Oregon Trail: Wyoming Day 2

Thursday night as we went to bed, there was a lot of concern among guests at our hotel about the weather on Friday. Most of us were holed up for the night hoping to go to Yellowstone on Friday. There was snow already on Wednesday that closed some roads temporarily and then a little more snow on Thursday, but the real snow was expected early Friday morning.

At midnight Thursday/Friday morning, I checked the NPS web site to find that snow had closed most roads in Yellowstone. And NWS issued the following statement:

WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM MDT SATURDAY

* IMPACTS...TRAVEL IN THE HIGH COUNTRY WILL BE AFFECTED BY PERIODS OF HEAVY SNOWFALL. HUNTERS AND RECREATIONISTS SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR DANGEROUS WINTER CONDITIONS.

* TIMING...THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT. HEAVIEST SNOWFALL IS EXPECTED LATE THIS EVENING THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING.

* TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION...10 TO 15 INCHES, GREATEST ON EASTERN SLOPES ABOVE 7000 FEET IN THE CRAZY MOUNTAINS. 10 TO 20 INCHES, GREATEST ABOVE 8000 FEET IN THE ABSAROKA/BEARTOOTH MOUNTAINS.

After days of shorts and tee shirts, when I awoke on Friday morning, I went for long pants, a down vest, and a rain jacket. It was 28 and snowing when we woke, the sagebrush surrounding the hotel covered in snow when I took the dogs out. A recheck of the Yellowstone web site showed even more roads closed than at midnight. There was probably no getting into the park from Cody.

We walked down to the lobby where they regularly post road conditions for Yellowstone and started talking to the local maintenance man who had a pretty good grasp of the roads. After our chat with him, it seemed a sure bet that none of the passes over the mountains was open.

We Awoke to This

Plan B. We had planned to do Yellowstone on Friday and Grand Teton on Saturday, so we thought about flip-flopping days, visiting Grand Teton first. Yeah, not so much. The same storm that closed the passes into Yellowstone also closed Togwotee Pass into Grand Teton National Park. It was a no-go. We could have just holed up for a day to see how things went at Yellowstone, but there is a big world out there and I had a sense that we needed to keep moving west. That said, I have a buddy in Ogden UT that I was dying to see, so we headed the only direction that the snow would let us: south for I-80 and Salt Lake/Ogden.

Starting Out: Roads are OK

In Good Spirits in Spite of Snow

So hating to back-track but dealing with the inevitability of it, we headed southeast towards Thermopolis, home to hot springs, to pick up US-20. A bonus of taking this route is that we would be able to drive the length of the Wind River Canyon, the beauty of which I had even heard about back in Virginia. As we headed south, the snow worsened and at one point, it looked like we were going to have a very tough go of it. A benefit of the snow was that dozens of magpies and hundreds of pronghorn antelope were standing out against the stark white background as we passed, making them very easy to see.

Snow is Getting Worse

Once we got south of Thermopolis, the snow let up just in time for us to head into Wind River Canyon. As wonderful as Tensleep Canyon was the day before, Wind River seems even more spectacular, probably because the walls are closer and it seems even more intimate. The Wind River running over spectacular rapids in the bottom of the canyon was beautiful and clearly a great trout stream: we saw dozens of fly fishermen up and down the river.

The Wind River starts up in Bridger-Teton National Forest and flows east along the Owl Creek Mountains, but then it turns abruptly north through the Wind River Canyon that bisects the Owl Creek and Bridger Mountains, the southern boundary of the Bighorn Basin. North of the canyon, the river is renamed the Bighorn and it flows north into Montana to join the Yellowstone.

House-Sized Boulder in Wind River Canyon

Those Trees are Full Sized

Wind River

Clouds Above the Canyon

Another View of Wind River Canyon

A Creek/Waterfall Between Rock Formations

Deep Cut Through Pink Granite

Pink Granite Detail

Pink Granite and Sagebrush

One of Several Tunnels, Wind River Canyon

When we got to US 26 in Shoshoni, we checked the road conditions and found that Togwotee Pass on the Continental Divide in the Absaroka Mountains was now open so we rolled the dice for Grand Teton and Jackson Hole. I texted my friend that weather conditions had changed and that we wouldn't be in Ogden after all.

A fair while later, the little sun that was weakly shining disappeared again and as we passed Pilot Butte Reservoir, we saw two Bald Eagles perched in a snag on the side of the road, overlooking the water. Figuring I probably might never again have the chance to see such a site (I would, two days later in Idaho), I stopped and did a U-turn. An oncoming Wyoming State Trooper saw me turn and then pull off the road so he pulled up to see if there was a problem. I told him we stopped to see the two bald eagles in the tree over his shoulder. He looked over and saw them, flipped me a little salute, and wished us on our way.

Bald Eagles, Pilot Butte Reservoir

A little while later, we started seeing a prominent butte north of the roadway, and finally got about even with it 25 miles past the reservoir. Crowheart Butte was so named for a battle at its foot in 1866 between the Shoshones/Bannocks and the Crows, who had been given hunting rights to the area that is now known as the Wind River Reservation. The days-long battle ended in a stalemate. As the story goes, Chief Washakie of the Shoshone would battle Chief Great Robber of the Crow to the death to break the stalemate. Washakie prevailed and rather than scalp his enemy, he cut out his heart and displayed it on the end of his lance, a tribute to Great Robber's courage. I would have never known had we not stopped to read a roadside interpretive sign.

Crowheart Butte

Continuing on and up into the Absarokas, conditions deteriorated until I had to go to 4-wheel drive up and over the Continental Divide via Togwotee Pass at 9658 feet. There was already a lot of snow above 8000 feet and it was snowing hard with several inches on the road. It was a tense, white knuckle drive through the mountains.

Snow in Bridger-Teton National Forest

Road Conditions Gone to Hell

We finally emerged out the other side and down below 7000 feet once again, it had stopped snowing. I could finally relax as we made our way into Grand Teton National Park, on our way to Jackson Hole for the night. As we neared the valley floor, even with the cloud cover, we both were nearly awestruck at how beautiful the Tetons are especially with the Snake River running at their feet. These sharp mountains don't seem like they belong in the US. We had the feeling of being in the Swiss Alps.

Out of the Mountains! Grand Teton

Tetons, Spectacular Even on Cloudy Day

On the way into town, while I was driving, Ann had been trying to secure us a room. We had no idea at the time that rooms would be scarce. She finally found a vacancy and nearly gagged at the price: $400. She declined and continued to look for rooms as we headed into Jackson Hole to Snake River Brewing. We decided to hole up at the bar there and continue our search for lodging over beers, thinking at least the beer could help temper our frustration.

Snake River Brewing, Jackson Hole

After Driving: Much, Much Needed

The beers were good, but I've got to say that the food at Snake River Brewery was really, really good and our first non-bar food of the trip, a much needed break for our palates. This pork belly ramen was really quite delicious. I might have wanted the pork belly cooked a bit longer (little chewier than it should have been) and it was in a really dark pho-style broth rather than a ramen broth, but absolutely delicious.

Pork Belly Ramen: Non Junk Food at Last!

While we were at the bar, Ann and I took turns trying to find a place to stay. We weren't having any luck so one of the servers suggested a couple of outlying places to check. No joy. With no luck, I started trying hotels in Idaho Falls and was coming up empty as well. WTF? Finally, out of desperation, we threw in the towel and took the $400 room at the Snow King Lodge, a couple minutes max from the brewery downtown.

We met a couple of young ladies from Minnesota at the bar who were out visiting a friend who lives in Jackson Hole. We chatted with them for a good long while and they invited us to come to some bar with them later on in the evening. Ultimately, the noise and the frantic pace of the brewery drove us to want to leave. It being an off-season late Friday afternoon, I would not have expected it to be so full or so noisy. The beautiful people posturing for each other finally drove us to throw in the towel and head to the hotel to get some peace and quiet.

Busted! Do They Care?

Alas, peace and quiet was not at the hotel. We found ourselves in a room surrounded by rooms with ornery kids screaming and making all kinds of racket. And then at 8pm, one of the housekeepers decided it was time to vacuum the hallway. Ann went out and said something to her (I do not want to know what) and the vacuuming stopped. For $400, we got an OK room that was a bit dated (no place for electronics chargers, etc.) and less nice than some of the La Quintas that we stayed in en route here.

And so our day that we planned to spend in Yellowstone, we spent traveling to Jackson Hole. It looked like the weather was moving out and we might actually have clear skies on Saturday to see the Tetons in the sun and also to visit Yellowstone on our way to Idaho Falls.