Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks

Getting There: Alabama to Wyoming

Disclaimer. Most of these pages are written for one of two reasons: either I have fun doing it or I want to remember the details later. If you don’t want to read this stuff, don’t bother. But do look at the photos at the bottom of the page. Some of them are really good.

Judy and I have been taking trips as a family-of-more-than-two for quite a while now. We bundled up Sara Victoria as an infant and hauled her off on a road trip from Texas to Alabama. K.C. joined us, just in time for a move back to Alabama, and the four of us had a decade or two of crazy family trips together. Then along came Mark, and we learned how to put five people–and all of K.C.’s luggage–in a small rented car. This year (2018) Christy was along for her first family road trip, making our little family complete with six of us along for a fun ride.

Perhaps it’s a sign of my slowly encroaching maturity as a traveler that as we gathered at the airport to begin our week of family togetherness, I didn’t once pull out my camera or phone and take a few shots of the beginning of the trip itself. I just left everyone alone, enjoyed the flights, and didn’t even take a photo when we landed at the Jackson Hole Airport. Without photos to show you as proof, you’ll just have to take our word for it: we made the flight safely. All around us there was nothing but flat land. I mean FLAT land. It seemed like miles of flat land if we looked north, south, or east. West? Mountains.

We goggled at the mountains around us, loaded up the luggage somehow, made a quick drive to beautiful downtown Jackson, parked at the Tourist Information Center (after failing to find a parking spot any closer to food), and walked a few blocks searching for a restaurant, because it was truly past our usual time for lunch.

Jackson, WY: St. John’s Episcopal Church

The center of Jackson was fun to walk through, sharing lots of characteristics of other tourist towns we’ve all been to. After we had lunch, we split up a little for sightseeing and shopping, and it should come as no surprise that Mark and I went into the Chapel of St. John’s Episcopal Church. After all, we were right there, and we wanted to see if there was an organ in the little building. There was, and though we made a few photos, I’ll not distress you with those. Just enjoy the attractive facade of the log building. We missed going into the church itself, but that might be a reason to go back. There’s a Casavant in there. 😉

After we got a call telling us our rooms were ready, we walked back to the Tourist Center and drove directly across the street to our lodging, and as we have so often done we thanked Jan Cordell in absentia for her work in helping us have wonderful family trips. This time she had booked us into the Rustic Inn, an establishment on twelve acres of property just a few blocks from the Jackson Town Square.

Jackson, WY: Rustic Inn

After unloading the car, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the place, enjoying our first look at a local ground squirrel, being stared at by a nesting bird (very protective of her chicks), and generally getting the feel of the place. It really was amazing in many ways. Large property, many cabins scattered about, and creek running through the place, and lots of Adirondack chairs scattered around the place in different groups, including some on the terraced hillside at the rear of the place. There was even a teepee set up for anyone who wanted to move indoors for a quiet chat around a fire. We split up again, with the younger people returning to town for dinner, while Judy and I opted to try the Inn’s dining room.

Eventually we all decided to call it a night, though at 9:00 the sun was just going down. We had big plans for the next day, because we had booked an all-day wildlife and photography tour of Grand Teton National Park. Not a day we wanted to miss by over-sleeping. Just before actually hitting the bed, I did run out for a few shots of the sunset. They might not look like much, but remember that these photos were made facing East, while the sun was setting behind me. That beautiful color is just a reflection of the sunset behind me (covered up by the mountain that was really close) on the clouds that were just floating around minding there own business east of our location.