Road Trip Day 19 - Pocatello Idaho to Cody Wyoming

Brooke, Jen, Paige, Michael, Greg
 and John

This is my family saying goodbye in Pocatello to start Day 19 of the Epic Road Trip.  With my car loaded with treasures and fuel, it was time to get back on the road.  I aimed the Santa Fe north toward Idaho Falls with the idea that I would go through Jackson Hole Wyoming and then north to Yellowstone then east to Cody.

Jackson Hole Wyoming

Jackson Wyoming is in the Teton Mountains and is in a "hole" formed by the billions of years of the formation of the mountains. At the top of the 8,500 ft pass looking down onto the Jackson Hole was amazing.  I absolutely love the mountains!  Maybe that is the one thing I miss in the midwest - mountains.  Paoli Peak just is not a real mountain.  Sorry to my friends in Indiana.

The town of Jackson is really quaint and very full of tourists, mostly from other countries.  Lots of Asians and people speaking languages I did not know.  There is a park in the center of the tourist part of the town with four huge arches made of antlers over
the pathway.  Probably one of the most photographed sights in town.  There were a lot of people on bicycles and miles and miles of bicycle trails.  The bicyclists who rode to the top of the pass amazed me most.  I had trouble breathing at that altitude.  How did they do that?

Tetons

The magnificent Teton Mountains outside of Jackson are breathtaking!  Even with my iPhone camera, you get an idea of the grandeur.  Somewhere along the way at almost 10,000 ft elevation I crossed the Continental Divide.

I had planned to head north into Yellowstone but somehow managed to head east and took a very round about way to get to Cody.  Sometimes I depend too much on the GPS and end up where I never imagined I would be.  But this trip I am letting the serendipity of the wrong turns to show me amazing and new parts of this great country.  Turns out that the drive was about 80 miles longer but was amazing!  And there were no crowds of tourists!  Yellowstone is worth battling the tourists to see, but the wide open spaces are really amazing, too.  There is so much history out here.  Part of the route followed the Big Horn River through a gorge that had strata of rock dating back hundreds of millions of years.  It is really hard to describe the natural beauty in words.  Breathtaking is the only word that comes to mind.

Cody Wyoming

Cody is a lovely little town about 50 miles east of Yellowstone.  Before I leave Cody, I want to check out the Cody Western Museum and the Friends Quilt Store.  Those go together, right?  History and quilts?  Then I am off to Hartville Wyoming to see my nephew Scott Harmon and his lovely wife, Christine.  Going to try to take a northern route so it will take a bit longer but want to just because I can.

Onward!