In August 2021, I took a plane for the first time since January 2020. Throughout the pandemic, my trips were within driving distance and limited. But, vaccinated and all, we thought it was possible to take a real vacation within the United States. Despite the newspaper articles about overly crowded National Parks, we planned a trip to visit Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier.
Flying to Salt Lake City made the most sense for the route. We started in SLC for one night. After coffee at Publik Coffee Roasters, we wandered around the eerie and empty Temple Square. The Mormon Temple was under construction but still looming.
Food and alcohol wise, the SLC Reddit revealed that there's a real fast-food burgers scene and strange alcohol laws. That first night we hit the Crown Burgers drive-thru and went to Fischer Brewing Company. Breweries can't serve beers over 5% ABV on draft; perhaps relatedly, I don't think I had any memorable Utah beer.
The next day we set out for Grand Teton. It's a four-and-a-half-hour drive. We stopped in Garden City, UT, for a raspberry shake. I was checking Google reviews to find the best place for shakes and saw a review from a woman I know from Instagram via the film photography community; she and her husband are retired and switched to RV life. I messaged her, we laughed at the smallness of the world, and she offered a few recommendations for Glacier.
In Grand Teton, we stayed a bit north and east in Moran. Before heading to the motel, we stopped in Jackson for BBQ at Bubba's Bar-B-Que Restaurant (very good). The following day we woke up before sunrise to avoid traffic and take a six-mile hike in the park. The smoke from several wildfires made the conditions overcast, but the venture was still gorgeous and quiet. We drove to the Grand Teton Lodge in the afternoon and had beers as an unreal thunderstorm rolled through.
Early the next morning, we stopped at Leeks Marina on the way north to Yellowstone. We took the south entrance into Yellowstone before heading west out of the park. Staying within Yellowstone is limited and requires too much planning, even for me. So we stayed in the tiny touristy town of West Yellowstone, MT. In town, we saw signs for the Smoking Waters Mountain Man Rendezvous and stopped by their strange gathering. I'm not sure what was being celebrated, but there were hides and rocks and drums.
Since getting into the park before sunrise worked for Teton, we kept with that plan for the rest of the trip. We made it to trailheads in the dark and were the only ones on the trail. The first morning was Fairy Falls Trail and Grand Prismatic Springs, and a stop at Old Faithful on the way out, and the second was Uncle Tom's Trail to Artist Point. One afternoon, we drove up to Big Sky, MT; we went to Beehive Basin Brewing and stopped for some of the best BBQ I've ever had at Riverhouse BBQ in Gallatin Gateway, MT.
Next, we drove six and a half hours to Kalispell, MT. Again, staying in Glacier is limited, so I found an Airbnb about 45 minutes from the west entrance. On the long drive to Kalispell, we stopped at the small mining down to Anaconda, MT, Evel Knievel's grave in Butte, MT, and the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas in Arlee, MT.
The first morning we hiked Avalanche Trail. The entire hike up was in the dark and surprisingly crowded. If we had been any later, we wouldn't have found parking at the trailhead. On my photo friend's recommendation, the following day, we drove to the east side of the park to East Glacier Park Village. We hiked around Two Medicine Lake; we were the only people for hours. We followed the wrong trail at one point, and I learned I could not ford a creek with several cameras. That hike was gorgeous and positively Fall-like for mid-August. The difference between the two sides of the park was striking; the west side of Glacier seemed like the Rockies, but the west side of the park side felt more like Acadia in Maine.
That afternoon, we walked around a rainy Kalispell. We went to Big Mountain Ciderworks, Bias Brewing, and Kalispell Brewing Co. I can't quite liken Kalispell to anywhere else I've been; perhaps a little bit like Flagstaff.
After Glacier, we drove through Idaho and stayed one night in Salmon, ID. That drive took a bit longer than expected since some roads were only gravel, and we had to turn around. The night in Salmon was to break up the long drive to southern Idaho. But, Salmon was quirky and pleasant.
The next stop was two nights in Sun Valley. We visited Hemingway's Grave on the first day and stopped at Sawtooth Tap Room and Sun Valley Brewing Co. The following day we went to Craters of the Moon. My brother took a cross-country road trip after college and sent me postcards from every stop. Craters was one of the many places I had always wanted to visit because of his photos. Caves (and bats) and spatter cones make it one of the most unique geological places I've been to in the US.
After Sun Valley, we went back to SLC for two nights. During the day, we tried to drive to Spiral Jetty and Sun Tunnels, but we didn't make it. The gravel roads were too rough, and there was no cell phone service. On the last night in SLC, we met up with one of my favorite former students and her boyfriend. It was lovely to catch up with her after many years of emails.
In all, the trip was days and days of new sights and places. I visited two states I had yet to go to: Wyoming and Utah. I shot fourteen rolls of 35mm and nineteen rolls of medium format. After seventeen months of a pandemic, all of it was welcome.
