USA: Grand Tetons, Salt Lake City, Snake River

I remember how happy I was when I finally visited Mt. Rushmore. Mt. Rushmore had been on my “wish list” for many years and I was delighted when my youngest daughter, Erin, suggested a cross-country trip. In all my years of traveling I had never been to the Grand Tetons, visited Yellowstone National Park, or traveled to South Dakota to experience Mt. Rushmore.

It was a wonderful trip and driving is a great way to see the US. As I tell my clients, planning a trip is half the fun … and Erin and I had fun. At the time Erin was a second year medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. We had a limited time frame (two weeks) and I knew we could not drive the entire way across the US, and see everything we wanted to see. So early in the planning I decided we would rent a car in Redlands and drop it off in Chicago. From Chicago to New York we would take the train and I would fly home from New York.

With that plan in mind, we took out our maps and decided where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to see. With the computer, mapping our route was easy. And the GPS proved invaluable. It’s like a cell phone --- I now wonder how I ever got along without a GPS in the car.

As much as I travel, this trip was definitely a learning experience. My first “learning experience” was renting a car. I’ve rented lots of cars throughout the years, but usually just for city driving and sightseeing, not a long road trip. I made reservations with Hertz and picked up the car in Redlands. I requested a mid-size car, and that’s what I got --- a KIA. I didn’t bother asking if it had four, six or eight cylinders --- to me a car is a car. Not anymore. A four-cylinder car may be fine for city driving, but leaves much to be desired for mountain driving. The car was a gutless wonder. The moral of the story is to tell the car rental company where you are going (which I did), and insist on a more powerful car (which I didn’t. )

We actually got away early in the morning and headed northwest to Las Vegas. I enjoy driving and even though most people think the drive to Las Vegas is boring, I love the moonscape -like scenery of the desert. What was strange was passing Las Vegas; our first stop was Salt Lake City. In all the years of going to Las Vegas, I have never driven north of Las Vegas. The red cliffs of northwest Arizona into Utah are absolutely beautiful.

We found a hotel in downtown Salt Lake City and walked to the city center for dinner. After dinner, we headed for Temple Square, the most popular tourist attraction in Salt Lake City, with the beautiful Mormon Temple and the home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Neither Erin nor I had been to Salt Lake City. When you first see Temple Square, an entire city block ablaze with light, it’s an awesome sight.

Unfortunately, I did not read my literature before leaving Redlands, or I would have known that there are hosted tours of the complex (not the Temple) which is open 9:00am to 9:00pm daily. I will call this learning experience #2 --- read your literature before going on your trip. Seriously, if you are planning a trip to Salk Lake City, I suggest going online and finding the pertinent information, i.e. location, hours of operation, times of tours, etc. Also, adjacent to Temple Square is the Museum of Church History and Art, the Family History Library and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

We were up bright and early the next morning and on the road by 6:30am --- our destination was the Togwotee Mountain Lodge in Moran, Wyoming, about 40 miles north of Jackson Hole. As we headed out of Jackson Hole we had our first panorama of the Teton Range---magnificent is the only word that comes close to describing the breathtaking view.

We stopped at one of the pullouts along the road and stood in silence as we took in the surrounding scenery. It actually looks like a painting. I have seen mountain ranges throughout the world: the Alps in Switzerland, the Andes in Peru and the Himalayas in India ---the Grand Tetons are just as spectacular, and a lot closer!!!

We arrived at the lodge in the early afternoon and immediately put on our hiking boots. We were on the lookout for wildlife as we followed a trail down to the Buffalo Fork River. We didn’t run into any moose or bears (thank goodness), but enjoyed our hike and the glorious wildflowers along the trail. We finished the day with a soak in the lodge’s hot tub.

The nest morning we drove into the Grand Teton National Park, founded in 1929. The park encompasses over 300,000 acres and offers an abundant of activities for the entire family. There are several visitor centers throughout the park that provide information on hiking, camping, backpacking and climbing (overnight trips require a permit), horseback riding, bicycling, fishing, wildlife viewing and river rafting. The visitor centers also have wonderful information available on the culture and history of the area going back thousands of years to the early peoples (Paleo-indians) and native Americans that inhabited the land. A fun and educational experience for the whole family.

After some discussion, Erin and I decided on a rafting trip down the Snake River.

Once again we were treated to spectacular views of the entire Teton Range. We also saw an effusion of wildlife including some bald eagles, moose, some osprey (who performed their fabulous fishing techniques for us --- a dive straight down) and some Canada geese. The area is beautiful and provides a quiet peace with the abundance of wildflowers and the surrounding forests of spruce and cottonwoods.

By late afternoon we were again on our way --- Yellowstone National Park. Join me next as Erin and I explore the park’s hydrothermal features and check out the area wildlife.