Idaho Road Trip Part 4

 In the morning we all packed up camp and said goodbye to my parents.  They were heading back to their home, and we were heading over to the far reaches of Eastern Idaho.  Of course, we had to stop in Idaho Falls and get some late breakfast/early lunch at Chic Fil A, before continuing on our way to Ashton, ID.  Ashton is the beginning of the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway.  We only had plans to go far enough to just see both the Lower & Upper Falls.  These had been on my bucket list for years and it was exciting to finally get to see them.

(Lower Mesa Falls)

Mesa Falls is on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River.  The Upper Falls is about 114 feet tall.

After finishing up at Mesa Falls, our plan was to cut across the mountains on the Ashton-Flagg Ranch Road.  It's a scenic backroad that spits you out on the other side of the mountains between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.  From there we would have driven through a lot of Grand Teton before arriving at our campsite at Jenny Lake.  We soon discovered, however, that our plan wasn't going to work out.  The local sheriff had closed the road about 20 miles in, but no signs or alerts had been posted.  So we were forced to turn around, backtrack, and then drive South.  It was a very pretty drive, but the traffic was horrible.  The culmination was Teton Pass.  I didn't realize how bad that pass would be at a 10% grade and thousands of cars, trucks, and RVs.  

We  made it into Jackson and then had to wait while we did some laundry at an overpriced laundromat ($9.00 for one wash load!).  When we finally made it into our campsite at Jenny Lake it was almost 5:00.  But we were all happy to finally be in a quiet and peaceful place.  We had no plans to do anything the rest of the day except set up camp and make dinner.  Addie was content to just wander around the campsite and try and fill our tent with rocks.

During the night Amber and I didn't sleep well.  We were tired from our long trip so far, still getting over our colds, I had a really bad sunburn, and we were ready to sleep in our own beds.  We decided during the night that we weren't going to stay our second night.  We would instead do some exploring the next day until about noon and then head home to Montana.

In the morning we had breakfast and packed up camp.  We spent some time exploring the area around Jenny Lake until the Visitor Center opened and we could get our NPS Passport Stamp.

After leaving Jenny Lake we went to the Lupine Meadows Trailhead and we hiked up the trail for about 1 mile.

Once we finished up our hike, we still had a little bit of time to explore.  We decided to go visit the Chapel of the Transfiguration.  It was a beautiful location for a church, and services are still held in it during the summer.  It was built to give settlers a house of worship so they didn't have to make the arduous journey into Jackson.

Our final stop was the Mormon Row area of the Park.  It's farther out in the valley, and its an area with old Mormon homesteader buildings.  Some of the famous pictures of old barns in the Teton Valley are taken here.  We didn't do much besides taking some pictures, eating a quick lunch, and then hitting the road for the long drive home.  We were ready to sleep in our own beds and get some much needed rest.  Overall it was a good trip, but it certainly had its challenges.  It was our first long trip with Addie, and going forward we will definitely be applying the lessons we learned about traveling with a child.  It's just not the same as we are used to.  But we made fun memories and look forward to having more adventures together.