We Made it to California!

Hello All! Sorry for the delay in the last post--the internet was slow at Keyhole State Park. That feels like forever ago now. When Darren and I go to bed at night, he often says, "I can't believe where we were this morning and where we are now." We have made great timing and are now in Calistoga, California. We are staying here for 3 nights at a Best Western, which feels like complete luxury considering all the camping we've done in the past week. The last time we slept on a mattress was in Wisconsin at my cousin's house. In the past 9 nights we've slept in the car once, on our lovely air mattress 7 nights, and in the mattress in Wisconsin once. Also, I hate to admit, but before last night, we hadn't showered since Wisconsin... I'll let you do the math on that one...

We are going to be completely spoiled here in Calistoga with hot showers & a mattress. Did I mention that our hotel also has a heated outdoor pool, hot tub, & steam/sauna room?!

Let's get you all caught up on our travels since Keyhole State Park on Friday night:

On Saturday, we woke up at our typical 5 AM wakeup and packed up camp and headed to Yellowstone! We stopped at Sierra Trading Post to pick up some warm gloves to wear in the mountains. It's freezing at 5 AM taking down a tent and packing up the car! Any who, we ended up spending some money at Sierra Trading Post because of a 25% off all apparel sale for the holiday weekend. I got gloves, yoga pants, and a shirt. Darren got a Buff headband (I've stolen it many times to keep my ears warm) and North Face shorts for hiking etc. Money well spent! After that we headed into the mountains for Yellowstone. The drive there was amazing. We drove through Bighorn National Forest, which is gorgeous in itself. There was wildlife everywhere--deer, bison, elk, etc. Unfortunately, as we left Cody, WY a deer ran out into the road as we were driving, and it hit our car. Luckily, it just bumped the back of Darren's Mazda and was able to keep running across the street to join the other 30 deer (I kid you not) lounging under trees.

Entering Yellowstone we stocked up on the usual: postcards, stickers, & maps. We enjoyed the car ride through the park to our site at Madison Campground. We stayed there for 2 nights and good thing we made reservations ahead of time--the campground was full both nights! Finally, a night where we stayed 2 nights in a row. We didn't have to pack up the tent on Sunday morning, and we were able to sleep in until 7:30! We had an eventful weekend. We watched bison and their young cross a river near our campground. We even named a few of the babies: Pooper and Zipper. We went to Old Faithful and watched it "erupt." We also had a guided tour with a park ranger of the Upper and Lower Falls. The ranger taught the group the history of the formation of the falls along with some Shoshone tales. It was quite educational.

Bighorn National Park 

Bison and their young near the river by our campground

Old Faithful

Me at Old Faithful

Sulfur from the geysers...stinky!

Darren infront of an erupting geyser

By Old Faithful

Elk!

Upper Falls

 On Monday morning it was back to the grind... we woke up at 5 AM and packed up for The Grand Tetons Mountains. We had a very interesting drive there. I drove through rain, snow, sleet, and hail. Darren made sure I wore my glasses! I'm typically the early morning driver, so that Darren can snooze in the passenger seat while I enjoy a gas station coffee. There's no DD around these parts!

Once we got to the Tetons, we claimed a site at Jenny Lake Campground. I HIGHLY recommend this campground if you are planning a trip to the Tetons. It's tenting only and sits at the base on the mountain range, so the views are indescribable. We cooked a big breakfast on the fire and "tanked up" for our 7.1 mile hike around Jenny Lake. We met Jim and Lauren, another couple hiking the trail. They were very nice and invited us over to their site at the campground that night for a camp fire. Overall, the Tetons have been my favorite National Park that we've visited. The weather was picture perfect!

The Grand Tetons

Panorama of The Grand Tetons

Tetons

 

Hiking the Hidden Falls trail

Jenny Lake... Do you like Darren's Buff headband?

A forest fire killed many of the trees from a portion of the hike

Hidden Falls

Our campsite at Jenny Lake Campground. D is in the hammock!

 On Tuesday morning, Darren and I took our time packing up our site and cooked another nice breakfast. We decided to head to Nevada 1 day early due to poor planned weather coming into the Tetons. We arrived to South Fork State Recreation Area before sunset. We were extremely excited about this campground because it had SHOWERS!!! We cleaned up, cooked dinner, and watched the sunset before heading to bed.

This morning, our alarm went off, and let me tell you... It was difficult to wake up. I was exhausted, cold, and it must have been cloudy out (so I thought) because it was still dark. Turns out, Darren didn't set his watch alarm to accomodate for the time change, and we woke up at 4 AM instead of 5 AM! By the time we figured it out we had already packed up the sleeping bags and had just rolled up the air mattress. We stopped for a large coffee and Darren took a good 1 hour snooze in the car on our way to Carson City. We enjoyed a great Thai lunch at The Basil Restaurant. Then we drove around Lake Tahoe (another gorgeous place I need to venture back to) and made our way here to Calistoga. We drove past vineyards and discovered that my favorite wine--Franciscan--has its vineyard just 15 minutes  away from our hotel! We plan to do a wine tour there tomorrow or Friday.

Lake Tahoe. I shall see you again someday!

Wow! That was a lot of info! Time to upload pictures and head to bed. We have a lot of wine to drink tomorrow! hehe Goodnight xoxo

***If you want to see the pictures enlarged, do NOT click on the "P" that hovers over the picture. Click anywhere else on the picture.