Y-Stone
Two weekends ago I made a somewhat spontaneous trip out to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks with Megan. It was, in a word, awesome.
We set off on a Friday with a cooler full of food and cookies and wine and nothing but wide open Idaho highway between us and Wyoming. 7 hours later we rolled into Jackson just in time to catch sunset over the Tetons and wash up and dress up and catch an incredible Italian dinner with my parents (note to self: need to get some prosciutto and arugula for that pasta dish). Next day we wake up to dawn on the Tetons and hit Yellowstone hard - Old Faithful, various other geysers and hot springs and geothermal wonders, hiking, wildlife-ogling, tourist-ogling, spotting out-of-state license plates, and chewing our way through several packs of Bubblicious. We roll back into Jackson exhausted again in time for another lovely dinner at a brewpub, more good times with the parents, and only a few hours' sleep before another long day, this time rockin' Grand Teton. More hiking, more ogling, and then a few hours' rambling through Jackson proper (including a real sweet 50% off Smartwool sale!). Post-Tetons we hit the highway for the strange and wonderful Craters of the Moon, where we make camp on the windiest patch of volcanic gravel I ever did sleep on. There may or may not have also been wine and a few rounds of fortune-telling with M.A.S.H. After a quick tour the next morning of Craters' windy, surreal sights, we book it back to the big O R, exhausted but happy.
In case you want to see some pictures of, you know, the actual sights of western Wyoming in its glorious late-spring beauty, you can check them out:
(Oh, and a few shots from Craters of the Moon National Monument and Arco, ID, too)