Jeeping in the High Country...Colorado

Before I begin, I forgot to show a map of the trip we did over the summer holidays.
21 000 kms, (13 000 miles) 21 US States and 4 Canadian Provinces.

We got back from Summer break on the Thursday night, and on the Saturday we went on a Jeep trip organized by CITEL (the Colorado Teacher Exchange League)  They organise a few events over the year for the Australians on exchange and it's always good to go and catch up with the other Aussies, compare and share stories, and to hear our accents en masse (there were 15 of us Aussies, including kids, on the Jeep Trip).
The Jeep Trip is organised by a Colorado teacher (Kyle Houghton) who went on exchange to Adelaide 6 years ago.  When he got back from Australia, he offered to take Australian exchangees up the mountains 4WDing and it has become an annual event. He puts a notice out on the internet and people answer, volunteering their time and their jeeps to take us out.  It is such a great idea and really appreciated.
So we all met at the carpark at Keystone (up in the mountains) and were offered a choice of 2 rides...the really scary one or the not really scary one, but a little bit scary.  Stu and Joshuah chose to go on the really scary ride and I went on the gentler one!! They each had their own driver and Joshuah got THE best jeep!..and the driver did his best to make it a memorable ride for Joshuah, driving over every huge boulder he could possible get near to!!

I went with my friend Sharon, who is also living over here on exchange with her husband Lindsay and we got to go with Kim, our driver, who was bloody fantastic...the tracks were steep, narrow, rocky, windy and she was so composed and relaxed...telling stories and not missing a beat. She made Sharon and I feel so comfortable.

When I first arrived in Denver I found the altitude particularly confronting...mainly blood noses and headaches.  The solution is to drink plenty of water.  After being away from Colorado for 10 weeks, I immediately started getting blood noses and headaches again when we returned. So going up into the highlands only a few days later made it even worse. I knew I had to drink lots of water, but when there is nowhere to go to the loo privately you don't want to drink...BUT you also don't want the altitude sickness! AND the more you drank, the more you needed to go to the loo and the more rocks Kim drove over!! Such a dilemma!  Anyway I had to bite the bullet and drink heaps. Below is our first wee stop...no shame.. no bushes!! Blokes turn away! Later on we did find a more private solution for Kim, Sharon and I...Kim had a blanket in the car and 2 of us held it up for privacy while the other person (amidst hysterical laughter) went to the loo behind the blanket!  But it was a very picturesque toilet break.

It was a great day...such beautiful country (again). I know I say it over and over!

 This was the road I watched Stuart and Joshuah come up on.

 We got to see some mountain goats, who made their way up just as we were leaving the lunch site..

There were tracks all around the mountains and we came across hikers, off road bikes and plenty of other jeeps.  There are some real enthusiasts out there!

 Some of the rocky track we drove on.  The jeeps didn't miss a beat.

 We all gathered at the top for a picnic lunch overlooking the spectacular views.

 It was a fabulous day...we were so appreciative of all the Americans who gave up their Saturday for us...although I have to say, they are all pretty enthusiastic about 4WDing, so perhaps they didn't need their arms twisted too much.  Sharon and I in particular had so much fun....so much laughing in Kim's little jeep.. we shall call Michelle!!

At the end of the day, all of the Aussies and a few of the drivers, went into Dillon to a pub and had a meal together.  This was the first time I had met one family who have exchanged to Durango, so it was great to catch up with Sue and Warren and enjoy a few drinks and a meal together.  This was where we discovered West Aussies speak betta than the rest of Australia..."Stu, can you buy me a beeya please".
Here's a link to a video Stuart made of our day up in the mountains...
Colorado High Country, Jeep Trip..August 17th
Another great day, great experience, great fun, great company and great countryside!

Grand Tetons NP....Wyoming

We left Yellowstone and immediately crossed into Grand Tetons NP, which is in the North-West part of Wyoming.,  There were plenty of roadworks which caused delays....(roadworks are everywhere during Summer in the US),  but the best delay was caused by this....

 I guess they have to do roadworks in summer as the winters are so harsh. Jakeb and Morgan had been here a month or so prior, so it was a nice thought that we were visiting the same turf.
This scene also caused major traffic jams, but well worth it!

I was driving and there were loads of cars pulled over to watch these bison.  It was so exciting to watch them, until one headed for the car....but they are quite oblivious to people and cars, so he was actually chasing another bison and wasn't after us!
The road was a great sightseeing road..bison on one side and the Tetons on the other side, which were GRAND!!

There were places to pull off all the way along the road and the one we took turned out to be the best as it gave us our first moose sighting....in fact we saw 4 moose...mums with their babies.

They are such dopey looking characters...Rocky and Bullwinkle always comes to mind, but to see them in the wild is fantastic!

 It was getting late so we stopped in at Jackson Hole to get our supplies and made our way to our accommodation...a cabin about 40 mins from Jackson Hole, but to get to it you had to drive up and over a very steep Pass....and we could feel the car not agreeing with this workout.
This was the cabin we had...it was great...big, spacious, 2 bedrooms, washing machine, dryer, huge fridge, microwave, tv, hot tub and a really big kitchen counter which reminded me of home.

 The view from the backyard...not quite the estuary, but very impressive.

The next day was our day of exploring the Grand Tetons....up and over the Pass again...

and onto a quiet, gravel road into the Park.  We did stop at one spot for about 1/2 hr because we THINK we saw a bear....let me say, a lot of time was spent looking at trees from afar, imagining movement around it, but nothing eventuated.
We stopped in at the Visitor's Centre, which I thought was one of the better Visitor's Centre's we'd been to, especially as you were allowed to pick things up and be silly with them...without getting growled at...(only by your 17 yo son!)

 The antlers and horns were surprisingly heavy and I can only imagine the delight the animals must feel when they shed them.  What a load to have to carry around.

So we spent the next few hours driving around the Park taking in the scenery...

Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake

There were threatening clouds all day and a few drops of rain, which made for some beautiful scenes over the lakes and mountains.

 Check out the rainbow below.....

We also went onto a gravel road far from anyone looking for wolves (as you do), but didn't see any sign of them.  Josh gave a shout out to them with no luck...

so we changed tack and went and looked for some more bison....and what we came across was like a scene from a movie...

We hadn't seen a moose on this day, and had heard there were some up at a Ski Village, so we did the big detour and made our way up there.  Again, no moose, but we did see the moon get cut in half by a jet stream...

There were signs everywhere that "so many" moose had been killed on this road in the past month so be aware, but we thought they were having a lend.  There were no moose...until...ANOTHER traffic jam....because, on the side of the road, in someone's front yard, there we saw it....

So we were able to go back to the cabin in the knowledge we had spotted our animal of choice...nothing like leaving it to the last minute.

The next morning, Stu and Joshuah got up early to do a 7 mile hike...again in search of wildlife (mainly moose).  Unfortunately Stuart's conversion from miles to kilometres was way off the mark and it turned out being a 26 km hike up and down valleys, through creeks, clambering over rocks...

 It looks like Joshuah is doing his Sound of Music impersonation here....no...he's just finished kicking the head off a flower!!

 Poor Josh got a blister, so ended up doing a lot of the hike with one boot on and one boot off.. ...he should have gone with his (never fail) hiking thongs!

The wildlife spotting was sparse, but just before they finished the walk they got to see a moose...

Here's a link to a video Stu made of our time in the Grand Tetons...

Grand Tetons

So they got back to the cabin just on dark, feeling tired and sore.  Every time we have stayed somewhere with a hot tub, Stuart starts saying we need one at Australind!!  EVERY TIME!  Well, after walking 26kms, and every muscle aching, he climbed into the hot tub and got instant relief.  And, the next morning got in again and had no soreness, "so Jen, we really need one".  My argument is, how many mountains are there like the Rocky's near Australind, to climb, to justify a hot tub??? But a great way to end our last night of holidays.

We got up early the next morning to head back to Denver.  It was a 12 hr drive, so we decided to drive straight through.  We had got the car serviced before we left and it had done really well, but in the middle of Wyoming on the Highway it overheated and we had to pull over with 200kms to go! Fortunately we had water on us (Dad would be proud!!) and topped it up, making it to Cheyenne.

So it was with heavy hearts we hit the Denver traffic..

 before we got back to the house around 7pm.....

After visiting 21 US States, 4 Canadian Provinces and driving 21 000kms (13 000 miles) in 10 weeks, we are back in Denver, and Joshuah and Stuart are back at school. We have 4 months to go and just about every weekend is planned!  Looking back, we can't believe all the fantastic places we got to see over the Summer break. There is still so much to see and do so we are making the most of every opportunity.