Out West

Eryn and I visited Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming in late October with a bunch of her friends from high school—the same group we went to San Diego with last year.

We flew into Jackson Hole Airport (JAC). We wandered around Jackson a couple of times, visting various shops, as well as Snake River Brewing, Cowboy Coffee Co., and the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. We spent a few days wandering around Yellowstone and Grand Teton NPs.

Trees with autumn foliage line a street down which a white truck is driving. Behind the row of trees are some rolling hills, the tops of which are obscured in clouds. — Out for a drive

Some wooden buildings are spread sparsely along a country road. Behind them, the peaks of the Grand Tetons are visible behind smaller hills and mountains. — The view from our place

Our home base was a big house a few miles west of Driggs, Idaho. We cooked for each other. We spent a night out in the hot tub, with all the lights off, enjoying the stars. On the way to Jackson from Driggs one day we stopped for lunch at Grand Teton Brewing in Victor, Idaho. We played Sardines and Jenga.

Yellowstone

We spent one day in Yellowstone. We started with a hike up to a scenic view of Grand Prismatic Spring. Along the way we got pretty close to one of Yellowstone’s bison, who we named Barry. Then we saw Old Faithful erupt, and finished up with a hike along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, where we saw the Lower Falls. We stopped in West Yellowstone, Montana for dinner on our drive home that night.

A large, circular hot spring is steaming. The water is a vibrant blue-green, and the ground around the spring is a colorful explosion of reds, oranges, and yellows. — Grand Prismatic Spring

An American bison eats some grasses at the edge of a field. — Barry the bison

A waterfall is between two rocky cliffs. Behind the waterfall, the river feeding it can be seen meandering through a forest. The waterfall is tall; the water descends to the bottom of a canyon which is somewhat obscured. — Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

A corvid stares at the camera. It’s standing on the hood of a black car. — Car hood corvid

Grand Teton NP

We spent a couple of days exploring Grand Teton NP. Our first day started with lunch in Moose, Wyoming, a town that’s inside the park. After lunch we drove to Jenny Lake and hiked along its shores for a while, eventually ending up on a trail that led us along a bunch of String & Leigh Lakes’ eastern shores. Afterwards we drove up Signal Mountain to its lookout, from which we had a great view of the Snake River. We had some really nice views of Jackson Lake on the drive back.

Pine tress line the far shore of a lake. Blurry reflections in the lake surface echo the greens of the trees. — String Lake

A wooded valley lies between mountains. A blue river snakes through the trees in the center of the frame. — The Snake River from Signal Mountain

A smiling woman is standing in front of a lake. Beyond the far shore of the lake are two mountains. The woman is wearing sunglasses and a black puffy jacket. — Eryn at Jenny Lake

The next day, after grabbing lunch at Sidewinders in Jackson, we visited Mormon Row, a partly abandoned grouping of houses and barns with a beautiful view of the Grand Tetons. Afterwards we built cairns and skipped rocks at Lower Slide Lake in Bridger–Teton National Forest, and then watched the sunset from Schwabacher Landing.

A barn stands in a field below mountains. The slope of the barn roof is lined up with the rise of the mountain range behind it. The field is covered with yellow grasses. The barn appears abandoned. — A barn on Mormon Row

I had such a wonderful time. Eryn’s friends have all been very welcoming and inclusive with me.

The top half of the photo is of a rocky mountain behind a tree-covered slope. The bottom half is a near-mirror reflection of the top half; the mountain and slope were on the far side of a lake from the photographer. Text across the center of the photo reads “Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park.”