I posted daily during the roadtrip, but you never got to see any pictures! We’ve ordered them and made an album, but in case you don’t come over to look at it, here are a few of my favorites.

This is somewhere near the Idaho/Wyoming border heading to the Grand Tetons. Beautiful hills covered in wheat!

This is at one of the lakes in the Grand Teton National Park.

This is at the West Thumb in Yellowstone, one of the many hot springs. I love the colors.

So I don’t break the frontpage of the Blarg, you have to click the link after this to see the rest.

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Today we drove from the Grand Tetons to Yellowstone and got here around noon. Now Yellowstone is a BIG place. It’s 63 miles by 54 miles, so moving from one place to another takes a long time. Today we visited Old Faithful and a few other geothermal locations. Some of them bubble, some come in pretty colors, and some steam and smell really nasty. Old Faithful was really neat though. It “erupts” about every 90 minutes. Big crowds of people gather and wait for the show. We saw a lot of deer today, but the moose was still way cooler.

Another interesting fact about the park is that there are a ton of dead trees lying on the ground. In some places there are so many they look like big pick-up sticks. Now having paid attention in biology, I know that bacteria and fungi and all that jazz help decay stuff like dead trees. So why all the dead trees? Because it’s too cold for those microbes to survive, and thus, little decaying. Instead the trees become fuel for fires. There was a really big fire in 1988 that we read about at the visitor center.

Tomorrow we plan on seeing the northern part of Yellowstone. We saw a bison today from REALLY far away, but I’m crossing my fingers we get a better view tomorrow.

Today we spent all of our time in the Grand Tetons National Park. It’s a beautiful mountain range with several lakes situated at the base of the mountains.

Most of the day we drove up and down the park taking in the sites. We stopped and ate at a restaurant at one of the lodges that are located in the park. This evening we saw a ton of animals as it started to cool off. We again saw a moose, in the same spot as yesterday. We got some more pictures. Then later we saw maybe 10-15 deer on a hillside, and something I’d been wanting to see all day….a bear! Granted he was really far away, but it was still a bear.

Overall the Tetons are really cool, but if you were pressed for time, a simple drive-thru on the way towards Yellowstone would be enough. Tomorrow it’s off to Yellowstone.

Today we drove from Provo, UT to Teton Village, WY. Along the way we drove through Salt Lake City. We got off the freeway and looked for the Temple Square. We eventually found it, but you had to park and walk. Seeing as how we aren’t even Mormon, we decided against the detour and continued on. Next on the list was the Great Salt Lake. What a bust. It’s big, flat, and boring.

Next stop was Idaho Falls in, shockingly, Idaho. They built a big hydroelectric dam that creates 50% of the city’s power, and it makes for a long/pretty man-made waterfall. There were a bunch of geese hanging out trying to get fed. We got some shaved ice from an old train car turned into a shaved ice stand. Idaho Falls>Salt Lake City.

Eventually we got to our final destination in Teton Village outside the Grand Tetons National Park. It was about 6 pm when we finally got here, so we only spent about an hour driving in the park. In that short period we already saw a moose up close and personal, way cool. It started to get dark so we headed to a BBQ restaurant we saw on our way to Teton Village. it was pretty darn good too.

Now we’re back at our hotel, the Alpenhof. It’s an expensive resort, but it was the only thing we could find at such short notice that wasn’t booked yet. Surprisingly, as Amy would say, it’s even got the wireless. We’ve got the entire day tomorrow in the park, so hopefully we can see a ton.

Tonight we’re in Provo, Utah on our way towards the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Today was a short 3 hour drive. We’ve tried to keep the driving time per day short so it doesn’t feel like we’re spending all our time in the car. We got into Provo shortly after lunch time, and it was very interesting being in Utah on a Sunday. Despite being a town of 100k people, the streets were very light with cars, and a majority of the shops were closed.

We ate some lunch and headed over to Bridal Veil Falls. It was a pretty waterfall that drew an interesting clientèle. There used to be an aerial tramway that took you to the top of the waterfall, but it’s closed down and is super ghetto looking now. Some strange families of a poor nature were there playing in the waterfall. Maybe it’s because they don’t have beaches in Utah, I don’t know. Regardless I was able to snap a few pictures sans the ghetto fools.

Tonight we went to TGI Fridays, one of the few places open. We had fried green beans with wasabi ranch dipping sauce. Mmmm good. My long island iced tea will help me get to bed nice and early.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Grand Tetons. We plan to stop at the Great Salt Lake and Idaho Falls on the way. Peace out yo.

Stacie and I are planning on taking a two week or so road trip (ignore the numbering, those aren’t days) around a portion of the country that neither of us have really traveled. Here’s what the map looks like:

We have a couple main destinations listed below.

(2-3) This is Cedar City in Utah where some friends of ours moved recently. This is a good chance to visit them and see their new house.

(6-11) A large portion of our trip will be the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. Neither of us have been there, but they both sound awesome.

(16-17) This is Crater Lake, another beautiful and scenic location.

(20-21) This is Monterey. Neither of us have been to the aquarium in years, and this looks like a great opportunity to visit again.

Everything else, at this point anyways, is just a means to get between the main sites. Anywhere you see a yellow box means we have an overnight stay scheduled there. We’re spending a little extra time at each of the above locations, but it would be great to see interesting stuff along the way. So help us out blogosphere (half of which is now in Ecuador and without the internet). Anything we should see along that route, or anything just off the route that is worth the detour?