Well, we thought today was going to be a highlight of our trip. We had booked a sunrise hot air balloon ride, looking over the the beautiful valley on the Idaho side. of the Teton Range. In order to catch the sunrise, we would need to be up at 4:30 in the morning, packing our stuff and ready to go. Neither of us slept well both with excitement and worrying that the alarm wouldn’t go off so early. We got up, stumbled through making some coffee and getting dressed when we got a phone cal, at 4:50am. Our balloon pilot was sad to inform us that the ride had been canceled. There are too many clouds and the wind speed on the ground was 8 miles an hour while up higher it was lowing at 20 miles an hour. He informed us it would be too dangerous to go, so the trip was canceled. We were so disappointed but, understood safety had to come first.
We quickly consulted with each other and decided it was time to go back to bed and catch some sleep. Several hours later, we were ready to wake up AGAIN and face the windy, cloudy day.
We cooked up a big breakfast, packed some things and then headed out into the day. We were disappointed, but understanding: you make plans and then you see what happens. Sometimes you just have to pivot.
We decided to go up the ski lift that overlooked the Tetons from the Western side. We have done this once before and the views there are also fabulous. What totally beautiful countryside. What a blessing to be back. As it turns out, this was just the second day that the ski lift was open to take hikers and mountain bikers to the top of one of the mountains overlooking the Grand Teton range. We got our lift passes and took it up to the top. It was a beautiful, but very cloudy ride up.
When we got to the top, we were glad to have a beautiful view and talk with some very nice snowboarders had never been here in the summertime. They were glad to take our photos. We exchanged stories of epic road trips that they had taken and we had taken. We tried to do a little bit of hiking at the top, but it was windy and cold, and the rain was coming in. Hopping back on the lift, we came back on down and then settled into a café for very appreciated hot cocoa. We were glad to be able to get on the Wi-Fi and get the first couple of days of blog postings up.
Because we’re both been to the Tetons many many times it wasn’t such a disappointment to have it not be a picture perfect blue sky day. We found some wonderful things to do to enjoy our time here in the mountains.
We drove our car from higher in the mountains down into the Valley and went for a lovely 4 mile hike in Teton Canyon. This was an area not technically inside Grand Teton national park, but in the national forest wilderness area that comes right up to the park. We had a delightful time, strolling along, greeting other happy hikers, and taking lots and lots of pictures of all of the beautiful, wildflowers that were in bloom. The colors were wonderful: yellows and purples, blues, and white. From really small to larger and showy. We strolled along enjoying the towering forests and watched as the sun peeked in and out of the clouds. We thought that the day’s highlight would be a balloon ride, but the walk with the wildflowers was fantastic!
We forgot to take our beautifully packed lunch along on the hike so we’re really happy when we returned to our car to have a nice lunch at about 4:30. Whoops, next time remember to bring your lunch along with you on a hike.
The evening was quiet, and we heard the rain falling in the night. We had a lovely time enjoying the “quiet side of the Tetons”.
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