Yellowstone. We made it !

2008_08_01_Vernal_and_the_Road_to_Yellowstone - 49
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We made it! Phew! Arrived at our campground at Moran, thirty miles south of the South Entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Quite a trek today - 280 miles of mountain and high plateau road. Beautiful, but arduous. I think we were swayed by a few Americans and Canadians that we've spoken to over the last couple of weeks who were taking similar trips with young children and were covering far greater distances without a second thought. We spent some time chatting to a Canadian family in the pool at Mesa Verde earlier in the week, who had driven from Ontario down to Southern Colorado, and thought nothing of nine hour days on the road! And the kids seemed to be having a whale of a time. It made us think we were being too conservative, so we did a bit of replanning and re-routing and gave ourselves 280 miles through the mountains today to get us to Yellowstone. The original plan had been to go further west, via Salt Lake City, spend a day at Antelope Island swimming in Salt Lake, and then swing up to the north east corner of Utah, to Bear Lake, where the annual raspberry festival is in full swing. Raspberries are Will's favourite fruit (well - one of them at least - watermelon is rapidly rising in his estimation on this trip). Raspberries in the Cameron/Tanner household are without exception know as mollyfruit. A trip to Mollies would be incomplete, as far as William is concerned, without a bowl of raspberries. So Bear Lake seemed like a great place to head for. Bear Lake is the self-proclaimed capital of the American raspberry. They are claimed to be without compare. But again, we were swayed by conversations with with Americans in the know. On our day in Arches National Park, having taken a short hike up a narrow canyon in temperatures in excess of 100℉ to see Sand Dune Arch, we found a local Utah family taking a breather in the shade. We got to talking about how long the drive to Salt Lake City would take and said that we were planning on staying at Antelope Island State Park. The woman gave us an odd look, and said she hadn't swum in Salt Lake since she was ten, and wasn't sure she would be doing it again any time soon. The dad was more positive, but it got us to thinking about a more direct route to Yellowstone. The woman was far more positive about Bear Lake and the Rasperry festival - couldn't talk them up enough - but it seemed like a big dog leg to take in the journey given that the goal was to get to Yellowstone. So we re-routed, and took Highway 191 all the way from Vernal (home of the Dinosaur !) in Utah to Yellowstone. And here we are. We stopped in Jackson, Wyoming for supper, because we were running late. We thought we'd have something to eat, get Will into his jim-jams, and he could then sleep from Jackson to Moran and our campground and we'd tuck him into his proper bed when we got here. Fat chance. Finally got him to sleep at 10 pm. Doubt very much he'll opt for a lie-in in the morning though. Will probably just be grumpy instead. Thought Jackson was great - although we were only there long enough to have a pizza (at Rocky Mountain Pizza Pie !) Made me realize that Nic hadn't given us any John Denver on her inspired and inspiring road-trip CD's (which we listen to all the time - when we can negotiate time off from Winnie the Pooh, endless repetitions of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox and other stories, and Winnie the Witch). I guess John Denver is just TOO cheesy. Favourite sing-alongs with Will are the Albuquerque songs. Hot Dog, Jumping Frog, AL-BU-QUERQUE - Neil Young and "'ll find somewhere where they don't care who I am, oh Albuquerque" and "Point me in the direction of Albuquerque" - dunno who that's by - googled it and it said the Partridge Family ! Surely not. And if we can have the Partridge Family (although I'm sure it isn't) is John Denver too much to ask for when we're in the Rockies ! The hot dog song is the only one where we even get close to the tune. Jackson seemed to be in the same mould as Boulder, Colorado, Flagstaff, Arizona, Moab, Utah to an extent. Small (ish) towns in the US that seem very liveable-in, alternative, outdoorsy, laid back. Durango felt the same way. So to bed, and tomorrow off to see Old Faithful.