The Rahns Return to Wyoming and add Montana

The day after tomorrow we return to Wyoming, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons!

Three years ago we were there for 5 days:

June, 2009 - Yellowstone NP

June, 2009 Yellowstone NP

This year we will be traveling for 11 days, and have lots more adventures.

All of the plans are made, the house-sitter is ready, the car reserved, we've even got the dinner restaurants picked out for every night. We've all got certain things that we are looking forward to. Thanks to TripAdvisor.com, I have researched and we are ready!!

Here's the plan...

We will spend 5 days in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in Teton Village. During that time we will go on our first-ever Hot Air Balloon Ride over the Tetons. Carleigh will tandem-Paraglide from the top of one of the Teton Village mountains. We will visit some familiar sights and take family hikes. And hopefully with the girls being 3 years older than our last visit, those hikes will last a bit longer.  Don is excited to visit his favorite place on earth and find the bison, bears and moose. I'm excited for traveling and exploring!!

We will then leave Jackson Hole and travel into Yellowstone National Park. We will spend 1 night at The Old Faithful Inn. I'm excited, because (Disney geek moment coming) our favorite DisneyWorld hotel, The Wilderness Lodge, is modeled after The Old Faithful Inn and it is GORGEOUS! An added bonus, Old Faithful erupts right outside the Inn 'round the clock- every 90 minutes or so. Don is looking forward to the Full Moon and Old Faithful with no crowds - yep...full moon next week while we are there. :)

After our night at Old Faithful Inn, we will leave and drive through Yellowstone. We will have the chance to explore the upper loop of Yellowstone, the part that we didn't get to 3 years ago. We will then exit Yellowstone through the Roosevelt Arch - the original entrance to the Park from the early 1900's -  and arrive in Gardiner, Montana. We will be spending the night at Crevice Mountain Lodge....10 miles UP a gravel road in Gardiner to an old hunting lodge with 3 cabins. It's a B & B kind of place, but rustic cabins. We will spend the night in our cabin with our wood burning stove, cooking smores over the campfire and hopefully enjoying the star-filled night.

We will then check out of the Lodge and head back into Yellowstone to finish exploring the rest of the upper loop. Included is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which is supposed to be pretty incredible. We will continue to the eastern exit of Yellowstone and end up in Cody, Wyoming for 2 nights.

Our hotel, The Cody, is supposed to be very close to the Cody Rodeo - which we will be attending on one of the evenings. One of our days in Cody will be spent exploring the other side of Wyoming, and maybe a possible side trip to Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Area to see the wild horses. Lots of options and a full day to explore them.

After 2 days in Cody, we will head back to Jackson Hole. We will spend our final night back at the Teton Mountain Lodge. Don will have a final morning of animal photographing, and then we will head to the airport and begin our journey back to Virginia.

This trip has been a couple of years in the making and  we are looking forward to making more memories and visiting one of our favorite places. The girls are planning on keeping a video-journal and then putting it all into a movie when we get back. I am hoping to do some blog updates while we are traveling, so keep a look out for our Hot Air Balloon ride and Carleigh's paragliding adventure. Those two events happen early in our adventure.

So...in keeping with the theme..."Seldom A Dull Moment" as the Rahns head to Wyoming and Montana.

Stay tuned....for updates on the adventures as we have them. :)