ROAD TRIP: Those places north of Utah

Ever since we’ve been home from Japan, I’ve been trying to coordinate a reunion with my good friend, Roger, who is currently living in Florida to attend grad school. Fortunately, he found a break in his studies that allowed him a week to fly out to Utah so we could catch up and indulge in one of our favorite past times together, The Great American Roadtrip. Back in 2004 we drove the Highway 1 all the way from Tijuana, Mexico to Vancouver, Canada.  This trip we set out to explore see some national parks through Idaho and Wyoming. We drove North to Idaho Falls gathering supplies from the local Wal-Mart. Then we made it to our campsite right on the border of Idaho and Wyoming, near Jackson Hole. After setting up the tent, we explored the forest and river nearby. Night came and so did our hunger. We made classic tinfoil dinners, with various vegetables and meat/fake meat. The next morning, we awoke to some drizzling rain and we began our day by driving to the Grand Teton National Park.  This was my first time visiting the 80 year old national park. I was amazed by the scenery, especially the enormous mountains and beautiful lakes.  We drove all around the park stopping here and there to take some photos and videos. By the time we reached the northern edge, we still had plenty of daylight left, and decided to cross-over and visit Yellowstone National Park (the first established national park in the world).  This was both of our first time visiting it during the summer.  We saw large forests blanketed in vibrate green grasses, giant canyons with amazing views, and a plenty of rainbow-colored geysers. Of course we had to visit the famous Old Faithful. Unfortunately, after waiting an entire hour to see the eruption, we found it to be somewhat anticlimactic. A traveler’s tip: Just up the road from Old Faithful at Biscuit Basin we saw far better geysers with the more unique colors.  Despite all of the beauty, we had still yet to see any wildlife. It wasn’t until halfway into Yellowstone we finally started to see some of the local animals; such as bison, sandhill cranes, mule deer, and elk. Despite all the warnings we saw about getting eaten alive by bears, we saw not a one. Eventually the sun went down and so we left the park through Montana and headed south back down to our campsite.  The next day we packed up and headed towards Idaho Falls. Thanks to Starbucks we were able to leech the wifi to research a bit about our next destination, Craters of the Moon National Monument. As we headed out into the middle of nowhere Idaho, we realized our gas tank was only 1/4 full and we had 80 miles to go until the next city.  As the fuel dwindled, the landscape became more and more barren and the winds became stronger. The fuel warning light came on, and we started making bets on who would be the one to hitch-hike into town for gas. We passed several cities with no sign of any life or gas stations. We began to think we were done for. Miraculously out of nowhere, we came to a gas station, just in the nick of time. We drove through Arco, the first city in the world to be powered by atomic energy just before arriving to Craters of the Moon. The terrain had drastically changed to sharp black rocky fields, with large cone shapes off in the distance.  After hiking up the Inferno Cone, we decided to put our amateur spelunking skills to use. There were lava-tube caves everywhere, which were open to the public to explore. These weren’t large and monitored, but more-so “enter at your own risk” and be sure to have your own light.  Neither of us had ever done such a thing, and we had a great time. I am so glad I had the chance to catch up with my good friend Roger one-on-one and to add another great road trip to our list of adventures.  Hopefully there will be more in the future!