Too Many Pictures from Yellowstone National Park

After the Jackson Hole Marathon we decided it would be a great idea to spend a few days in nature. Day One would be a trip up to Yellowstone National Park with our friends (Stan, Pam, Tom, Molly, Lee, Laura). We knew the trip would be the "highlights of the southern entrance" given it was a 2-2.5 hour each-way drive from our hotel.

We started our morning with 5am wake up calls and a 6am rollout. We split into two cars and let Lee's car lead us (he's been here before) through the closed guard stations to our first stop: Jackson Lake Lodge. We arrived at sunrise and were treated to nice bathrooms, a Starbucks coffee stand, and an amazing view of the Grand Tetons.

The road we were on had just reopened after being closed due to the fires they had in the area. You could see the marks on the road where the fire jumped across to continue its destruction. We passed a large fire camp that had several helicopters at-the-ready to combat the flames. At one of the overlooks we could see and smell the smoke.

We took a short break at Kepler Falls. We timed it right to be able to see a geyser go off in the distance.

We arrived at Old Faithful early enough to have an easy time parking. After store/bathroom breaks we discovered we had lots of time before the famous geyser would blow again. We took a short walk around the area and visited the Old Faithful Lodge. We split from the rest of the group so Dave could use his fancy new tripod for shooting Old Faithful. Unfortunately it was a very cloudy day and the geyser mist blended perfectly into the grey clouds. Sadly, after the explosion, we sat there thinking "that's it?"

Turned all settings up to eleven to show the detail in the mist

We made the wise decision to get lunch when the cafeteria opened. Later on in the day the place was jammed. After lunch we hiked up to the overlook to see Old Faithful blow from a distance. While waiting we were entertained by a chipmunk and other geysers blowing in the distance.

Old Faithful predicted times are +/- 10 minutes. On our first viewing it was pretty much dead-on. This time, +10 minutes. We had a pleasant hike through the woods as we made our way back down to the geyser walkways and paths. For people who ran 13/26 miles the previous day they were sure putting the miles in today. We were pretty beat by the time we made it back to the gift shops.

We took the cars over to the Grand Prismatic Spring. The area was nuts. Cars parked everywhere on the side of the roads. We waited about 20 minutes to park. Once there the cloud cover got thicker and at times it drizzled. We really didn't get to see the full rainbow-colored effects. For decent pictures of the spring go to google images. Our photos are not that great.

Our final stop of the day was Yellowstone Lake. There were several springs right at the water's edge. Apparently people used to cook fish over them. In this area we saw 3 elk that were not stymied by the raised platforms keeping guests from the hot springs. They crossed right over to get to the springs for drinks. The slight drizzle was turning into rain. Time to leave Yellowstone.

The ride back was long. The whole group was looking forward to settling down with beer and burgers. Of course we had to hit a pull-off right at sunset with an amazing view of the Grand Tetons.

We had one more detour about 5 miles out from the hotel. A few cars were stopped on the narrow road. We strained to find the attraction in the woods and were ultimately treated to glimpses of a bear cub in a tree. Dave had put the big camera away in the trunk so the only camera we had available was the little point-and-shoot. The photos prove we saw a bear just as well as any picture proves Bigfoot exists.

We made it back to the hotel and went to the burger / craft beer joint attached to the nearby Four Seasons Hotel. Everything was great, just not cheap. After dinner we hit up The Mangy Moose for a nightcap. Why not extend a long day when another one is coming again tomorrow? We had a great time touring Yellowstone and were looking forward to touring the Grand Tetons the next day.

 

2016 Jackson Hole Marathon Race Report and Video

Here is Holly's Jackson Hole Marathon report with race video embedded at the end of the post.

The first marathon of the fall marathon season was finally here! It has been a long summer of training and I was ready to race again. Dave will cover the pre and post race portion of the trip in separate blog posts. We met up with three other couples (Stan and Pam, Tom and Molly, and Lee and Laura) in Jackson for the race and a few days of National Park touring.

The full marathon and half marathon started in two separate areas. Tom and Pam were doing the half marathon so they took a shuttle bus to their start line in the middle of nowhere. Dave drove Stan, Lee, Laura and myself to the full start line in downtown Jackson. Stan and I were doing the full while Lee and Laura were going to do the marathon relay. The start was easy with the exception that the announced full service restrooms were not open as advertised leaving only two port o potties for all the racers. We thankfully got in line early! The start was right on the square and the weather was perfect. We were soon off and running.

Jackson Hole is at 6300 feet of elevation and we were all well hydrated. The first mile was uphill and we were all feeling the altitude. I was sucking wind! The other marathons I have done at elevation started with a nice downhill so I never really noticed being winded. After a few miles our breathing did get back under control.

This was a really beautiful course! The beginning miles took us through a beautiful park on a trail by a river. It was stunning. The rest of the course was a combination of road and paved trail. All of it was very pretty with mountains and wide, open spaces all around us. We were really enjoying the run. The elevation was affecting us though. I know that by the time we got to the halfway point and said goodbye to Laura and hello to Lee for the second half my legs were really tired. We decided to take our time and enjoy the day. We put in a few more walk breaks but overall we all were feeling good. By this time Pam and Tom had finished the half and met up with Molly and they joined Dave and Laura to cheer us on to the finish. It was pretty awesome to have such a big cheering section for those last miles. The last water stop even had an official beer stop. Ice cold beer of your choosing, with several styles to choose from, even for us back of the packers!

We had a short uphill climb through grass to get to the finish line and we were all very happy to be done. Great finish area right at our hotel, the Hotel Terra. This hotel worked out great for the race. The finish area had snacks and beer! We all sat around for a bit and had a beer and ate some food before deciding we needed to get some more substantial food. I can’t say enough about how great this race was. The communication before the race was great, the packet pick up was easy, a beautiful course with plenty of water stops all with wonderful volunteers. A great finisher medal and shirt and did I mention the scenery? I would now put this as my most scenic marathon, just ahead of Big Sur.

Dave's Comments

The one thing I learned this weekend is that my camera's image sensor needs a good cleaning. Aside from that we had a lot of fun pre/post race. Three couples arrived in town during lunchtime. We picked Liberty Burger (part of the Blue Collar Restaurant Group) for lunch. They had some great burger/sandwich builds along with a few local beers on tap. After hitting the "expo" in the Chamber of Commerce office we checked into our rooms at Hotel Terra and met up with Pam and Stan. On the way to dinner towards town we stopped off for beers at Q Roadhouse and Brewing. We had a nice time enjoying their picnic table area that was also home to a farm stand. Dinner was at Pizza Artisan (part of the Blue Collar Group) near town. They gave us a huge private room for the eight of us.

Race Chasing was fairly easy. With about 300 people in the full marathon and a great trail system throughout town the roads were wide open. My only pressure was to get Lee to the relay point on time. Snacks were available when we wanted them and bathrooms were easy to find. As Holly mentioned, the course was beautiful. I took way too many pictures (not unusual).

After the race we needed lunch. We were planning on Snake River Brewing in town, but upon checking their website we found out lunch ended at 3:00. We called an audible and went to Bubba's BBQ solely based on the fact Stan and Pam went there 13 years ago. This Blue Collar Group property was fantastic! After eating we walked around a few shops including Grand Teton Distillery and CocoLove chocolate store. We had a drink at the Silver Dollar Bar (lots of great Jackson history displays) and walked around the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. We watched the Jackson Hole Shootout - a cowboy show held 6 nights a week in town square. Dinner was back in our resort area at the Mangy Moose. I logged a lot of hours in there over the weekend.

Here's the video. It's a fun one.

 

Charity of the Month: National Park Services / Grand Teton NP

Charity of the Month is a way Team Tizzel is helping to support some very worthy organizations. As part of this program, we will dedicate a post to a charity that we will sponsor through the month by donating Holly's training run money.

August: In August we supported two charities with $125 donations to honor the wishes of a friend that passed away. Ellen asked for donations to be made to St. Jude Children's Hospital and we chose to also donate to the National MS Society to support research to find a cure for the disease she lived with for so many years.

September Charity of the Month:

National Parks Services / Grand Teton NP Foundation

We recently returned from a long weekend in Jackson, Wyoming. Holly ran the Jackson Hole Marathon with a few friends. Afterwards we all spent two days touring Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP.

We didn't grow up in families that camped or did a lot of nature things for vacations. The only National Parks we toured as kids were close-by things like Gettysburg or Washington DC. Since Holly started the 50 States Marathon challenge we've been seeing a lot more of our country including several National Parks. We've come to enjoy our visits and the uniqueness of each site.

When we pulled up to the park gate we had the option to pay $30 for a Yellowstone pass, $50 for a Yellowstone/Grand Teton pass (7 days for the full car load), or an annual NP pass for $80. We know more sites are in our immediate future so we bought the annual pass. To put this price in perspective it costs a few hundred dollars for a Disney annual pass for one person. We can take a carload of people into parks for a year for $80. Good news is the parks are affordable to see on their own, bad news is they typically aren't in airline hub cities so getting there may be a bit pricey.

When checking out the NP site for donation options we noticed they had a specific project for the Grand Teton park. We chose this project to commemorate our visit for this month's charity. This link will describe the project and the link below takes you to the donation site.

Grand Teton Project