Road Trip!

When my daughter invited me to drive with her from Ithaca, New York, to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I jumped at the chance. It gave me a rare opportunity to spend time with her, and a chance to enjoy a quintessential American experience: the road trip.

We covered over 2,200 miles in three and a half days so she would arrive in time to start her summer job with the National Park Service. It made for a tight schedule, but we still fit in visits to two friends and a couple of sightseeing stops along the way.

Our longest stop was at Badlands National Park, just a few miles south of Interstate 90 in the southwestern part of South Dakota. Eager to stretch our legs after hours in the car, we jumped out at the first parking lot and hiked the Door Trail into the beautiful, but forbidding landscape.

Having only visited the Badlands once before, briefly and on a grey morning, I was surprised at how colorful it is, and how lushly green the surrounding plains are.

We were delighted to see quite a few big horn sheep, none of which seemed bothered by gawking people or cars rolling past.

Since it was so late in the day we drove the Badlands Loop Road, then headed back to I-90 and Wall Drug for dinner.

Wall Drug is an unabashedly touristy spot, but the only option for many miles around, and worth a visit for the sheer spectacle of it. If you want a momento of your travels, you can certainly find one here. 

On our last day we crossed Wyoming, watching the prairies give way to mountains.

Our final stop before reaching Jackson Hole was in the tiny but colorful town of Dubois. The barista at Perch Coffee House kindly pointed us down the street to the local yarn shop, Wyoming Wookworks. I knew it existed because I had seen a lovely blog post about it, and it is definitely worth a visit. Anita Thatcher, the proprietor, gave us a complete tour.

It is crammed full of all kinds of wool and crafty items. You can buy yarn, much of it locally sourced,

and all kinds of finished items, from handmade saddle blankets

to small gifts.

And then it was over the Togwotee Pass to Jackson Hole and the really big mountains! I've flown in to Jackson Hole many times, but I have to say that there is something special about driving in and watching the landscape slowly unfold in front of you.

One other important benefit of a road trip in which you share the driving with someone else: time for knitting! On my flight from Austin to New York I cast on a new sweater, the cropped cardigan from Vogue Knitting's early fall 2014 issue. I have already finished the back and am halfway through both front pieces.

Wishing everyone safe travels on their summer adventures!

The Gentle Side of the Tetons

The Tetons are probably America's most easily recognized mountains, a row of peaks shaped like shark's teeth. (Note that the Tetons were named for their resemblance to something else, but that is because it was men, no doubt starved for female companionship, who did the naming.) Bounded by steep faults in the rock, the mountains rise sharply along the western edge of Wyoming's Jackson Hole valley.

Teton sunset from Mormon Row

Hikers who venture into Paintbrush, Cascade, Garnet, Avalanche, and Death Canyons, the main routes into Grand Teton National Park's back country, quickly find themselves amid enormous boulder fields with canyon walls towering up on both sides.  Although some of the hikes are daunting, gaining thousands of feet of elevation over only a few miles, spectacular scenery and easy proximity to the road naturally draw many hikers.

Hanging Canyon

The west side of the range is a very different story.  Most of the trailheads are miles beyond the highway, at the ends of poorly maintained gravel roads.  The trails themselves tend to be much gentler, climbing open slopes that reflect the underlying westward dipping rocks.

Along the trail towards Grizzly Creek

Last month I spent five days on this gentle side of the Tetons as part of a geology field trip. Beginning at Coyote Meadows trailhead we hiked up Bitch Creek to the uppermost reaches of Grizzly Creek, just outside Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). It was a lovely spot, though thankfully it didn't live up to its name.  No bears, grizzly or black.

Our second camp, about five miles south of the first, was a greater challenge to reach as the trail crossed over two steep ridges and several times disappeared entirely in lush meadows.  Picking it up again took sharp eyes and good map skills.

The difficulty in finding the trail reflects just how little frequented this area is. Not counting a few people very close to the trailhead, I didn't see a single person outside of our group for the entire five days.

Another advantage of being on the west side of the range is seeing dramatic sunsets over the plains of Idaho.

But best of all are the enormous high meadows that, even in late summer, are filled with wildflowers.

For an even tamer side to the Tetons, here is my now completed quilt made with vintage blocks that I acquired at a Jackson Hole garage sale years ago.  I finished piecing it last summer, but waited until I was a little more sure of my skills with a long arm machine before attempting to quilt it.

The blocks were foundation pieced (by hand and by machine) so the finished quilt has a little more heft to it than most quilts. As I mentioned last summer, I used vintage scraps to complete the blocks.  The funny thing now is that I can't positively identify all of the pieces I added.