We decided this year’s summer family vacation would be a road trip to Mount Rushmore. As a part of that, we wanted to go through the National Parks in Wyoming and South Dakota and hopefully hit Montana or Colorado on the way back. We had a general idea of things we wanted to do but we didn't set anything in stone. The plan was to book hotels along the way as we go to allow us to make it up as we went along. Given that I’m a planner, it’s not the typical way that we would plan and prepare for a vacation but this time it made sense.
We ended up with a very late start to our trip because two days prior to our expected departure time, the breaks went out in the truck. We had our truck at the Ford dealer for a couple of days waiting for the mechanic to look at it and to get the right parts. Apparently there was a recall on the truck that was issued earlier in the year for a faulty master cylinder. We weren't even sure if we were going to be able to leave Saturday, as planned, but thankfully they were able to get it fix before noon. We packed up the truck and headed out on our first family road trip (something other than our annual drive to Idaho) and Jackson Hole, Wyoming was our first stop.
Since we weren't booking rooms until the day of check-in, our hotel choices were limited as this is a busy season for all of the sites we had in mind. We ended up at a little motel, a few blocks from downtown Jackson Hole, called the Golden Eagle. We ended up getting “the house” for the night, even though we booked a regular room. It was nice to have two bedrooms and all of the extra space for the boys to stretch out and play.
We spent the evening exploring the town of Jackson. We walked through downtown to a restaurant called Pinky G’s where we ate dinner. The establishment was voted best pizza in town and was famous for being on the TV show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. We tried their pizza and wings - which were both quite good, although the mild wings were incredibly hot for mild. After dinner we took our picture at the famous antler arches that surround the four corners of the downtown park.
Our last activity in Jackson was a ride on the Bridger Gondola, 9,095 feet up to the top of the mountain that gave us beautiful views of the valley below. On our drive to the gondola, we saw quite a few eagle nests and we even saw one of the majestic birds sitting atop a phone pole. It was beautiful something I wish I got a good picture of. The ride up the mountain was enjoyable although my fear of going over the bumps made for a few good laughs. Logan did surprisingly well controlling his fear of heights. There was still some snow at the top of the mountain that the boys insisted on playing in. They made snowballs and slid on their bums down the patches of snow. They laughed. They got wet. They got muddy and they had fun!
Dinner at Pinky G's
The famous antler arches in downtown Jackson Hole
Boarding the gondola ride
Logan was scared but he toughed it out.
The boys were so excited to play in the snow and slide down until their butts were soaking wet - then they froze.
Brothers are best friends
I forgot how beautiful the eagles nests are the line the road on the drive.
This was our house/hotel for the night at the Golden Eagle Motel. It cost more than a 5 star hotel but that's what I get for being spontaneous during peak travel season.
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