Day 14: Real Idaho Potatoes

Yellowstone to Grand Tetons and Victor, Idaho

Waking up in West Yellowstone, MT to a cold, wet, and foggy Sunday morning was a nice feeling considering we would not have to sleep in a tent for another frigid, rainy night. We dried off the tent as best we could, and stowed it for our drive to Jackson, WY, just south of Grand Teton National Park. Like many of our other drives, we journeyed through vast farmland and amazing views. The Tetons were in view shortly after leaving West Yellowstone, and they became bigger and more jagged as we drove further south. About two and a half hours after starting our drive, we arrived in Jackson. Earlier in the trip, we had considered doing some white water rafting in this area, but we had not really looked into it. However, as we reached Jackson, we saw many rafting companies. We ended up stopping at a place that advertised white water kayaking trips, and we thought it looked awesome. We signed up for tomorrow, eagerly looking forward to getting soaked in the Snake River.

After leaving the Rendezvous Rafting Company, we had a great lunch at MacPhail's Burgers where neither Drew nor I had a burger. But the food was delicious nonetheless. With rain forecasted for the mid-afternoon, we quickly entered the park and got to the information station to ask for a recommendation for a quick hike. The ranger suggested the easy four-mile long Taggart Lake trail, and as it was already 1:15 and rain was supposed to arrive by 2:00, we scurried onto the trail and began hiking very quickly. It was a relatively flat hike and we were almost at a pace of a slow jog. However, as we kept hiking and hiking, we realized that somewhere we took a wrong turn and, as we learned only after completion, we did the Bradley Lake trail too. This added another two miles onto the trek, so the quick, easy, beat-the-rain type of hike, ended up pushing our luck of staying dry. However, we were able to see the lake and the rain started coming down as we reached the parking lot. As Drew jokingly put it, "Our luck had not yet dried out."

Entering Grand Teton National Park

Jumping in front of Grand Teton on Taggart Lake Trail

Our next destination of the day was Victor, Idaho, which is where Christian, Drew's trail guide from his trip to Peru earlier this summer, had invited us to stay in his home for the night. Victor, Idaho has a population of under two-thousand people; it is one of those rural towns that we passed through many a time on our road trip and thought, "who lives in these places?" We turned off the main road onto a couple of unpaved roads and found the address with relative ease. The house is a very quaint wood home, appropriate for a dwelling near the mountains. From the time we walked in the door, Christian and his wife Sue made us feel at home. Their four and a half year old son, Nico, is quite the energetic young fellow and was almost instantly climbing all over Drew and I, asking us to play a game called "Dead Man" on the trampoline. The game involved one person closing his eyes, trying to tap another who was jumping and running around. It was interesting to say the least, but was very fun nonetheless. We also helped Christian put up a fence around their plethora of home grown vegetables and fruits in the gardens. Everything is organic or sustainable around here. Accordingly, the dinner did not disappoint. Sue made a delicious meal of chicken, a lettuce salad, a kale salad with goat cheese made from a neighbor's goat that Sue had milked, local Idaho potatoes, pesto, olive bread, and local beer. Along with Drew and I, Christian and Sue invited their neighbors over for dinner, and they gave us some great advice on where to stop in Idaho and Oregon. By now, the weather was turning sour and the winds had picked up dramatically. About an hour later, though, the dark clouds were passing and the sunset was showing through the clouds over the mountains. This scene encapsulated a beautiful day.

Sunset over the mountains in Victor, Idaho