Flying into Jackson Hole. Spectacular!
Taggart and Bradley Lake hike. This was a 5.65 mile loop trail with fantastic views of the Tetons. Michelle suggested this trail as she hiked it back in November.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Day 1 - 7/20/13 Travel day and hike
Here are some photos from day 1.
Flying into Jackson Hole. Spectacular!
Taggart and Bradley Lake hike. This was a 5.65 mile loop trail with fantastic views of the Tetons. Michelle suggested this trail as she hiked it back in November.
Flying into Jackson Hole. Spectacular!
Taggart and Bradley Lake hike. This was a 5.65 mile loop trail with fantastic views of the Tetons. Michelle suggested this trail as she hiked it back in November.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
1 Day and a Wake Up
Hard to believe that we are only 1 day and a wake up before we leave for Wyoming! Our bags and backpacks have been mentally packed for weeks. It's reality time and pretty much everything is ready to go. The General Manager at the Ranch has emailed us about three times in the last few weeks getting us all excited; suggesting items to remember; and if we need transportation from Jackson Hole. Just being a great host and we aren't even there. This is gearing up to be an epic trip. Next post should be Day 1...so stay tuned!
Saturday, July 13, 2013
One Week Away
I know this is a lame post, but it's really starting to feel real. We are one week away from our next adventure. We are so ready to get away from the rat race here in Maryland and find some new experiences out West. It's time to dust off the luggage!
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Count down
Two weeks and counting. We are finalizing our lists and making purchases (clothing and some batteries for electronics). We have one more excursion to book, which is a float trip on the Snake river. The excitement is building!
Monday, July 8, 2013
Master's Class in Logistics
This post is dedicated to a Master's class in travel planning and logistics, especially when you are expecting to visit a National Park that has approximately three million vistors each year. In this case procrastinators need not apply. As mentioned in our last post Cindy and I vowed to revisit this park 25 years ago. A lot has happened since then, and a lot was going on leading up to nailing down this trip.
As everyone knows change is inevitable. We were originally planning a trip to Italy to attend a friends destination wedding on the Amalfi coast; and just for kicks add in Rome, Florence, and Venice. Our friends wedding plans changed so we needed to change gears and do so quickly. We put Italy on hold and decided to visit another series of National Parks as we have done in the past several years. Most of our viewers recall (see my Facebook Timeline) our trips to Denali, Wrangell-St Elias (<--largest NP in our country and established in 1980), and Glacier Bay in Alaska in 2009. Then in 2011 we had a reunion of sorts for Cindy in Glacier NP in Montana, as well as Banff and Jasper NP in Canada. Last year we had a wonderful trip to Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks in Washington State.
Since Yellowstone and Grand Teton have always been high on our list it was a easy pick, but required a lot of thought, which included spreading out maps on the dining room table, and this technological marvel called the Internet! January of 2013 is when the Italy trip was shot down and this trip was put into full steam ahead.
While searching Google for lodging in Wyoming we saw advertisements (no wonder Google makes a boat load of money) for Dude Ranches and thought that looks like fun. This was not even part of our thought process when we started this journey, but cool things like this happen! We looked through several available ranches around Jackson Hole and narrowed it down to the all-inclusive Goosewing Ranch near Kelly, WY in the Teton National Forest.
All inclusive in this case includes 2/4/6 hour back country horseback trail rides, fly fishing, rifle and archery ranges, hiking, an ATV assigned to our cabin, and all three square meals for six days. Oh and did I mention breathtaking views in and around the Grand Teton mountains!
Booking this Ranch in January was absolutely the right thing to do since they only have eight cabins and our schedule was limited to the peak season. Key here...the early bird gets the worm!
Now onto lodging in a very busy National Park. In order to get the best experience out of the number one Park in the country we searched through the various accommodations in Yellowstone trying to find a central location for a base camp so that we could spread out our hiking and sightseeing options on all points of the compass. We selected the Canyon Village area and were lucky to book a cabin near this spectacular view!
The main lodges in National Parks can be very pricey during peak summer season so buyer beware. We will provide pictures and commentary in just a short few weeks.
The other accommodations that we selected involved the western way of life, cowboys, and rodeos. So we researched the Cody, WY area since it was well known for all those things listed above. This is where the Master's class continues. Cody is great but we wanted to find a location half way between Cody and the East entrance to Yellowstone and a jumping off place for our side trips...better known as Cindy finds a new deer trail! We located Wapiti which was perfect for our needs and booked an old (yes that picture was taken last year...jk) travel lodge called the Trail Shop Inn.
From this location we have a 225 mile loop road trip planned that will take us into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area, Gallatin National Forest, Custer National Forest, across into Montana, and back along the Beartooth All-American Road/Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.
As everyone knows change is inevitable. We were originally planning a trip to Italy to attend a friends destination wedding on the Amalfi coast; and just for kicks add in Rome, Florence, and Venice. Our friends wedding plans changed so we needed to change gears and do so quickly. We put Italy on hold and decided to visit another series of National Parks as we have done in the past several years. Most of our viewers recall (see my Facebook Timeline) our trips to Denali, Wrangell-St Elias (<--largest NP in our country and established in 1980), and Glacier Bay in Alaska in 2009. Then in 2011 we had a reunion of sorts for Cindy in Glacier NP in Montana, as well as Banff and Jasper NP in Canada. Last year we had a wonderful trip to Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks in Washington State.
Since Yellowstone and Grand Teton have always been high on our list it was a easy pick, but required a lot of thought, which included spreading out maps on the dining room table, and this technological marvel called the Internet! January of 2013 is when the Italy trip was shot down and this trip was put into full steam ahead.
While searching Google for lodging in Wyoming we saw advertisements (no wonder Google makes a boat load of money) for Dude Ranches and thought that looks like fun. This was not even part of our thought process when we started this journey, but cool things like this happen! We looked through several available ranches around Jackson Hole and narrowed it down to the all-inclusive Goosewing Ranch near Kelly, WY in the Teton National Forest.
All inclusive in this case includes 2/4/6 hour back country horseback trail rides, fly fishing, rifle and archery ranges, hiking, an ATV assigned to our cabin, and all three square meals for six days. Oh and did I mention breathtaking views in and around the Grand Teton mountains!
Booking this Ranch in January was absolutely the right thing to do since they only have eight cabins and our schedule was limited to the peak season. Key here...the early bird gets the worm!
Now onto lodging in a very busy National Park. In order to get the best experience out of the number one Park in the country we searched through the various accommodations in Yellowstone trying to find a central location for a base camp so that we could spread out our hiking and sightseeing options on all points of the compass. We selected the Canyon Village area and were lucky to book a cabin near this spectacular view!
The other accommodations that we selected involved the western way of life, cowboys, and rodeos. So we researched the Cody, WY area since it was well known for all those things listed above. This is where the Master's class continues. Cody is great but we wanted to find a location half way between Cody and the East entrance to Yellowstone and a jumping off place for our side trips...better known as Cindy finds a new deer trail! We located Wapiti which was perfect for our needs and booked an old (yes that picture was taken last year...jk) travel lodge called the Trail Shop Inn.
From this location we have a 225 mile loop road trip planned that will take us into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area, Gallatin National Forest, Custer National Forest, across into Montana, and back along the Beartooth All-American Road/Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.
This ends our Master's class in travel logistics. Now it's all about the actual journey!
Packing is next...
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Logistics
Logistics is always a fun part of all our adventures. Cindy and I have learned over the years that planning, careful selection, and implementing those plans early is crucial to any successful trip. The planning for this trip started about 25 years ago when Cindy, Michelle, and I drove through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks during our Air Force assignment move from Texas to Hawaii.
We only drove through Grand Teton NP and spent two nights in West Yellowstone, but we really enjoyed all of it and vowed to return someday. Reality is about to come true!
This trip we are planning to stay in the following locations: Jackson, Goosewing Ranch (inside Teton National Forest),Wapiti (Shawnee/Cree Indian name for Elk) near Cody, and three days at the Canyon Lodge inside Yellowstone NP. A total of 14 days will be devoted to this adventure. I will provide detailed logistics in my next post.
This trip we are planning to stay in the following locations: Jackson, Goosewing Ranch (inside Teton National Forest),Wapiti (Shawnee/Cree Indian name for Elk) near Cody, and three days at the Canyon Lodge inside Yellowstone NP. A total of 14 days will be devoted to this adventure. I will provide detailed logistics in my next post.
Monday, July 1, 2013
The Adventure is near!
Hello viewers. This is just the beginning of what hopes to be an epic adventure in Wyoming during the Summer of 2013. Cindy and I will be traveling soon and as you can imagine we are really getting excited about all the new sights, sounds, and smells that life in and around the Goosewing Ranch www.goosewingranch.com, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone National Parks can bring us. Stayed tuned!
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