You can read Joseph's posts below for the day-by-day account of our journey. It was a really fun trip - the boys had a great time and we got to explore a new part of the country we hadn't been to yet. Lots of mountains, really small towns, and miles and miles between exits (and gas stations!).
All in all we drove 1879.7 miles over six days. We started in Bellevue Friday afternoon, and spent the night in Spokane, Washington. On Saturday we drove from there across the Idaho panhandle, through Missoula and Butte, Montana, down back into Idaho, and then across the Teton Pass into Wyoming. The Teton Pass is at an elevation of 8000 ft, and it was snowing as we were driving - and starting to stick on the road. Our minivan barely made it on the narrow road with lots of switchbacks.
We spent the next two days in Jackson, which bills itself as the quintessential Western town. It's a very quaint downtown with lots of saloons and restaurants. There was some snow on the ground there, though when we went outside of town there would be as much as 3 feet of snow on the ground. We went skiing at Jackson Hole on Sunday, and drove up into Grand Teton National Park on Monday. Yellowstone National Park is just north of there, but the roads are closed as they are still covered in snow.
On Tuesday we started our journey back - it was snowing again so we detoured south of Teton Pass, and drove into Idaho where we made a short visit at the National Potato Museum (in case you're wondering, Blackfoot Idaho claims to be the world's potato capital!) and Craters of the Moon National Monument - which is an awe-inspiring stretch of 6-million year old lava flows. The scenery on this part of the trip was particularly beautiful, as it was sunny and we could actually see the tops of mountains. We ended Tuesday in Boise, Idaho, and on Wednesday drove back from there, along the Oregon Trail into Oregon and then into Washington.
You can check out the top ~25 photos from our trip at this link.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
4/5 - Spring Break Trip - Part 5
DAY 5 – It’s our fifth day on our big spring break driving trip, and we’re leaving Jackson, Wyoming. After grabbing a quick breakfast in our hotel, we checked out and headed for our first destination – the Idaho Potato Museum, in Blackfoot, ID. It’s not a giant place, but it had the basic history of how the potato came to Idaho, how it’s planted, how it’s harvested, stuff about French fries, potato chips, and lots of other potato information. After that, we headed towards Craters of the Moon National Monument. On the way, we drove through Butte City, Idaho. It had a huge population of 76 people. Then, we drove through Arco, ID. Arco was the first city in the world powered by only nuclear energy. Finally, we arrived at our second stop of the day – Craters of the Moon National Monument. Craters of the Moon is a neat landscape of tons of mini craters on the ground, making it look a little like the moon. While we were there, there was snow in most of the craters, but we couldn’t tell if it made it look any better or worse. We went inside the visitor center, and took a walk about a half-mile along the road inside the park, which was closed in the winter (April is winter in Idaho). After leaving behind the lunar landscape, we headed to Boise, Idaho, where our hotel was. Boise is the largest city in Idaho, as well as the state capital. After arriving in Boise and eating dinner at Outback Steakhouse, we fell asleep for the last time on the trip.
(ID Potato Mus.)
(Craters of the Moon Nat'l Mon.)
Clouds and mountains in Idaho
Our trip is almost over. Tomorrow, we arrive home around 6:00 PM. Make sure to check days 1-4 (below) if you haven't already.
4/4 - Spring Break 2011 Trip - Part 4
DAY 4 – Monday was our second full day in Jackson, Wyoming, and we went to the nearby Grand Teton National Park. Grand Teton is known mostly for the Teton Range, which is part of the Rockies, and for Jackson Lake, near the beginning of the Snake River. The Snake River flows from its source just outside Yellowstone NP, through Idaho and Oregon into the mighty Colombia River. Because April in Wyoming is still winter, there were a couple feet of snow on the ground. The main outer road was plowed and open to traffic, but the main inner road was not. Even still, we were able to drive the outer road, and see some of the scenery. It was quite cloudy, so we couldn’t see the tops of the big mountains like Grand Teton, a 13,000 foot tall mountain. Also, Jackson Lake was frozen over. It’s about 10 miles long, and at the foot of the Teton Mountains. Even still, the scenery was much better then what we saw while driving on day 2. On the way out of the park, we saw a couple of moose. Neither of them had antlers, but they got nearly 20 feet from the road! Then, on the short drive from the park entrance back to our hotel, we stopped at the National Elk Refuge. There were two gigantic herds of elk there, and we could see them from the visitor center just outside Jackson.
Here are some pictures I took of the places we went today. Remember that you can click on them to see a bigger version.
Lots of elk
(You can see them if you click on the picture)
Monday, April 4, 2011
4/3 - Sping Break 2011 Trip - Part 3
DAY 3 - Its Sunday - and its time to do something fun (other than driving). We spent the day up at Jackson Hole Ski Resort, skiing on one of the best ski resorts in the country. It was the last day Jackson Hole was open for the season, and we arrived just in time to do some skiing. We arrived around 9:00 in the morning, after taking the city bus up there. The skiing was great, as it had just snowed, and for some of the time it was actually snowing. When we got there, it was relatively cloud-free, but by the time we had lunch around 1:00, you couldn't see where the smallest lifts ended. Not only was the skiing better, the lifts were also an improvement - they were really fast, so we spent less time sitting on the lifts and more time skiing. This allowed the older kids (Jack and Joseph) to get in over 20 runs down the mountain. Henry was also going up the lifts and down the slopes, after going down for his first time a week or two ago. We had lots of fun, and can't wait to drive into Grand Teton National Park on Monday.
Henry on skis
A view from the top of the LOWEST ski lift
You can see mountains, with the city of Jackson, WY
Jack on skis
Make sure to check the posts for Day 1 and Day 2 (below) if you haven't already!
You can see mountains, with the city of Jackson, WY
Make sure to check the posts for Day 1 and Day 2 (below) if you haven't already!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
4/2 - Spring Break 2011 Trip - Part 2
DAY 2 – Saturday was the second day of our big spring break trip, but all we did was drive. We started the day in Spokane, and ate breakfast at a Krispy Kreme just outside of town. Then, it was nine hours of driving straight, from Spokane, Washington, to Jackson, Wyoming. After leaving around 7 am, we drove 3 hours to the town of Missoula, Montana. After spending half an hour at the Elk Foundation Museum, we got back in the car for 6 more hours. After we got past Butte, MT, we started heading south on interstate 15 towards Idaho and Wyoming. At this point, all we could see were shrubs and farms for miles. There we no trees, and only a few buildings, plus clouds as far as the eye could see. After taking I-15 for 3 hours, we finally started the last leg of the day’s trip – about 1-2 hours of driving smaller roads from Idaho to Jackson. This included driving through some of the most populated cities in the world – Teton, ID (Pop 570); Newdale, ID (Pop 358); Tetonia, ID (Pop 247); Victor, ID (Pop 840); and Wilson, WY (Pop 200). Finally, we arrived in Jackson, at around 6:30 at night. We were all tired, after having been in the car for 9 hours and over 575 miles of driving. We had to try to get to sleep early, because we had skiing in Jackson Hole the next day.
Make sure to check yesterday’s post (below). We’ll be adding more info about the trip soon, so check back.
4/1 - Spring Break 2011 Trip - Part 1
Its spring break out here in Seattle – and the Rodgers boys are taking a trip to Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. I’ll be posting during the trip about where we are and what we’re doing.
DAY 1 – We started out the day like a normal Friday, by going to school, and then coming home and relaxing. Then, Joseph, Daddy, Jack, and Henry started to get ready to leave on our big trip of spring break. At about 4:00, we left our home in Bellevue for Spokane, Washington. Spokane is about 10 miles west of the border with Idaho, and is also the home of Gonzaga University. After about 4 hours and 275 miles of driving, we arrived in Spokane at 9:00 at night. We checked into our hotel and got to watch the end of a game in which the Mariners beat the Oakland A’s 6-2. Then we fell asleep, trying to get as much sleep as possible before our 9 hours of driving on Saturday.
Be sure to check for more updates, as we'll posting every day until the trip ends on Wednesday. To see a basic list of what we've done and are going to do, see the Spring Break Trip page.
Be sure to check for more updates, as we'll posting every day until the trip ends on Wednesday. To see a basic list of what we've done and are going to do, see the Spring Break Trip page.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)