July 07 // Colter Bay Campground, Grand Tetons National Park. Wyoming [link to photos]

Day two. We left Rapid City at a relatively reasonable hour, shortly after 8:30 am and having grabbed a borderline acceptable continental breakfast and Starbucks coffee to go. With a spring of anticipation in the air, we were excited to be underway and make our way towards the Grand Tetons for our very first night of camping together. Yes, our first. We’ve never camped together as a couple before, so this was sure to be a memorable experience for us both.

A vacation wouldn’t be a vacation without a little travel adventure, more specifically a little travel misadventure. When I planned our route with Google Maps, I was extra careful at navigating our route, making note of when and where to turn and what highways or intersections to change course. I plotted our journey on paper and printed out maps of general areas that we would be arriving at and trusted that my directions would be reliable. Of course, that was also assuming that the signs we would encounter would be clear and direct.

I guess I shouldn’t take anything for granted, should I.

Our first mistake was near Buffalo, Wyoming, where instead of taking the Hwy 16 exit going west, we continued on I-90, for the signage seemed to point us towards Yellowstone and gave no mention of the Grand Tetons. So we made the incorrect assumption that that street was not the right exit because it only said “to Yellowstone” and failed to include “Oh… and the Grand Tetons… those HUGE mountains south of Yellowstone.”

It wasn’t until ten minutes later that we just didn’t feel right about continuing on I-90. Recalling that it was I-90 that goes through Montana, we turned around and took the poorly labeled exit for Highway 16 and were back on course, just 30 minutes behind schedule.

Our second mistake was a bit more severe, but still recoverable. When we arrived at Wortland township, we were to connect with Highway 20 and proceed south. But when we arrived at said juncture, the two directional options we were offered was east and west. Because we were headed west, we chose west. Right?

Wrong.

We were about 30 minutes out of Wortland when we stopped for gas and a bathroom break to grab a map. I just didn’t feel right about where we were going and had to confirm with a real, live map. And again, we were off course and going the wrong direction. From looking at the map, we were literally going SOUTH on Highway 20, but apparently it is east/west; and to go south you need to go east. Go figure.

So that set us back another 45 minutes or so.

Oh, but we can’t forget the additional 15 minutes I tacked onto our travel time with a little encounter with the Wyoming highway patrol. Apparently they don’t really like it when you go 80 in a 65 mile per hour zone. Go figure, eh? As the officer stepped up to my window, he collectively said, “I don’t need to tell you why you’re being pulled over, right?” He calmly stated that I was going 80 in a 65, grabbed my license, and headed back to his car, where he sat for about 15 minutes. While enduring the verdict, we pondered out loud the things he might have been doing, such as confirming with Homeland Security that I’m not a wanted unibomber, or have been running from the law with some strange woman posing to be my wife of eight years. Or that I was a secret operative for the Taliban, disguised by this Swedish-Norwegian exterior.

He eventually returned back with a clipboard in hand — that’s never a good sign. It invariably means that you’re going home with a homework assignment. After explaining that I have my option of paying the fee or visiting a remote court house in the middle of August (which isn’t going to happen), he told me that my fee would have been $85.00, but because we were wearing our seatbelts he gave us a ten-dollar “discount.” Great, we got the “I’m wearing my seat belt” discount.

Back on our way, we drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, until we finally reached the Grand Tetons National Forest area by about 6:45pm and to the gate by about 7:30. We had a bit of a set-back because of some construction going on the road through the forest roads. They were reducing the curve of a switch-back and it was down to a single lane of traffic, where they’d stop it both ways, work on the road a bit, stop, let one lane through, then let the other lane through, then resume working until both lines are backed up again.

Driving through Wyoming has been an incredibly diverse experience for us. First passing through rolling hills with jutting rock formations, to white rock formations freckled with foliage, to red rocks plateaus and jutting shapes of varying sizes. But perhaps the most dramatic scene was coming up to the Grand Tetons in the evening sky. With still a few hours of daylight left, the Tetons were hazed over from smoke, steam, debris in the air, and the general change of temperature from the warm days to the cool evenings.

The park is relatively large and seemed like it had quite a few options for places to camp and things to see. Our first choice, Jenny Lake campground, was full, and we opted for something close by and on a lake and ended up here at Colter Bay. Though our actual site is a few clicks away from the lake and we’re near plenty of other campers, the lake itself is worth coming here for. It’s just so peaceful to sit at the foot of a large lake and seeing these massive mountains reaching for the sky, with snow pack offering some contrast and depth.

It really is hard to believe that we’re here, in the Grand Tetons, both of us in our tent — Natalie reading her book and me journaling away on my Mac about the day’s adventures. I feel tired enough now, though, that I’m ready to retire for the night. It’s been an exhaustively long day and I think I’m ready for a good night’s rest.

July 7, 2008, 7:28 pm

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