"You tramp around the Western and Southwestern U.S. for 17 days, you come to a conclusion: Camping is like being at a giant slumber party with a bunch of strangers.
You wake up and roll out of the tent, freezing and hair looking like Bride of Frankenstein. You're wearing three pairs of socks, two pairs of flannel pants, a long-sleeve shirt, a hooded sweatshirt and gloves (and you're still cold), somehow managed to jam on the hiking boots -- which are cutting off your circulation because of the three pairs of socks -- and sans contacts, you can't really see. The bathroom is a quarter-mile away and you unwillingly trudge there with your tote of toiletries in hand. The bathroom has one-ply paper, no hand dryer or paper towels, water that feels like it was piped in from the Arctic and a "mirror" that's been cleaned/polished so many times, what stares back at you is hardly your own reflection. Or is it? Geez, you look awful. It's been...what...three days since your last shower? Yeah, but who cares? This is the Great Outdoors. This is living off the fat of the land! OK, it's living off the fat of Pork 'n' Beans that you cooked the night before in a cheap pot that melted on the burner. And the "pork" was really just pieces of pig fat that you flung out in disgust. But still...this is Wild America! This is IT, people!" -Kim
Day 1: Hayward to Reno, NV.
Here's the route we took.
Well, as you can see from the photo, the trip didn't start out all that well. While I was waiting for Kim to come home from work, I decided to pack up the car so when she got home, we could be on our way. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I found the nail in our tire. As Kim and I were driving over the Dublin grade, Kim frantically called around trying to find a store that could replace the tire for us. Luckily we finally got a hold of a Wal-Mart and it only cost us 2 hours.
Day 2: Reno, NV to Jerome, ID.
Yes, Winnemucca is everything you've dreamed of and more.
Idaho? No, Youdaho.
This is a view of the Snake River. This was in Twin Falls, ID.
Here's the really cool looking bridge crossing the river.
The view from the other side of the bridge. Yes, that's a golf course down there.
Here's a spy photo of Kim writing in her journal while relaxing at the "beautiful" KOA Kampground in Jerome, ID. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of our meth-addict neighbors who let their 4 year old daughter jump up and down on the roof of their car like it was a trampoline.
Day 3: Jerome, ID to Craters of the Moon National Monument to Yellowstone.
I started the day off by parking on an owl. What he was doing at the Flying J at 7:00am, I have no idea.
Shhh... He's sleeping...
Here's a view of Craters of the Moon N.M. This is where the Apollo crew practiced, and where NASA tested the moon rover. And if you think they faked the moon landing, you're retarded.
This was our first experience with excersize at altitude. This hill wasn't that high, but take a couple of low-landers and put them at 7,000 feet, sit back and watch the huffing and puffing begin.
I was amazed that tree could grow that tall in such harsh volcanic soil.
This is was a spatter cone looks like What's a spatter cone? Why a tiny volcano of course.
Bleakness for miles around.
Kim on the rim of a cinder cone. Yes, step a little closer to the edge my dear. MWUHAHAHA.
A shot from the path to the lava tubes.
What do you mean the roof of the lava tube collapsed? I don't see it, point it out to me!
This is one of the few tubes you can hike through without the accompanyment of a park ranger.
This is a very long, fairly dark tube.
As you can see, the ladder stops on top of the rock pile. A scramble down the pile is required to get the rest of the way into the cave.
The exit at the end of the tunnel was just big enough to squeeze through.
And the lovely view of the end of the tunnel.
Horray Yellowstone! It's such a beautiful place.
This hitchhiker would not budge from the windshield. I even poked him with a stick, but he just hunkered down and the stick bent under the pressure. So I figured he was worthy of staying on the windshield.
Yellowstone is full of beautiful scenery like this.
My attempt at taking a photo for a Ford Motor Co. advertisement.
Yellowstone is also full of geothermal features. And yes, they smell like rotten eggs.
Bubbling mud looks neat.
Me admiring an erupting geyser.
Another photo taken unbeknownst to Kim. This was one of the trails by our campsite.
This was the beautiful meadow next to our campsite.
Me enjoying an undercooked hamburger.
Day 4 & 5: Yellowstone.
We spent the entire day crusing around Yellowstone and taking in all the sights. As you can see, the weather was a little fickle during our stay.
Some snowy mountains behind Yellowstone Lake.
A trip tradition. Me in a funny hat. I'm a Junior Ranger.
I can't remember what this thing was called, but I like to think of it as nature's pimple.
These are the thermal pools at West Thumb. These were neat because they were so close to Yellowstone Lake.
Bubbling mud caught in mid-spurt.
In This is what I imagine purgatory to look like.
This is Kepler Cascades. Very cool.
Ryan the environmentalist. Here I am fishing a ziplock bag out of a hot spring.
Warm springs flowing into a cold river.
This is called Grand Prismatic Spring. You can see from quite a ways away the spring gives off a blue sheen that seems to hover a few feet above the water line.
Kim thinks these are mule deer. I thought they were elk. Since there were no males around it was hard to tell what they are.
This waterfall was off the side of the road on the way to Mammoth Hot Springs. I can't remember was it was called.
Ahh, Mammoth Hot Springs. We drove an hour and a half only to find out the hot springs quit flowing in 1998. So now it is basically a dry mountain.
Kim was less than thrilled to find out the hot springs are no longer.
It was still neat looking.
Kim admiring the Mammoth Dry Springs.
Another vacation tradition. The self portrait.
This is Virginia Cascades.
Here's Kim's random "Lost" reference. On the other end of this cable was a French woman and lots of booby traps.
Not a very good view of the upper falls.
A shot of the rapids leading to the upper falls.
This is the lower falls. The lower falls is actually taller than the upper falls. The lower/upper just refers to where they are along the river.
This is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Kim and the lower falls.
There are often random traffic jams caused by animals. These buffalo obviously don't realize jay walking is a ticketable offense.
YAY! Baby buffalo.
A spy shot of me riding my bike.
Kim's attempt at being Ansel Adams.
This is Lone Star Geyser. It's 3 miles from the nearest geothermal feature which apparently makes it somewhat unique.
It only erupts every 3 hours. We just happened to make it there just in time.
Take that you loner geyser.
Click on the photo to see Old Faithful erupt.
This little guy was pretty bold and hung around our campsite. We called him ninja chipmunk. I got in a tug-o-war battle with him over a knife coated in peanut butter. I barely won.
This is a yellow bellied marmont. I called him Mr. Nibbles.
This is Natural Bridge. It was a decent hike up to the top.
The hike was worth it. The is the view from the top looking through the archway.
The hike to Natural Brige was interrupted by this sign. The still bloody bone kind of hammered home the idea of being in bear country.
Day 6: Yellowstone to Grand Tetons.
This was the shortest day of driving You basically exit Yellowstone into Grand Tetons. We had to get an early start so we could get our campground at Jenny Lake. From what I had read, this campground fills up by 10:00am. When we got there at 9:30am, there were only 3 spots left JACKPOT! After setting up camp, we ventured into Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
These are the Great Boobs... Er... I mean Grand Tetons.
Look at me! I'm a cowboy! YEEEHA!.
Wyoming grows some mean ass squirrels.
After Jackson Hole, we decided to hike up to Hidden Falls in Cascade Canyon. This is Jenny Lake.
Kim relaxing before the big ascent.
Kim not looking forward to the hike up the precariously placed trail.
It was worth it though. These falls were absolutely beautiful.
Here's a nice shot of Kim admiring the falls.
Day 7: Grand Tetons.
We spent most of the day hiking around Two Oceans Lake. The rest of the day was spent reveling in the fact we saw a moose.
Here's a shot of Two Oceans Lake. I think it's named that because it was as long as two oceans.
A cool shot of the Tetons behind Two Oceans Lake.
YAY! A real live wild moose. He was only about 30 yards away from us. The only way I noticed him was because I heard him chewing. Probably on the carcass of other unsuspecting hikers.
