Caribou-Targhee National Forest

DISCLAIMER….This post documents our vacation from September, 2019. We continue to write while being at home because of social distancing due to the coronavirus. This post takes us to Driggs, Idaho (Day 8-9 of our vacation) where we arrived on the other side of the pass from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I encourage you and yours to visit all the beautiful places that the USA has to offer once our great nation overcomes this terrible obstacle in front of us. If you missed any of the Living in the Moment posts from this series, the links are listed at the bottom of this blog. Stay safe and God bless, we are getting through this!

We woke from a wonderful nights sleep at DreamCatcher Bed and Breakfast in Victor, Idaho on the backside of the Tetons. We were well rested and ready for our next adventure. As we walked the property that morning it was obvious that the weather had changed and we had more weather coming our way. We started talking about the possibility of changing our plans for the day and headed inside for a delicious breakfast.

Photo License: Full rights as a Premium User – Freepiks

Leaving DreamCatcher that morning. we had broken clouds and a mix of sun and rain. We decided to play it by ear and start our day by exploring the quaint little town of Driggs. We really fell in love with this place and our first stop was to a local real estate office, just to see what the housing market looked like. Then we drove down Main Street into the center of town to find the small organic grocery store we’d heard about, Barrels and Bins Natural Market which turned out to be a real treat. As an added bonus, the weekly farmers market was taking place in the parking lot across the street, double score!

Having checked out the town, it was time for a little play time. As we were heading up the mountain towards Grand Targhee Resort, we spied a local outdoor adventure store and a nice artsy gift shop. Two quick stops and a new pair of winter gloves for my birthday from my hubby (couple days late, but who’s counting… thank you very much), we were on our way to play in the mountains, YAY!

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It was raining when we left town and began our climb toward Grand Targhee. As we drove up the mountain, we watched the temperature in the van dip lower and lower the higher we went. At this point we wondered when the rain would turn to snow. Our estimate was that when the air temperature hit 35 degrees, we would see snow. By the time we got to 38 degrees, we started seeing small ice crystals in the rain…come on snow. At 37 degrees a little more of the ice crystals…come on snow. At 36 degrees we had rain and snow mix…come on snow. At 35 degrees…viola, snow was falling. We hadn’t gotten to the top at this point so we knew we had the possibility of seeing real snow the rest of the way.

It may seem funny that we were excited to experience snow in September but there were a couple of reasons why. First, there wasn’t anything we could do about it. We could have pissed and moaned about not being able to hike and see the views of the backside of the Tetons. But, that wouldn’t have done any good. And second, we live in Florida. It was still over 90 degrees at home and we had just dodged a major hurricane. Let’s live in the moment and enjoy this for what it is. Like the song says ” Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”

At the end of the road was the Grand Targhee Ski Resort. All the lodging and the restaurants were closed, but as we walked through the falling snow, we found an open door into one of the offices in the resort. There were a couple of seasonal employees there along with the summer manager, who was accommodating enough, to give us information on the resort. And, she gave us maps of the mountain, which had the hiking trails and of course ski runs. It was good information for the next time we visit the Potato State. As we left the lodge it was still snowing. We checked our time and knew we’d be playing in the snow a bit more before heading back down the mountain.

Dark-eyed Junco

In the end, it was another magical day for us. We got a chance to spend time in an awesome little town and meet some very nice people, plus we had an incredible day outside. We saw more Dark-eyed Juncos than we had ever seen in our lives, plus got a couple of good photos. We had sun and rain with all shapes of broken and moving clouds. And we had snow, yep it was cool, hah hah.

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Living in the Moment is what we do while enjoying our time in nature. If you missed any of the other Living in the Moment Series, you can click on them here. Just After Take Off, Day 1, Day 2 Mammoth Hot Spring, Day 2 Traffic Jam, Day 2 Undine Falls and Lava Creek, Lamar Valley – Slough Creek, Day 2 Trout Lake, Lunch at Otter Creek, Mount Washburn, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Paddling the Yellowstone River, The Tiny House, Old Yellowstone Trail, Gibbon Falls – Drive to Old Faithful, Old Faithful, The Lakes, Jackson Hole, String Lake, Colter Bay, Paddle on String Lake, Jenny Lake Sunset, DreamCatcher Bed & Breakfast. Please look forward to our next post as the adventure continues. Only a few more to finish up this vacation of a lifetime!