wyoming | biking the tetons

Driving through Jackson Hole, it's impossible not to notice the cyclists riding on the bike path at the base of the Teton Range. There are recreational cyclists, but there are also teams fully kitted out in head-to-toe spandex who appear to be training for something...a triathlon? The Tour de France? Regardless of athletic ability, this trail looked awesome (paved, perfectly flat, and with an incredible view of the mountains) and we wanted a piece of it.

I'll admit I was a bit nervous because it had been YEARS since I had ridden a bike. But the phrase "it's like riding a bike" really is true and spending a day biking along the base of the Tetons was one of the best things we did on our trip. We had such a great time that as soon as we got home from vacation we set out to buy our own bikes. (A process that involved 18 trips to local bike shops, but that is a story for another time. Suffice it to say we were bitten by the biking bug...and we're very indecisive!)

We grabbed some breakfast bagels and rented bikes from Dornan's in Moose. We estimated we rode about 20 miles and it felt great - like we were flying. (Not sure if this is true, but I figure the air is thinner at higher altitudes allowing for less resistance and higher speeds?) And the view was obviously top notch. The path is 56 miles so you could complete a century if you rode down and back. (Life goal? I decided during this trip that my new life plan was to move to WY, get into cycling and ride every morning, and then set up an easel in a sagebrush field and paint while looking at the Tetons every afternoon. Now who wants to give me a billion dollars so I can live in Jackson?)

Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures from this day because while I've been known to haul my DSLR up and down a mountain, I draw the line when it comes to hauling camera equipment by bike. Some things are just meant to be experienced in person rather than recorded. I have a handful of pics taken from a crappy point-and-shoot, but nothing that does the beauty of the experience any justice:



We stopped for a break and a snack of Bobo's Bars along the shore of Jenny Lake:



After our ride, and dropping our bikes off, we sat on the deck at Dornan's and drank a beer while looking at the mountains before heading back to the campground to rest our sore butts, wade in the Snake, and enjoy a fire and a picnic dinner. It was our last night at the campground, so we drank as many beers as we could and wandered the campground to chat with other campers (a couple from Montana who was traveling with their two little dogs, Ike and Mamie) and gave the leftover beers to a retired Danish couple ("Ja! We like beer!") taking an RV holiday throughout the U.S. (Another life goal!)

(Sweaty)

I keep describing every experience we had on this trip as "the best" or "our favorite", but the truth is, everything is incredible in the Tetons. With all the hiking, biking, rafting, eating, beautiful scenery, and wildlife, it's impossible to have a bad time. Two thumbs up!

wyoming | bison at the moulton barn

On the day we went rafting down the Snake River, we had a few hours to kill after our float trip was postponed due to the hail/lightning storm. Our rafting guide suggested we drive over to the Moulton Barn - the most photographed barn in North America and an iconic landmark in Jackson Hole. I'm never one to turn down a photo op, so Larry and I drove out to Antelope Flats to check it out. We decided to drive a little further into the plain first and check out the barn on the way back. As we drove past the Moulton settlement, we noticed a huge heard of brown cows in the distance. "Are those bison?" Larry asked. "Nah," I said, "There are way too many of them to be bison. That's a herd of cows." We drove further on until we found a solitary bison. I'd seen bison on my first trip to Wyoming, but it was still pretty exciting to see one of the big guys just wandering around in the wild.

With 'see bison' crossed off our list, we drove back over to photograph the famed Moulton Barn.

As we turned down the gravel road to Mormon Row, we realized that the cows we had seen in the distance earlier were indeed bison - a huge herd of about 200 or so, many of them causing a traffic jam in the road we were trying to drive down! It was incredible!











I don't know what it is with animals sticking their tongues out at me...rude bison (must be related to rude mountain goat!):

There were even BABY BISON!



Seriously, I could photograph these guys all day! How do I get a job as bison photographer???

links | gin + cake + good advice

I've never been inspired to share lists of links like some bloggers do - mainly because I feel so overwhelmed by the amount of information already on the web, the time wasted looking at social media, and the thousands of other people's links I'm inundated with on a daily basis. However, I have this really bad habit of opening 10,000 browser windows at a time and never closing them because "I might want to read this article later" or "I don't want to forget that recipe." Yes, I am a browser hoarder. I'm the person who has so many tabs open you can't even see the tabs. It's bad. I've had the same webpages open for months and months on my phone and iPad. (My computer died a year and a half ago, so I lost all my open browser pages there - maybe because my machine experienced information overload?)

Anyway, I realized that a list of links published to my blog would be a good way organize the thoughts that are clogging up my devices. So I'm writing this as a reminder to myself (and so I can close those 10,000 browser windows!). Maybe someone else will find it interesting (do you like cake and gin?) and maybe not:

+ The Genius of Wearing the Same Outfit Every Day. As a comfort-seeking, lazy, self-employed creature, I LOVE THIS. If Zuckerburg, Jobs, and Obama subscribe to this wardrobe, maybe it leads to success? It would certainly reduce my stress! Boring outfit/no morning decision making = more time for creativity with my art? I'm in.

+ 33 Way to Be An Insanely Productive Person. Why do they make it sound so simple and obvious? "What's your main thing? Ok, so why are you doing all these other things?" * Duh...but yet, so hard to make it actually happen. I need to print this out and staple it to my forehead. (Thanks to Sarah for sharing this - she always has such good advice.)

+ How to Take a Day Off. Again...sounds so simple, and yet...there's just so much that needs to be done...

+ CAAAAAAKE! Specifically, GIANT Coconut Layer Cake. I've literally had this window open for over two years so I didn't forget what sounds like the best cake in the world. (I should've made this recipe before I gave up eggs, and butter, and cream! D'oh!!! I'm still not ready to let this recipe go, though. Will someone make this for me and not tell me what's in it?)

+ More CAAAAAAKE! Gin and Tonic CAKE?! And another one! (A good G&T has long been my favorite drink - and yes, I am an 80 year old man in a 36 year old woman's body. A G&T in cake form could either be awesome...or disgusting. But I'm willing to try and I have a certain cocktail-making, rum-cake-baking friend who will be my guinea pig. I wonder if I can veganize it?)...

+ While googling if I could veganize the G&T cake, I found a recipe for Vegan Gin and Tonic COOKIES. Hmm...

+ I'm really going to sound like a lush with three booze related links, but that same friend made me an amazing Sidecar the other day, and I recently stumbled across this recipe for Blackberry Sidecars. Definitely adding these to my summer menu!

+ Did I say three booze links? I meant four. Gin Brambles: more gin, more blackberries, more happy summer for me!

+ Alright, alright, let's just say the theme of this list is cocktails, because I can't stop. Who could resist a drink called a Scarlet Harlot? Actually chow.com has a whole gallery of fruity summer cocktails. I'm thinking I need to have a weekly cocktail party! Or be invited to a cocktail party by someone who's a better bartender than I am...

And I'm done. Cheers!

* P.S. My main thing is gin. #kidding

wyoming | rafting the snake

One of my favorite memories from our family vacation to Wyoming in 1992 was taking a float trip down the Snake River, and I knew it was something I wanted to do again with Larry.

We had signed up for a Saturday afternoon trip with Barker-Ewing Scenic Float Trips, and we were all loaded into the van and driven down to the river. As the van neared the launch point, the sky opened up with the most terrific and terrifying hail storm I have ever experienced. "Don't worry, the weather here changes quickly - we'll be fine," explained the guides to a van full of skeptics. As cloud-to-ground lightning struck all around us and thunder shook the van, the group came to the unanimous decision that we really didn't want to be electrocuted while floating down a river in a thunderstorm. The trip was postponed for a few hours and rescheduled for dusk - fortuitously, the best time to go out on the river because all the wildlife comes out to feed...















As you can see, there's a reason our guide's favorite time to be out on the river is dusk, as we saw more than 20 beavers, 10 bald eagles, and a raccoon! And as we were driving back across the river, we saw...

...a bull moose! He was lying down so all you could see were his antlers, but still! A moose!

I love getting out on the water every chance I can get, and taking some sort of boat trip is a must-do for every vacation Larry and I take. We had a great time floating the Snake, our guide was phenomenal, and I learned so much about the history, wildlife, and geology of the area (which I promptly forgot!). Highly recommended!

wyoming | hiking cascade canyon

The experience I was most looking forward to during our trip to Wyoming was taking a hike in Grand Teton National Park. When my family visited the area in 1992, we did lots of activities at the base of the Tetons (rafting, horseback riding), but we never went into the mountains to hike. (I can't imagine why my parents didn't want to take a whiny ten year old and a whiny thirteen year old hiking?) So this time I was really looking forward to getting IN the Tetons. Larry and I only had one day to hike, so we wanted to pick a good trail - an all day hike that was somewhat challenging with gorgeous views. We settled on Cascade Canyon.

View of Cascade Canyon from across Jenny Lake.

I was slightly apprehensive about this hike. For one, you have to carry bear spray when hiking in the Tetons. This is GRIZZLY country! Be bear aware! And two, this hike was 9 miles, which would be the longest hike we've ever done. (Remember, I'm a gimp.) The trail continues on and you can actually do a 24 mile loop that climbs a total of 4,200 feet...if you're a badass/insane. While we were opting for the "easy" 9 mile portion, hiking 9 miles through the mountains in grizzly country is not something we do every day.

Me and my gimp sticks.

But we laced up our boots, filled up our* Camelbaks with water and Bobo's Oat Bars, strapped on our bear spray, and hit the trail. It turned out to be the best hike we've ever taken. I'm running out of adjectives to describe the Tetons, but the entire hike was breathtaking. We ended up hiking a total of 11 miles (and climbed 100 flights of stairs according to my FitBit) and I felt great the whole way, which I credited to my newly plant-based diet and my #yearofactive challenge. Having a great** hiking partner helped, too - I'm so grateful I married a guy who loves nature and travel and doing outdoorsy things together.

* By our I mean, Larry. He carried all the water/gear because I was loaded down with a backpack full of camera equipment.
** Except for when we got separated on the trail and Larry hiked ahead of me without looking back for an entire mile, chattering the whole way to the hikers behind him who he thought were me. Meanwhile, I'm freaking out because I'm alone on the trail and he's the one carrying the bear spray!

The cool thing about this hike is that you have to take a boat across Jenny Lake to get to the trailhead. (You can walk around the lake if you want to add four more miles to your hike.)

The most strenuous part of the trail is the first 2.5 miles from the trailhead to Inspiration Point. It's fairly steep and rocky, and also a lot of fun. (This is one of the most popular hikes in the park, but most people turn around there and miss hiking into the canyon.)










Once you get past Inspiration Point, the trail flattens out as you hike through Cascade Canyon deeper and deeper into the mountains. I loved that the hard part of the hike was over with at the beginning and then it was smooth sailing while enjoying views of Teewinot (12,325 ft), Mount Owen (12,928 ft) and Grand Teton (13,770 ft) and the river pools in the canyon. A truly phenomenal hike in a phenomenal place. Not surprisingly, I took a zillion photos...
















We celebrated our successful day on the trail with beers (Odell Brewing's St. Lupulin - one of the best beers I've ever had) and veggie burgers (inappropriately, but hilariously named The Bushy Beaver) at The Bird, before heading back to the campground to soak my feet in the icy river. As far as vacation days go, this one was an A+.