Today was a great day and SOOOO cold!! We woke to the sunrise our our window. This was the first day that we have actually seen the sun. We checked a few webcams and realized the Teton mountain range was in full view, so we changed our relaxing in the village day and turned it into a chasing the mountains day.
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| Here comes the sun!! |
After a great breakfast buffet at the Teton Mountain Lodge, we headed out to drive back into Grand Teton National Park...and we found the mountains!! We truly thought we might never fully see them during this trip.
These views are the primary reason that we love coming here. They are totally snow covered right now and in the summer only the tops are snow covered. They are so beautiful!!
Carleigh went walking through the snow - probably about 15-20 inches deep.
The drive in and out of the park with this view never gets old!!
We got back to the room after our Teton adventure and got ready for lunch. We were taking one of the Gondolas up to the top of the mountain to watch the skiers and eat at the lodge up there. The view isn't that bad either. :)
Above was in front of us and below was in back of us - gorgeous skies and below zero wind chills.
After lunch we had some time to warm up and relax before the New Year's festivities started.
The fun started right after dark and we prepared for the sub zero wind chills again as we knew we would be outside for a couple of hours...
First up was a "Glow Worm" parade. All kids under 14 were invited to ride the lift up and ski down the mountain with glow sticks in a parade form. It was really cute and so many very little kids doing this without parents.
Glow sticks were given out to everyone after the parade!
They had music blasting and the crowd was pretty big. And it was SOOOO cold. Taking pictures was a real challenge with my hands being exposed to the cold.
The fireworks show started immediately following the end of the torchlight parade. They were beautiful and so cool to be watching fireworks exploding over the mountains in Wyoming on New Year's Eve!
I knew the grand finale would be impressive and my hands were so cold, but I caught it...so beautiful!
We had a late New Year's Eve dinner at the hotel restaurant and celebrated the east coast New Year as we were exhausted from our day's adventure and knew we'd be up early for our last day tomorrow.
So, today was another perfect day and a happy surprise with the sun and the view of the mountains being visible. This vacation isn't for those that don't like cold, and I would highly recommend it for anyone that appreciates snow, very cold temps and adventure!
