Rawlins, WY to Jackson Hole, WY
Today is the day! Today we drive to the Tetons.
Jason went and got us coffee from a “real” coffee shop instead of a gas station. This was the worst coffee of the whole trip. Eeeeeek. No amount of oat milk and sugar is fixing this.
Wyoming is a very interesting state to drive through. We are taking Chris’s rule of “fill at a half tank” very sseriously because it’s obvious why she said it. There isn’t much here off of the main trucking highway or the road to the Tetons. A few small towns, but nothing major.
The scenery kept us busy for awhile. So much to look at and so many changes on the road.
We were stopped for quite some time for road construction with a woman holding a STOP 🛑 sign and nothing else going on. Finally we realize that her car is broken and she is waiting to be jumped from the lead car on the construction site. Wow. What a way to spend 30 minutes.
This whole time we have no cell service. Nothing. So thankfully we had the names in mind of a few dispersed camping locations. We arrived in Moran Junction around 12:30pm and this was later than we heard we should be arriving to get a spot. Jason decided to call the state park and see if they had suggestions on where to go. We talked to a very nice lady who directed us to the Pacific Creek Camping area. There is both a campground and dispersed camping in this area, so we have plenty of opportunity to find a spot.
The America the Beautiful pass is going to get a lot of use this week! We have to drive through the Grand Teton National Park to arrive at our campsite. The road is about 10 miles of dirt and thistles but it was easy peasy to drive down. The anticipation of knowing if we would find any spot was killing us but we were playing it chill.
We pull up to the first set of sites. Jason looks at site 2 and comes and gets me. It’s settled over large evergreens and there is a private walkway back to a creek. It was beautiful. My issue with the site was that we couldn’t see that far in any direction. I wanted some sight lines because— well we are in Grizzly country. They make the rules. We live by them.
Jason agrees to keep going and we find another set of sites together. We drove down to the actual campground but everyone was on top of each other. Plenty of open sites but not the feel we wanted for a week. We headed back to the dispersed area.
Site number 8 caught our eye. Very open. Right on the creek. The last site of 3 on the driveway in. It felt really right. Plus- I mean- it’s number 8. It is a pretty important number in our lives haha. Did I mention that horseback riders went right by our site every 30 minutes or so? Far enough away to see but in my mind- why would a bear come near here when there is a line of horses constantly walking nearby? It felt logical at the time.
We would be settling in for the next 5 days here. This would be our home. I felt very good about this location. Finally was able to get a little swimsuit time in too. Water was cold like our house in Maine, but well worth it! We brought the pups on an exploration of the area.
Now it was time to go see what we were here for. The Tetons! We didn’t see it on the way in because of the directionally we thought. Truly it was also because of the haze from the wildfires. It didn’t make it any less impressive.
You always learn when you explore. I had no idea Jackson Hole wasn’t an actual town but a name for an area. Jackson is the name of the city we were closest to. We were very impressed. Greta vibes to start it off!
We went to StillWest Brewery to get a drink and some WiFi to make a plan for the night. We talked to some interesting people, including a guy trying to get us to bring the dogs on a gondola ride and he’d be our tour guide. 😬uhh we’re good thanks!
The two beers available weren’t the type we love, but we tried them out and moved on. There was a cool farmers market closing up and we watched some great people watching. Then we saw Thai Me Up brewery and decided to ask what the wait was. They said 45 minutes and Jason originally said no but I told him we could sit and have a beer outside and wait and he agreed. We are on vacation! It’s okay to wait a minute to have an experience.
We noticed a new group of people who were also waiting and they were apprehensive to come near us with the pups. They were laid out all over the ground so there didn’t seem to be room. I called them over to us and moved the pups. What a simple thing to do with a massive impact to our trip.
Turns out, a few of them are locals. And they knew exactly where to send us for food and hikes around town. They told us about the haze from the wildfires and when the mountains would be in clear view. It was a great conversation and honestly part of me wanted to crash their dinner reservations and sit with them because they were very interesting people. Our phone went off saying our table was ready and we said our thank you’s and goodbyes. Bear even gave one of them a kiss. So cute.
Thai food is some of our favorite. We have a few places back home that are our go-to’s but this would be my place if it was at home. I absolutely can’t say no to shishito peppers and these were so good! Then my entree with coconut milk and the perfect amount of thai spice- omg I want to go back already!
My first tofu in weeks!! I was so excited! Jason ordered shredded chicken for the dogs—- they were pretty excited too.
We headed back to the campsite and I wish I had taken more time because there were so many stars out! I looked up and told the sky I would be back to take pictures tomorrow. Quietly the sky laughed at me.
Vegan On the Rhode 