Our Fabulous Wyoming vacation took place between the bookends of our fabulous Denver vacation.  Wyoming is more interesting than one would suspect from the state that produced Dick Cheney and Alan Simpson.  It was the center of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade in the 1830's, it was a key part of the Oregon Trail and of course it has two fantastic National Parks, Yellowstone and Grand Teton. When we decided on a Wyoming  interregnum I was very excited for all of these reasons.  And then, I saw a picture of the Grand Tetons.  Wow.

The mountains were originally called, by the French, Le Trois Tetons, or The Three Tits.  (True).  And the area at the base, Jackson's Hole.  A hole, in the vernacular of the fur trappers, was a large area between mountain ranges, a hole.  Trading rendevous were held on the other side of the Tetons called Pierre's Hole.  I was hoping to get over the range to visit there, but alas, did not. Jackson Hole is the area (no longer called Jackson's Hole, which in conjunction with Tetons, gave the more vulgar a great deal of amusement), Jackson is the city.  We stayed at a ski area called Teton Village, at the base of Rendevous Mountain.  (Fur trapper language permeates the area).  Rendevous Mountain is the major ski resort in Jackson Hole. Yellowstone National Park is about 55 miles north of Jackson and was the first National Park, created during the administration of U.S. Grant.  It of course, is the home of Old Faithful.  Grand Teton National Park, north of Jackson, south of Yellowstone, was put together, very much due to the efforts of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.  As with most purely altruistic acts, it helped the benefactor:  Rockefeller ended up with the concessions to the park.  His name also ended up on the road connected the two parks. Now another reason I was very excited about going to this part of the country was, of course, The Contest.  I suspected, and was correct there would be multiple stamps to retrieve, and I'll give a run-down of those stamps as the trip takes place. We invited Mom and Donald to go with us.  Mom accepted, Donald stayed home to work.  We missed him greatly, but were happy to have Mom with us. I kept track of our comings and going.  The graphs on the following pages show the time of day on the x-axis and the odometer reading of our rented Chevy Suburban on the y-axis.  The ovals above the line are the times we were on the move.  The boxes below the line when we were stationary.

July 10, 2003

July 11, 2003

July 8, 2003

July 9, 2003

July 7, 2003