Well we spent two nights here in the Grand Tetons National Park. The first day we arrived, we drove down the western side of the loop getting a closer look at the mountains and taking a lot of pictures. This turned out to be a good thing because yesterday was really cloudy and the photos didn't turn out as good.



Yesterday, we took the eastern side of the loop which gave a more panoramic view of the mountains from the plains area. Also out in the plains we visited some old log cabins and out buildings there from the 1800's. We also learned about the plant and animal life out on the plains through many roadside displays. This also helped the boys complete their Junior Ranger worksheets. We also found a couple of Geocaches out there.



Once we returned to the motorhome, I helped the boys finish their Junior Ranger worksheets but we had one more Ranger program to view in order to complete it. So Cricket stayed behind at the motorhome, while we went to the visitors center. Fortunately a Ranger program had just begun and we were able to join in. After that the boys turned in their worksheets and received their badges.

On the way back I decided to give Cricket some time to herself for a while and took the boys out Geocaching. We drove east on Hwy 26 and found some really nice views. The first Geocache was about a mile off the highway to the south near the continental divide. It was definitely a 4x4 required drive. About halfway there I decided this was a little more than our mild 4x4 Blazer could handle. There were some serious ruts that required the bigger tires and higher clearance. So I turned around.

The next Geocache on our list was a couple of more miles down the road. Once we arrived at the area, I saw that it required a lot of bushwhacking to get to and wasn't prepared for it. So I continued on to the last one.

It was on the way back along Hwy 26 on the north side of the highway near Brooks Lake. There was a dirt road there that went along around the lake and mountain climbing up about another 3500 feet. Taking a direct line from the highway to the cache, our GPS said it was near 3 miles away. But driving up along this winding road, we must have driven about 10 miles to get there. But it did give us some awesome views. We eventually found the cache which was up in a tree. I was wearing shorts and it wasn't fun trying to retrieve it. I scratched up my legs a bit but I wasn't about to give up on my third cache in a row.



On the way back to the motorhome we had a great view of the sun setting behind Grand Teton Mountain. I was late and because I was in a hurry to get back I didn't take my time when I stopped to take some pictures and they didn't come out very good. I could only salvage the one looking back toward the mountain where the Geocaches were near.



Today we will be driving over to Cheyenne, which is the capital of Wyoming. It will take most of the day to get there so we'll probably be camping at a Walmart for the night. I'll let you know in my next update.

See you again soon,
Mark