#ERT_2015 Day 2 - Yellowstone National Park to Glacier National Park

We woke up to ice on the car (and some people's tents, but we were partially sheltered under a tree and stayed a bit more dry. A bit). It was COLD. And wet. But we got the heat running in the Jeep and packed up fast to get on our way to the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone." It had been almost 10 years since I'd been to that part of Yellowstone, and as always it did not disappoint!!

Cold, wet tents! Brrrr.

PC: Ally Miyazaki

You guys. I really like my phone.

We continued on our merry way and soon encountered snow. On the ground. It was really beautiful, but I was glad I was in my warm and cozy Jeep and not backpacking through the area!

We didn't see any wolves. :( But there's probably one somewhere in this picture.

We made a quick stop at Mammoth Hot Springs before we hit the road to head to Glacier.

We were really glad we didn't have to wait in that line to enter the park!!

We made a quick stop at Flathead Lake for dinner. It was stormy, so the water wasn't as clear as I'd hoped. We also discovered that we had set up the electric cooler wrong, and a bunch of food had gone bad. (It had gotten plugged in to the "heat" setting instead of the "cool" setting.) That was a serious bummer, but, c'est la vie. After that we only had a couple more hours of driving before we made it to Glacier! 

We saw several little fawns on the side of the road, listened to some fabulous classic rock (I'm pretty sure Sirius put on Stevie Wonder just to cheer me up after the cooler situation), and a double rainbow - yes, all across the sky. We made it to our gorgeous campsite by Lake McDonald and managed to get our tent completely dry by the time we needed to go to bed. Yay!

Our first campfire of the trip! Yay! Thanks Brady!

#ERT_2015 Day 1 - Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks

If you haven't heard about how much time I spent planning this road trip, check out this post where I talk about the ins and outs of planning an "epic" road trip!

After over a year and over a hundred hours of planning, "Day 0" was finally here! We were going on the road trip I had been looking forward to for AGES. Once we had our rental cars, played a little tetris to get everything in the cars, and everyone filled their water bottles and emptied... other things ;), we were on our way!

1278 - I've NEVER driven a car with so few miles on it!!

We made our way up to my family's cabin near Star Valley Wyoming, where my awesome mom had lasagna waiting for us. (Best mom ever!)

It was awesome to be back at the cabin, even if it was only for a second (or at least what felt like only a second!)

In the morning my mom made us delicious breakfast (I told you, she's the best) and we were off on our merry adventure. First stop: the Tetons.

And we're off! Thanks mom for the picture. :)

The first thing we did was, of course, take the obligatory sign picture.

The Tetons, of course, were spectacular as always, clouds and all.

Then it was off to our next stop - Yellowstone!

Once we got to Old Faithful, we all had the opportunity to split up and do our own thing. Most of the gang stayed to watch Old Faithful erupt, but Brady and I headed to the rest of the Geyser Basin and Morning Glory Pool.

After dinner, we all met up again, watched Old Faithful erupt one more time, and headed off to our camp.

Waiting for us at camp were a few deer that my friend Ivy got a picture of, and a long wait to check in because something in the office dryer had caught on fire and they had to evacuate! Whoops. Once the fire department came and gave the all-clear they were able to check us in, and we headed to our site. After setting up our tents in the cold rainy night we hunkered in for a chilly night's sleep! The main thing we learned that night is that Brady and I would really love to invest in a double sleeping bag. ;) It got below 30 degrees... on July 27th! BRRRRRRRRRR.

Apparently pay phones still exist! This guy was actually talking to someone. Blast from the past.