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Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Above we are on a Bar T adventure, riding up into the National Park in a “covered” wagon on tire wheels for more comfort. At the end of the ride, we escaped the Indians and crazy trapper to have a cowboy dinner followed by live entertainment.  The fiddle player was amazing. Then we drove into the center of Jackson to visit the Cowboy bar, where you sit on saddles, not stools. Next day, we drove to the Tetons National Park and had lunch around Jenny lake. Our evening was spent enjoying the show,”Unsinkable Molly Brown” at the Jackson Playhouse, proceeded by the daily shoot out in the town square and a lovely dinner in the Playhouse. Our last day in the area, we drove back to the Teton National Park to kayak on Jackson Lake with crystal clear views of the Tetons.

From the Grand Tetons, we entered Yellowstone National Park from the southern entrance. It wasn’t long before we came to our campground at Fishing Bridge on Yellowstone Lake.  We were in bear habitat but unfortunately, we spent three days on the look out for grizzily bears with no luck.  We drove the Old Faithful route one day and it was a full day.  We saw the impressive Old faithful spouting off and visited the various thermal areas, painters pots, prism pools, etc. On our way home, we viewed the impressive Yellowstone falls and canyon.

Next day we did the northern loop through Tower falls and Mammoth springs.  Our only elk was munching on grass right in town, go figure! We drove the 5 miles to Gardiner, MT, and had great Huckleberry ice cream there, searching for elk. Roosevelt arch marks the entrance to the northern part of Yellowstone park. The one animal that we did see in large numbers was the bison.  Sometimes the bison were stopping traffic.  We were glad to see the numbers of the herd increasing.  There are about 5,500 bison in Yellowstone now. There are suppose to be 700 wolves, but we never saw one. Here are some photos of our Yellowstone adventures.

Cody, Wyoming was our next stop. We visited the fabulous Buffalo Bill museum complex which houses 5 museums in one huge building. Then we strolled through the Trail Town, a group of old west buildings that have been moved from different locations in Wyoming. One cabin was frequented by Butch Cassidy and his gang as well as the saloon where many train and bank robberies were planned. Finally after a Tandoori chicken dinner provided by chef Keith, we drove to the famous Cody Rodeo for an evening of hair raising riding and stunts.  It all looked pretty dangerous to us but then this was our first Rodeo ever. Our last day in Cody, we drove the Beartooth highway into Red Lodge, Montana with stunning views and heights of over 10,000 feet. Then we did some shopping in the quaint town of Cody and ended with a glass of wine in the Irma Hotel's famous rosewood bar given to Buffalo Bill by Queen Victoria of the UK as a thank you for his Wild West performance. The Prime Rib dinner we picked up was also delicious.Here are some photos for you to enjoy.

Thermopolis, WY was a soaking stop in the natural hotsprings. The state of Wyoming runs the springs and at the request of the Shoshone and Arapaho Indians who the springs actually belong to, the baths are free. There is a 20 minute time limit on your soaking, but at 104 degrees, we could not even stand that many minutes. Lander, Wy was our overnight stop and the next day, we drove Sinks Canyon.  Half of the drive was off road on a gravel, bumpy road.  We were glad to be in the jeep. Tomorrow, we drive to Utah to see dinosaurs in Vernal.  We hope you are all enjoying a lovely Labor Day holiday.

Cheers,

Susan and Jim