVs and VANS everywhere. Traffic jam! We will be selective on coming back through here. We knew with the pandemic and so many more people getting outdoors and buying RVs and vans that this would be the case. If you notice we completely worked around Yellowstone. We did not enter through any of the gates to avoid the crowds. Since we have both spent time in Yellowstone in the past we knew this was not the year to go. This is giving us opportunity to discover other places on the outskirts that we would not have otherwise visited.
So here we are! We have landed in Kelly, Wyoming at Gros Ventre Campground in the Grand Teton
National Park. There are 360 sites. All full. At least the sites are spread out. It’s on the outskirts of the park and the biggest campground we have stayed at this trip. With the crowds we did not want to stay in the thick of things, where it’s even busier, like last time when we stayed at Colter Bay Village. Love Colter Bay! Couldn’t get a reservation there anyway and barely got this one. Tomorrow we will explore this campground. It’s on the Gros Ventre River. Southwest of here is where this river merges with the Snake River. Jett has a swimming hole north of here on the Snake River. If the water conditions are good hopefully she can go swimming during our stay here.
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