Goint south to Jackson and Salt Lake City
After the visit to Yellowstone,
it was time to head south, and as we had stayed just outside the northern
entrance to the national park, the easiest way to go south, was to pass through
the park once again. It was July 4th and our original plan was to go to Jackson,
and watch the National Day celebrations there. The day before, we therefore
consulted the internet - and found that it would not be possible. All
celebrations took place in the
morning and the traditional 4th of July
parade, commenced at 8.00 am. There would be various other activities with music
and performances, but these were all over at noon, at which time, we would not
have arrived yet. So the fireworks, was all that were left for us to enjoy -
and we missed that as well, but that was due to our own lazyness.
Anyway
we left Gardiner relatively early because we would spend some time in
Jackson, doing laundry. We drove south through the national park without
stopping until we reached the southern end of the park. Here the road turned to
U.S. Highway 89 once more as it is north of the park as well, and then we increased
speed from the park's 45 miles to 55 and in some places 60 This meant that we
got south rather quickly when we weren't bothered by road works. On the way
south we enjoyed the sight of the Snake River valley, here called Jackson Hole.
To the east the valley is bordered by the comparatively low, grass-covered
mountains in the Gros Ventre Range and on the east by the significantly higher,
rocky mountains in the Teton Range. The latter is known as "the jewel in the
Rocky Mountain's crown", and the mountains are indeed impressive as they rise
steeply from the flat valley floor to about 11,000 feet. Like Yellowstone,
Jackson Hole is about 6,000 feet above sea level, so the mountains
protrude almost 6,000 feet vertically. We stopped at a rest stop along the way,
partly to enjoy the sight, partly to get a sandwich from the cool box, but chose
not to visit Grand Teton National Park. Tina had seen animals and mountains
enough :-).
At around 2 pm we reached Jackson where we found the prebooked
hotel and where we were accommodated in the only room on the entire trip with
three queen beds, so none of us had to sleep together or pump the air mattress.
Despite the three beds, the room was so large that there was also plenty of
floor space for our luggage. Since we were early, and all 4th of July events
were over, we immediately started doing our laundry. The hotel turned out to
have a nice size laundry room with eight washers and as many dryers, so we could
wash it all at the same time. While we were at the laundromat a severe
thunderstorm with lots of rain hit us, which would prove to be the only time
throughout the vacation, we had rain in large quantities. When we had completed
the laundy, the sun came out again, so Tina spent a few hours at the pool, duly
covered in sunscreen. Meanwhile Tim and I relaxed in our room.
We had, by suggestion from Tim, our dinner at the excellent Gun
Barrel restaurant, 5 to 10 minutes walk from the hotel. Tim and I ate there in
2010, and on that occasion we had bison steak (from farmed bison). Tim would
like to repeat this, as he found that it was the best steak he had ever had. He
therefore promised to finance the meal (the restaurant is not cheap), and he
even had made a reservation from home several months earlier, so we didn't have
to wait for a table (the restaurant is really popular). Tim and I started the
meal with bison carpaccio while Tina has a shrimp cocktail. For entree both kids
had bison steak while this time I settled for a steak of an ordinary cow. Last
time Tim and I finished the meal with a scotch malt whisky, which made some
trouble for the poor servers as we wanted it straight with no ice, which none of
them, not even the bartender, understood, so they asked us four times if we
really meant that, before bringing us the drink? This time I had coffee and we
all skipped the whisky.
Onwards to Utah
From Jackson we continued south
to Salt Lake City. We could actually drive all the way, staing on the same road.
The hotel in Jackson was on U.S. Highway 89 and on it's way south it passes Salt
Lake City.
We started the day by filling up the car with gas, and the cool box with ice and water.
Later we drove south on Route 89 through the mountains south of Jackson. In the
town of Alpine the road splits, with U.S. 26 going northwest towards Idaho and
I-15, while Route 89 continues south, and so did we. This route leads through
the Salt River Valley, locally known as Star Valley; either named after a word
in the Shoshone language, which should mean" The star among Valleys" or more
malicious as an abbreviation of "Starvation Valley," because many of the first
settlers in the valley starved during the harsh winters. Many of the first
settlers in the valley were Scandinavian Mormons, and there are still many names
of Scandinavian origin in the valley, and many of the inhabitants are still
Mormons. In the valley you pass interesting and populous towns like Alpine with
828 inhabitants, Auburn with 388, Freedom with 214, Bedford with 201, Etna with
164, Grover with 147 and a few others with about 200 inhabitants. The main town
in the valley is Afton, which has nearly 2,000 inhabitants! The town is known
for having the world's largest bridge built of elk antlers and to get their
drinking water from a so called "periodic spring". Such a spring is very rare,
as it discharges water at intervals while it stops between these discharges.
The spring near Afton is the world's largest of its kind. And furthermore Afton
is known because Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch had one of their strongholds
in the neighborhood. We saw the antlers bridge, but skipped the other
attractions of and continued south.
About
30 miles south of Afton Route 89 crosses the Idaho state line. The first town
you get to is Geneva, which in 2006 had 86 inhabitants. How many inhabitants
there are today, I don't know, as the information was removed from the town
sign. The next town is Montpelier, known for the 1896 bankrobbery, carried out
by Butch Cassidy and two of his men, Elzy Lay and Bob Meeks. The money from the
robbery was used to pay for the defence of their fellow villain, Matt Warner,
who at that time was arrested. After Montpelier you get to Paris, so we are in an
area where cities have French names, even though most of them are named by
Mormons who were sent by Brigham Young. Montpelier is actually named by Brigham
Young himself after the capital of Vermont, his home state.
From Paris Route 89 continues south, and for parts follows the
route of the old Oregon Trail. The route runs along Bear Lake, and here you pass
the state line between Idaho and Utah. The lake itself is used as a recreational
area with many tourists visiting. Right after the state lone Route 89 turns west and
away from the lake through the mountains to the city of Logan. We did too, and
it was on this part of the road that is very narrow that we got drive behind a
mobile home that certainly wasn't in a hurry and had with a long line of cars
behind it. Although there were several pull-outs, he chose not to use any of
them, and no one could pass him. A few places it was possible to pass, and a few
cars in front of us managed to pass, but we weren't able to pass until we reached
Logan.
From here the road continues southwest to Brigham City, where it
joins I-15 and continues south. We took the highway all the way to Salt Lake
City and drove into the center of town, where we localized a few hotels using
our GPS, and already at the first of these, they had a vacant room, so here we
decided to stay. After carrying our stuff to the room we went out to look at the
city. It was glorious sunshine here at 4 pm and the temperature was around
105, so we only walked the five blocks to the temple square and saw the Mormon
Temple and the Meeting Hall (from the outside) and the Tabernacle (from the
inside). We walked around the temple grounds for a while and then went back to
the hotel. Later we had dinner at an Italian restaurant as Tina was tired of
American food, and would like to try something else.