From Bear Lake to Snake River then on to Yellowstone

By now we were around two thirds of our way through our Great Western journey and the miles had been steadily accumulating on Billy Bob's dashboard.  The USA is a wonderful place with many truly stunning natural wonders to see, but you don't half have to move around to see it all!  Still, we're on a 7 month holiday and as I learned recently from a friend, I doubt very much you're interested in our whining just because we have a 7 hour drive ahead of us.

Old boys gathered around an old truck in a small town

Leaving Don's castle was a bitter sweet moment.  We were chomping at the bit to get going because we were headed to Yellowstone.  However Don had been such a gracious host and Dani such an interesting companion that we were honestly saddened to say goodbye.  I think when we look back, those 6 days will hold a special place in my memory - 4th July, finding Indian relics, travelling off road and up a slot canyon, kayaking in a thunderstorm and meeting some lovely people.  We also learned something that angered me about how ignorant I am.

All through childhood I had been taught and shown on film how the "Red Indians" as we called them, would make whooping noises with their hands over their mouths and take great delight in removing the hair from poor old US soldiers and pioneers.  They were savages who just about managed to wrap the skins of buffalo around sticks to create those strange structures called tepees.

Doesn't that remind you of " Nummer 5 lebt (Short Circuit)

How utterly wrong we are.  Don and Dani showed us pictures of the wonderful city they had visited that had been built by the native americans hundreds of years ago.  It was like looking at something any other civilisation back in the days would have built - with perfectly normal housing and brick walls, roof structures and streets.  Not sure how many people reading this blog know this, but I for one was stunned and ashamed.  Apparently only a very few tribes who lived on the plains used tepees.

Adobe Headquaters

After this educational breakfast we bade them both goodbye, took a couple of quick photos of the huge beasts Bam and Boomer, then pulled out onto the Kanab streets.

This Photo is for my Godson Jamie.
He loves building side  equipment 

I wouldn't be me if I didn't annoy Julia a little with my antics and general absent mindedness, so it wasn't until we were half a mile down the road that I realised I had "lost" my phone.  Out came all the bags and after a quick unfruitful search, we drove back to Don's.  He and I did a once over of his truck and house and following an admission that I was an idiot, we left again, still thinking I had lost my phone.  As it turns out, a few hours later, I found my phone again, in one of the most obviously easy places to find it.....my backpack.  Berk!

Between Kanab and Yellowstone is a long stretch of highway that can't be called the most exhilarating drive in the world.  True there are moments, but on the whole it's a bit of a slog.  This time we had agreed to spread the load a little more judiciously though.  Rather than waiting for one of us to be knackered before we switched, we agreed to do a couple of hours then switch.  Which worked well, as we pulled into a petrol station just south of Orem and had a spot of lunch in the car then pushed on.

As part of the Gluten Free diet, we've had to figure out how to feed Julia without exposing her to gluten.  American highway food is unhealthy at the best of times and when you factor in allergies, what's left to eat is remarkably poor sustenance.  One of the dishes she's perfected though is quinoa.  What she can do with that stuff is legendary and so now we had made it a ritual to cook up a big batch before a long journey and have a few tupperware boxes to hand in our cooler.  So it was jerky, chicken breasts and quinoa for lunch on the petrol station forecourt :)

Driving up through Orem and then through Salt Lake City was interesting.  We drove past my old employer (Adobe) which gave me an opportunity to remind myself how lucky we were as I thought of colleagues I knew well who would be sitting at their desks in that office.  Then we drove into Salt Lake City and the traffic grew intense.  It was literally bumper to bumper at around 70 mph for miles of freeway; and EVERYONE was on their mobile phones!  I say everyone, but maybe that's a lie, perhaps there was the odd driver (and I mean odd....we're in Utah) who wasn't on their phone, but it was unbelievable to see them all driving with their phones held to their ears.

There are a few things where the USA just seems so backwards in comparison to Europe - recycling is one, definitely, the other is application of the laws against holding a phone whilst you drive.  We've all done it, but in the states its ubiquitous.

The road signs were also pretty interesting.....one such was particularly poignant in Utah.  

"Holding out Help" is an organisation offering help to those escaping a polygamist lifestyle! You just wouldn't get that kind of billboard in Europe.  There are loads of these kinds of examples of either witty slogans on random signboards, or downright strange calls to action from niche organisations as you drive the highways of the USA.

Next up was a first for us so far on this trip.....a journey to an unknown destination with nowhere booked for the night.  Between us and Yellowstone was Bear Lake, Snake River, Jackson and the Teton Pass and we hadn't decided where we were going to stay.  In the end we opted to stop at Bear Lake and try and relax that evening.  As we crested the mountain range before you came down into the Bear Lake area, the road became really pleasant and winding, with beautiful countryside on either side, and what was actually a huge body of water before us.  

In town literally 80% (if not more) of the houses were up for sale and with nowhere booked, we were worried we'd end up in a bed bug infested motel on the side of the road.  As it turns out, we found a beautiful little B&B that was just inside the budget and gave us a wonderfully quaint room to spend the night.

We had dinner as healthily as we could manage up in the golf course restaurant and here once again America reinforced this impression that it is truly a country where you could have anything if you had the cash.  The houses and landscape were beautiful - mainly holiday homes.  As it was summer, everyone was pulling a speedboat behind their huge trucks.  During winter its snowmobiles and skiing.

Staying with us at the B&B were a lovely couple from New Jersey who also hammered home how this was a country that was built on the backs of entrepreneurs - of the small businessman determined to be successful.  Jo and Karen epitomised the hard working and friendly American that we have so often encountered on the road.  People who straight off the bat have kindly and sincerely extended invitations for us to come stay with them.

This one is for Don ( his Hometown )

Next morning, after a wonderfully large (and gluten free) breakfast, we made it back into the car and onto the road, travelling along a highway that was truly in the back country.

Soon enough we arrived at the destination for the night on the banks of the Snake River.  Julia had booked us in to stay in a tepee by the river for a lovely romantic evening under the stars.  We did check out the tepee, but given there was a really very comfortable and well appointed upgrade to be had - we upgraded and spent the night in a real bed with excellent protection from creepy crawlies and mosquitos.  We were still in a tent and still by the banks of the river, just a lot more comfortable. 

Julia in the tepee - looking rather happy!

Our view from the bed

Very comfortable tent 

Being a man I of course set about building a fire as soon as I could, but the wind wasn't playing ball and blew the damn smoke straight into our tent, so we had to make do without the fire.  Instead we had a sunset dinner of frankfurters from the grill by the fast moving Snake River......all with a glass of wine, of course!  

It was idyllic and so peaceful.  That night we both slept like logs and only awoke in the morning because of some strange noises coming from behind the tent.  Perhaps a moose.....who knows?

Cheers

It was a wonderful spot I could have stayed another night

The following morning we had another schlepp ahead of us so we packed up as quickly as we could and moved on out - up to Yellowstone, home of Geysers, Bison, Wolves, Deer, Elk and Bears.  Seeing a bear was going to become an obsession with me over the course of our drive through the USA and I was excited by the prospect of Yellowstone, where there is a large population......apparently.

Whereas previously we had been relatively unimpressed by our drive through this part of the States, the drive up to Jackson was amazing.  The Teton Pass is possibly one of the prettiest and most enjoyable stretches of roads that I have ever seen.  It's almost like it was built for an episode of Top Gear.  Mountainous views, forests all around and a wonderfully winding road that is as smooth as you like.  We stopped briefly to pick up a man by the side of the road hitch hiking his way back to Jackson.

Hamish was a Scot with an interesting past who was now a writer and massage therapist to the rich and famous of Jackson.  I had (yesterday) discovered that Wyoming is a tax haven.....i.e. there is no income tax to be paid out here and then he confirmed this and told us that Jackson is one of the most impossibly expensive places in the USA.  As we arrived we could tell - it was exceptionally well kept.  We dropped him off at the post office, where we had one of our semi-regular stops to send off postcards and send a box of goodies and stuff we didn't need/want anymore back to Germany.

After Jackson, driving along a very straight and picturesque road out of town, we turned left onto the highway that would take us through Grand Teton National Park and down into the first ever National Park - Yellowstone.  That drive was again a wonderful experience, marred only slightly by the rubbish antics of the various tourists and camper vans along it.

Pulling into the parking lot of the Old Faithful Lodge, we were both pretty road weary and desperate to get out of the car and into the room we had booked.  At this point we were expecting to have to share a bathroom with our neighbours as we had left the reservations for this stop a little late.  Then, in one of those wonderful moments, the lady behind the reception desk looked up, smiled and told me that in fact we had our own bathroom!  Oh the luxury!

Beaming from ear to ear I returned to the car and gave Julia the good news, then we moved on round to our cabin and unpacked, ready for a few days exploring Yellowstone National Park.