Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Road Trip!

If you'd like to see the entire album of photos, click here.

    4 days before we were to leave on our annual backpacking trip through southern Colorado, we had a conversation about a friend of our's who had the opportunity to move to Bozeman, MT.  "Bozeman seems great." Voodoo Biker said.
     "Yeah, there's biking, hiking, 2 ski resorts...it's beautiful up there!"  I said while banging around in the kitchen cooking dinner.  "I wonder how long it takes to get to Bozeman?"
      Voodoo Biker googled something and came up with 8 hours.  Turns out it's about twice that, but that doesn't matter now.  At the time we decided, "let's go!"  Voodoo Biker got out the road atlas and started checking out blue highways between here and there.  Here was our route, start to finish: 
The first 2 days we drove (leaving Friday afternoon) from here to Craig, CO and then to Cody, WY the next day.
From Cody we drove over Beartooth Pass to Red Lodge, MT and then to Bozeman.  After that we headed to Yellowstone for a few days.  We left Yellowstone and spent 2 days in and around Jackson Lake and Jackson, WY.

We left Jackson and drove south over the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, through Vernal, UT and home.

So what did we do?  We drove.  We looked around at the vast desert of Wyoming.  We pointed out antelope.  We stopped at random overlooks and historic sites.  We stayed in Mom and Pop hotels.  I recommend Carter Mountain in Cody, WY.  We watched the 4th of July parade on July 3rd in downtown Cody.  We ate steak and drank local beer.  We drove up and over mountains where feet of snow still live and people still ski.  We took pictures of glacial lakes.  We spent time with acquaintances who soon became friends.  We watched fireworks and drank martinis on Main Street in Bozeman.  We stared in awe at bison roaming around Yellowstone and marveled at how few people ever set foot on a trail there.  We camped and listened to rain falling at night.  We drank cups and cups of warm coffee at camp and watched people wake and make their way through their morning routines.  We drank beer by the shore of Yellowstone Lake.  We sat on the shores of Jackson Lake staring at the Great Tetons and proclaimed that life couldn't get any better!  We ran on "river time" where days mean nothing.  We biked up and down hills and through meadows of wildflowers in Jackson, WY.  We ate leftover pizza on the side of the road overlooking the Hoback River.  We discovered the Fireman's Campground above the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and really emphatically proclaimed, "Life can't get any better!"  We enjoyed each other's company.  We enjoyed the trees, wind, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, mountains and wildlife all around us.  We lived.