Boise, ID

Before heading further west to Caldwell, ID to meet up with Dave, we spent a few days in Boise.  We spent some time driving through downtown Boise and checking out the state capitol, the Boise River Greenbelt and some of the downtown neighborhoods.

Sun Valley and Ketchum, ID

We crossed into Idaho around 4pm.

What we saw was mostly desert. There are some mountainous regions with respectable sized trees, although we were definitely not expecting dry desert conditions in Idaho and were very surprised.

George wanted to see Sun Valley so we headed in that direction. Sun Valley, Hailey, and Ketchum are all very close together. Ketchum is also where Ernest Hemingway lived the last years of his life, and committed suicide there in his home in 1961. Here are some pictures of the Ernest Hemingway Memorial and his grave in the Ketchum Cemetery, as well as some photos of the town of Sun Valley and Ketchum. 

While visiting the area we camped for two nights in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in a dispersed campsite along Baker Creek.

Jackson, WY

We arrived in Jackson on June 25th and immediately got some ice cream.

Afterwards we stopped at the visitors center, picked up some groceries, then headed to our camp for the night along Granite Creek.

The next day we returned to the city to explore.  Our first stop was at the library to catch up on a few things.  Upon leaving the library we realized we had left our parking lights on and effectively killed our batteries.  We inquired for assistance from the Virginian RV park across the street from the library but were told they would not assist us with a jump.  We promptly cast upon them a voodoo curse that brought torrential downpours of grasshoppers and shoelaces over their park but spared all surrounding areas, and then we called AAA.  While we awaited our saviors' arrival, the brawny and buff men and women of AAA, a good samaritan offered to give us a jump.  Unfortunately his Chevy truck just didn't have enough juice to restart our very dead battery.

AAA showed up shortly afterwards and while the two wonderful AAA drivers were searching for a good ground on their truck we witnessed a dump truck drive by and tear down the telephone lines.  It wasn't as exciting as power lines, as there were no sparks or explosions, but the sound of the snapping wire was very exciting.

This was the scene of the downed telephone line.

We finally got our van restarted and decided it would be best to drive around a bit and allow the batteries to recharge before heading to Jackson Hole Town Square for a gunfight.

Here I am standing beside our van shortly after it restarted

We drove to the National Elk Refuge at end of town to the Historic Miller House.  Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, it was too late to take a tour of the house.

This was the scenery looking back towards town.

We headed back towards town and made our way to the town square for the gunfight.

The Jackson gunfight is the longest running gunfight in the west.  It is a family friendly gunfight, if a little overly dramatic, with class B actors, but it was something to see.  The crowd had swelled so much that we were unable to take a good video or snap any meaningful photos (the photo below is about all we could get).  

Afterwards we walked around the town.

We left the downtown area and took a scenic drive along route 390 through Grand Teton National Park along the northwest outskirts of town.  The Teton Mountains never cease to amaze me.  They are the epitome of what mountains should look like and are the most spectacular mountain scenery we have seen on our trip thus far.

From here we headed back towards Granite Creek to spend one more night there before heading to the Granite Hot Springs the next morning.

The next morning we continued down Granite Creek Road.

We saw the Granite Falls.

Then finally arrived at the hot springs.  We spent the afternoon soaking in the warm spring water before leaving the Jackson area and heading west towards Idaho.

In the photo below you can just make out our van in the parking lot past the creek.

We said goodbye to Jackson and the spectacular scenery and headed west.