Miles: 310

Route: Island Park, ID - Salt Lake City, UT

As Alex and I planned our trip, we were excited to make a familiar West Coast stop: In-N-Out Burger. We expected to enjoy this meal once we arrived in California so we were thrilled when we realized there were a ton of locations throughout Utah (perhaps the religious connection has something to do with it?). After a quick and easy drive from Idaho we had a delicious (and cheap!) lunch that was just as good as we remembered.

Obligatory shot of our animal-style double-double burgers. For my own health I am somewhat happy we don't have access to this everywhere we go.

Once we arrived in Salt Lake City (SLC as it was referenced everywhere we went) we headed to Big Cottonwood Canyon to check out the mountains and ski resort views. We had a beautiful day and enjoyed taking in the fall scenery.

Looking out into the Wasatch National Forest.

After driving through the Wasatch National Forest and exploring some of Utah's famous ski resorts - still beautiful without the snow - we decided to take a hike to continue enjoying the nice weather.

We headed to Millcreek Canyon to take the Desolation Trail to an overlook of the entire city.

You can barely tell, but behind me is Salt Lake City!

The hike was hard but the views of downtown Salt Lake City were worth it.

What we had planned as a leisurely afternoon hike was actually a tough uphill trek - two miles each way - so we were pretty tired afterward.

Since we only had the day, we headed to SLC's famous Temple Square to walk around for a bit before sundown. The entire area is exceptionally well manicured: clean pathways, lush lawns, bright flowers and impressive buildings. As we checked out some of the historical signage, we were aware of a number of conservatively clad women walking around the square. Upon closer inspection we realized these women were all "sisters" of the Mormon faith and were looking to provide advice to tourists (Alex is sure they were also trying to convert everyone though).

Next, we grabbed a drink nearby to cool off and rest a bit after a day of intense hiking / walking. To our surprise, it was pretty easy to find a number of bars in the area, and we had no problem locating beer of standard strength (vs. the lower alcohol content type we had heard about).

Feeling a little tired, we opted to grab takeout on the way to our hotel for the night. Luckily, Oh Mai was located very close to our hotel so we stopped there to pick up dinner. The Vietnamese restaurant was featured on the Food Network and deserves every accolade! For $20 we got two banh mi sandwhiches, a noodle entrée and a thai iced tea. We had more than enough for dinner and every bite was full of flavor. Definitely make it a point to stop here if you are ever in SLC!

The Salt Lake Temple at night. — The Salt Lake Temple at night.

SLC definitely has a different feel as compared to some of the other large cities we have been to but we really enjoyed our brief time here.

Miles: 215

Route: Jackson Hole, WY - Yellowstone National Park - Island Park, ID

I woke up inexplicably at 5:30am on Wednesday morning so Alex and I got a pretty early start on our drive to Yellowstone. At 7:01am we were the first customers at Jackson Whole so we quickly grabbed some coffee and sandwiches to go before heading out of town.

The drive to Yellowstone National Park from Jackson Hole is beautiful, winding past the Teton Mountains and through Grand Teton National Park, and Alex and I couldn’t help but stop numerous times along the way to take in the views.

Such a nice drive through the mountains.

Morning sun reflecting off of the mountains.

Since there were so few other visitors at the early hour I had a hard time finding someone to take our picture. The first man I asked - using my patented method of offering to take his picture first so that he would then offer to take ours - actually responded “No thanks, trying to stay out of trouble today.” Huh? Feeling rejected and confused we finally found someone else - no negotiation required - after a massive bus filled with tourists stopped alongside us.

After a very leisurely drive to the park entrance we were informed by a brusque ranger that the normal road to Old Faithful (15 miles, 30 minutes) was closed so we would have to drive around the entire park (79 miles, 3 hours) instead if we wanted to reach the famous geyser. Thankful that we had a full day to explore, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be doing more driving than hiking in order to experience Yellowstone.

Our first stop in the park was an overlook next to Yellowstone Lake, which was extremely serene and quiet, except for a few ducks searching for the warmest water.

We then headed to the West Thumb Geyser Basin where we got to walk around an “active geothermal area” and check out turquoise pools and underground geysers. There were numerous signs instructing visitors to stay on marked paths given the extreme heat of the boiling lava just beneath the earth’s surface, which made us a little nervous!

While we walked around the steaming springs we both had two observations about Yellowstone: 1. Geysers are definitely the primary attraction and 2. The park is geared toward mass tourism. Every "attraction" was very accessible (mostly by car) and almost all paths were paved - a very different feel from the more outdoors-y parks we have been exploring over the last few days.

Looking out onto the West Thumb Geyser Basin.

On our way to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone we stopped at a more secluded spot to check out the lake again. It was pretty peaceful and also nice to briefly escape the hustle of all the other tourists buzzing about.

We drove to the vista along the Canyon and hoped for some nice paths we could hike to better explore the area; unfortunately, in keeping with the theme of making the park accessible to all tourists, the “hiking paths” were also almost entirely flat and paved. While the trails weren’t exactly what we expected, the views were still pretty great.

Looking down at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

I took this shot of Alex after I slipped trying to walk toward the overlook and decided I'd just stay put.

Another view of the canyon. We could actually see across to the opposite rim where other tourists were.

After checking out the Canyon we were off to Old Faithful. Alex had mentioned that the geyser erupts approximately every 90 minutes so I expected to wait (along with the massive crowd) for a while before seeing the “money shot.” The park actually advertises the next eruption time, accurate within 10 minutes, and luckily we were there just in time! We only had to wait about five minutes before experiencing the main event.

A lot of iPads also captured this shot - we were surrounded by other tourists!

While seeing Old Faithful was pretty cool, there isn’t much else to see once the geyser stops shooting water into the sky. We walked a bit off the beaten path to eat our packed lunch and then headed to our last stop within the park: Mid-Basin Geyser.

We thought this was one of the more beautiful parts of the park - so many different colors!

After a long day of driving around the park we were ready to head to our hotel for the evening - but not before being interrupted by a massive bison!

We wondered why cars were pulled over...until we saw the huge bison right next to the road!

We made our way to Island Park, ID - home for the night - and settled in to our rustic wood cabin. We hadn't realized how remote the hotel location was but it was a 15 mile drive to the closest restaurant! We ended up going to Trouthunter, a lodge / store / restaurant. The food was pretty good but the real attraction was the sunset view from the deck.

Sunset over Henry's Fork on the Snake River.

After dinner we made it back to catch the season premier of Law & Order: SVU, which was the perfect way to end the day (at least for me!). Tomorrow we have a pretty manageable drive to Salt Lake City so hopefully we have some time to explore!

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