Jackson!

9 hours later we arrived in Jackson, WY!!!!!!
It is pretty much St. Lawrence extended and, it was so fun seeing all the familiar faces! We loved it so much that we stayed for a week.

Once again, since a picture is worth a thousand words and we have about 1000 pictures we are going to do a picture blog. Hold on tight...

As we were driving in, an amazing sunset was ready to greet us:



Day 1: Huckleberry Natural Hot Springs






forging the river






natural hot spring full of amoebas that can kill cha if ya drink it





After we were all toasty, da boys went fly fishing as the girls decided to wander around town...













Day 2:
The girls went for a hike around String Lake in the Teton National Park. Our dear friends Abby Clark and Hilary Burt were our guides on this beautiful day:





















the girls (thank you self timer)













It was a fantastic day!! That night we made some delicious homemade pizza for our hosts,






Then we went out on the Jackson town, I really wish we had some pics but we were too busy dancing with real cowboys.



a great mural we found in a bar

Day 3:
We woke up early to hike Snow King. The smaller ski mountain that we could walk to from Ab's house. It was a steep but very rewarding hour and a half with a view overlooking all of Jackson.















Later that night the girls cooked at Abby's and made a delicious dinner of chicken, Brussels sprouts with apples and shallots and a good salad. Our friend Allie Knetzger, who transferred from SLU to go to Boulder and now lives in Jackson came over with some wine and a local six pack. We had a great evening chatting and catching up. At about 9 we headed to the boys to meet up before going to the Silver Dollar for Tuesday bluegrass.

Day 4: We visited Abby at work for happy hour and wings.

Day 5: October 20, Molly's birthdayyyy!!
This was a great day. We woke up and decided to go for another one of the hikes in the Teton Park. For lunch we stopped into Pearl Street Market and bought a picnic that consisted of a baguette, some Brie and apples.
Driving into the park we saw our first west coast moose:







Naturally we were hungry as soon as we got to the park





















After a great hike in the park we were ready to celebrate for the birthday girrrl! The ladies got pretty and the boys giot handsome as the SLU crew gathered at The Q Roadhouse BBQ.







Thank you Farrells for a fabulous and fun dinner!! Afterwards, we headed into town for a night on the town, in true SLU fashion.








And this is where the pictures stop as the night continued.

All and all this week was perfect! We needed some time to take a break from the road, get some good R&R, hang with old friends and see some amazing sites. THANK YOU Abby, Grant, Henry, Teddy, Kallene, Chris, Bill, HilDog and Allie!!

Rocky National Park

After Denver we me made the short trek to the Rocky Mountain National Park. In true GART fashion we got a much later start than expected and drove through Estes Park and into Moraine Park at night. Excited that we were camping in a national park we decided to camp on a hill so we would have a beautiful view in the morning. We even put the fly on the tent backwards so the shorter side of the fly did not fully cover the screen side of the tent and allowed us to have a view while still in the tent (we now just realized how absurd this fabulous idea was).

We never set out to travel gracefully and this becomes more and more obvious to us with each passing day

At around 1am we all woke up to the walls of the tent billowing and whipping in the wind. We had yet to stake down the tent since we left. While setting up the tent earlier that night we thought it would be a good night to use to stakes but after a few minutes of rummaging through the trunk and Thule we came to the conclusion that we had lost them. We laid therein the tent, barely spoke a word and tried to rolled over and went back to bed.

We woke up soon after as the wind continued to catch the tent and pull the walls inward. Keefe thought the fly might have been one of the reasons the wind was successfully whipping the tent. Molly and Keefe went outside and twisted the fly around securing it accurately. Back in the tent we, yet again, rolled over to fall asleep hopeing this small change would end the collapse of the walls.

We woke up (again) soon after to the tent lifting off the ground as well as the walls of the tent completely engulfing us.

Lilly and Keefe decided to take matters into their own hands, they brought four boulders into the tent and placed them into the corners, acting as the stakes would.

This seemed to be the perfect solution until the next gust of wind came and didn't successfully lift the tent but rather, or more dangerously, rolled the boulders towards our heads. In addition, the wind had to go somewhere so instead of lifting the tent it now just flattened it on to us.

Making some minor changes such as moving towards the bottom of the tent we managed to catch some much needed zzzz's.

We had a slow morning taking in the beautiful snow covered Rocky peaks. We also witnessed in full day light the stark difference between how seasoned travelers keep their camps compared us carefree GARTers.


one of these things is not like the others



the morning after






we're still confrazzled...how do they do it?

We packed up our haphazard camp and set off to cross the Rocky Mountains en route to Wyoming.



our view from our campsite, we weren't crazy after all for wanting a great view first thing in the am





the road was closed due to ice :(


these people had keys but closed the gate before we could squeak through.... So we had to turn around and retrace our steps alll the way through Boulder


at least we saw an elk (for the millionth time)


So our plan to drive through the Rockies and head to Jackson changed and we spent ANOTHER night in Boulder with our trusty hosts Will and Addison. Thanks again guys!

Love,
GART

Boulder Betchezzzz

We rolled into Boulder early Saturday night. We stayed with Will and Addison (more Tyler Place friends) and two born and raised Boulderites. We ordered some amazing pizza from Cosmos, and chatted with our hosts. Addison was planning on going on a hike the next day and wanted to show us Boulder from a birds-eye view. But before all of that we wanted to see Boulder from the college perspective seeing that it was a Saturday night, our hosts dutifully showed us a night on the town.

The next morning we woke up and Addison made us a great breakfast as we got on our hiking gear and headed to the Flat Irons.















Addison pondering






We almost lost Lil



flatirons



str8 chillin


here we are still in one piece, altitude and all







They live in an apartment building for student housing (Addison goes to CU Boulder) and so with all our crap, the four of us literally took over the entire living room. So thanks guys!