September 14: Nephi, UT

After a looooooong drive from the Grand Tetons, via Idaho, to Nephi, Utah (an hour or so south of Salt Lake), we're finally in a motel that has WiFi, such a luxury these days.

So to recap, Yellowstone was awesome. We saw almost the entire park, literally. The only road in the park we didn't at least drive was the road to the East Entrance. Other than that, we saw some amazing geology and wildlife. In one drive alone along the Lamar Valley, we saw over 200 buffalo, a handful of pronghorns, a coyote, and a family of river otters (from about 10 feet away). On our drive out of the park, we saw a grizzly bear from about 150 to 200 feet off the road. He was hard to see though, because he was hiding in a grove of trees.

After that, we headed to the Grand Tetons, just south of Yellowstone. We camped a night in the Tetons just barely getting our tent up before the rain. The next morning we did a little hike up to a lake called Bearpaw Lake (GO BEARS!!!). After that, we headed south to Jackson Hole for lunch. Then our long journey to southern Utah began.

The drive south was highlighted with some extreme downpours, but we made it safely here in Nephi around 10pm. Now we're just recharging our batteries (literally and figuratively) in the motel in preparation for a big long stretch of camping.

Tomorrow we head to Zion National Park for two nights. After that, we plan on staying a night in near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which has been highly recommended to us. Then we head to Bryce Canyon National for two nights. After that, the schedule is less set in stone, but we're planning on hitting Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Mesa Verde (in Colorado), then the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and then stopping in Phoenix to hang out with my uncle Steve (Steve, if you're reading this, I was going to call tonight but it got too late. I'll call tomorrow to see if the timing works for you, we're thinking we'd get there on the 25th and leave the 26th). And after Phoenix, it's on to Seqouia National, then Yosemite, then home. Whew.

Anyway, I've posted new photos from Yellowstone and the Tetons and finally got around to getting photos from Glacier, Banff, and Vancouver. Here's the links to all the photos posted (only these new links work, since I changed the titles on all the albums):

01 Lost Coast
02 Crater Lake
03 Seattle
04 Olympic National Park
05 Victoria, Vancouver
06 Vancouver, Banff (new, I think)
07 Glacier National Park (new)
08 Yellowstone, Tetons (new)