Our Grand Vacation

Well Jon and I returned from our lovely vacation yesterday evening. It was nice to get home fairly early; it was about 5:00.

We both had such a wonderful time! This was our first vacation alone together since our honeymoon and I was glad! haha I love going places with family and friends, but it was especially nice to spend this trip alone with my husband. We stayed in Jackson, WY in a cute little place called Wagon Wheel Motel. It was right off of the road that lead to the Tetons and the south entrance of Yellowstone. We were close to the little park with the antler arches. We toured the beautiful Teton mountains and most of Yellowstone. It snowed up there so it looked like Winter with fall leaves. It was so pretty!
Saturday morning we came to learn that they had just barely closed the south entrance of Yellowstone due to snow! They told us we could travel over to the west side but that was 5 hours away. So Jon and I decided we would just hope that they'd open it before we go home. So we spend Saturday driving through the Teton mountains. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! I had never seen such pretty places before. The sun would sometimes shine just right into these openings of the clouds that allowed us to see the mountains and it made them look so majestic! I was having such a blast taking pictures.
We stopped at a river bend to take a few pictures and were amazed at what we heard. We could hear wolves that apparently weren't too far away howling to one another. It was so neat! We had never heard wolves howl before. We wish that we could have recorded the sound because it was just so cool to get to hear that. How lucky we were.
At one spot we saw a heard of elk. There was one BIG buck with a ton of cows. He's definitely a ladies man I guess. haha The buck was so big. They weren't too far away. Jon immediately thought, "If your Dad was here, he'd say something like, 'If I only had my gun.'" haha
The Tetons were so pretty all the way through. I'm glad the gate to Yellostone was closed. If it was open we may had spent less time in the Tetons and would have missed out on a lot of beautiful places.

Sunday, they opened the South entrance so we spent that day in Yellowstone. It looked like Winter there and we were both glad. Jon was happy because there was snow EVERYWHERE and I was happy because I got to see what Yellowstone would looks like in Winter, at least somewhat, I know there was a lot less than there will be when Winter really does come. It didn't take long at all before we saw a buffalo. There was one walking alone along the side of the road. It wasn't bothered by us one bit. We (possibly stupidly) backed up after we passed it to get a better picture, which then did it very slightly look over at us but still had no interest in us at all. It was cool to see it then when it was so close to us, but in Yellowstone, the bison is the most easily spotted creature. We quickly stopped stopping on the side to take pictures of them. However, we were so lucky to be able to see a pretty good variety of animals. Sadly we never saw a cougar or moutain goat (I think we'd have to camp up in the high mountains for a while to see those) but we were able to see a fox, a couple of coyotes, the bison, a bear and a pack of wolves all in one day! Not many people get to see a bear or even wolves, and we got to see both! We were so lucky. It was probably only 15 minutes after we saw the bear that we saw the pack of wolves too. It was great. There was a very nice man with a huge scope that he let us look through to see the wolves much better. Without a close up lens, they looked like little black dots moving along the hill, but while looking through you could see them very well. It was a pack of I think about 15 or 17. Sadly, one was limping so it might not make it through the winter this year. But it was just so neat to see. We have never seen wild wolves before.

We were able to go through most of the park. The only part we skipped out on was towards Old Faithful, which both of us had seen before. We thought we'd tried to make our way there Monday if they had opened a road up that led that way but they hadn't. So we decided that rather than take the long way around, we'd see Old Faithful another time. We decided to head to Rexburg instead and see just how special Yellowstone's Bear World was. We went knowing that it wasn't going to be nearly the same experience as Yellowstone National Park itself, but were GREATLY dissapointed. We do not recommend it to anyone. It was a lot smaller than we thought. Granted, it was neat to see bears so close up, but it felt like a drive-thru zoo. It cost more to go through Bear World (which a ticket can last no longer than a day) than a weeks pass through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. It was cooler going through the petting zoo and watching the little bear cubs play in their small areas than the "big" part of the park with the grown bears. If we were there a bit later we would have fed the bear cubs, but we didn't want to wait. Anyway, it was fun to watch the cubs, pet a baby goat and fawn and I would have liked to feed the cubs, but overall we were dissappointed and won't be going there again.
We were glad to get home at a decent hour. We were able to still spend the evening together with a good date. Our little vacation was a wonderful one and I am so glad we were able to go. It was a lot of fun and we can't wait to go again.


I will post pictures soon. We took so many pictures and still need to go through to pick the best ones. Much love to everyone and hope all is well!