Greg, Kate + Pete Go West.

Okay, we have been home for nearly a month now and life has caught up with me. BUT I need to give the people what they want so here come the final two blog posts.

We ended our grand adventure in Louisville, KY. We knew we didn’t really want to be back in Nashville for July 4. Lots of extra tourists here, crowded bars, girls screaming on pedal taverns, etc. I didn’t have to start work until July 6 but wanted to be home July 5 to give myself a day to try to adjust to becoming a functioning adult again. Pete had never been to Louisville before and it’s a short 2.5 hour drive to Nashville so we figured it would be a cool spot to be for the fourth and the end of our journey.

One of Pete’s buddies lives in Louisville and we had plans to see Greensky Bluegrass on the waterfront with them that evening (July 3). We left STL late morning with plans to arrive to downtown Louisville around 3 pm. UNTIL we realized Louisville is EST, whoops! The drive from STL was only about four hours and we high tailed it so we would have time to check-in, walk Greg, shower and meet up Pete’s friend before the show. We stayed at The Moxy, which is dog friendly, a little swanky, but relatively cheap because it’s a boutique hotel (AKA small). Personally, I love boutique hotels and other than the room being a little small for two adults and an adult sized dog it was totally perfect for us. At this point in the trip/year we were back to hot ass southern weather (ugh ugh ugh) so our dog walk was short and sweet.

We met Pete’s friend Dave and his wife Kathleen as a brewery just under a mile away so we were nice and sweaty from our walk by the time we arrived. We had a drink and dinner and met some of Dave’s friends all of whom were very cool. I found out later that one of them had been Cody Rigsby’s roommate in NY for years. So very upsetting that I didn’t know this when I was in her presence. Storing many questions in my brain to ask her when we are back in Louisville next.

After dinner, we headed down to the waterfront where the concert was being held. I used to visit Louisville for work four times and a year but hadn’t been there is years and a lot has changed. The waterfront area has been completely redone and is now a huge park with lots of open space for hanging out, concerts, etc. The city did an amazing job with this transformation. Greensky was really cool. Naturally, I had never heard their music before, like many of the concerts that Pete brings me to, but I love bluegrass and live music so I had a blast. After Greensky, we walked back to The Moxy to take Greg out. We ended up grabbing a drink from the hotel bar and sitting outside with Greg which was great.

Louisville day two started with a 9 am class at Shed 415. Dave’s wife, Kathleen, owns the gym (she is a badass, clearly) and naturally after having a couple beverages I told her I’d LOVE TO TRY IT OUT! The next morning I was not quite as excited to run on a treadmill and lift weights for an hour but I knew it’s what Pete and I both needed so we put our shades on, walked Greg, chugged water and headed over to the gym. The class was great! Similar format to Barry’s Bootcamp but way more mellow, inclusive, no bros with shirts off, etc. Really, really loved it and the class flew by. If you find yourself in Louisville, I recommend you go and support Kathleen by taking a class at one of her studios (Shed 415).

After class, Pete and I felt like brand new people, and it was time to refuel. We went back to The Moxy to grab Gregor and then met Kathleen and Dave for coffee and breakfast (lox on a bagel, so good).

After breakfast Pete, Greg and I headed to PG&J's Dog Park Bar. We wanted to hit it before it got any hotter and we were still dirty from our class. PG&J’s is just as the name states. An indoor/outdoor bar where you can bring your dog and let them off leash to peruse the entire indoor/outdoor facility. The sign in process took quite a while so we sweat some more while we stood outside waiting. Finally, it was our turn! We got Greg all signed in and I was feeling really happy to give him some time off leash after being in the hotel most of the evening the night before.

If you know Greg well, you know he likes to play rough. He also really loves to be chased by his dog friends. Off leash he is USUALLY well-mannered meaning he doesn’t fight with other dogs despite their breed (on leash he has a major problem with doodle breeds, which has been great since non-shedding dogs have been ALL THE RAGE for the last few years). I digress.

We enter the bar section, which is indoor, and I let Greg off his leash. Basically, from that moment onward he creates complete chaos. He starts by basically spinning out once he’s off leash. The floors were concrete with a finish so a tad slippery for dogs and as soon as he heard his leash being unclipped, he tried to sprint away towards all the other dogs as fast as he possibly could. Pete and I looked at each other and immediately headed to the bar for a drink. While waiting for our drink, we could see Greg psychotically running around the dog park, up to other dogs, peeing on numerous items including the leg of a chair SOMEONE WAS SITTING IN. We really didn’t know what to do. Technically, he wasn’t doing anything WRONG he was just causing a ruckus. We decided the best move was to pretend he wasn’t our dog. This was working out well until he pooped and I had to pick it up. We were outed.

After 20 minutes or so, he mellowed out a little but began pestering one dog in particular. He wants this dog, another GSD breed, to chase him but this dog really doesn’t want to and finds him annoying and is exhibiting all the signs dogs exhibit when they are annoyed. Growling, raising his hair up, etc. Greg doesn’t care. He wants him to chase him and continues to pester. The dog park has a “ranger” whose job is walk around with a water bottle full of rocks and shake it when the dogs start to fight or become aggressive with each other. Before long, I hear the bottle shaking noise and I know it must be Greg. Sure enough, it was, but since he wasn’t the one being aggressive he isn’t in any trouble! Long story short, Greg caused the other dog to have to go on a “five-minute leash break” and eventually the dog and his peeps just left all together. Ugh.

By now, Pete and I realized what we thought would be fun and relaxing was not either of those things. We had to finish our drink STAT and get out of there. We tried to drink fast but it wasn’t fast enough. Greg had found his next “friend” in an adorable Border Collie who he decided he had a crush on. SO EMBARSSING WHOSE CHILD IS THAT?! This poor dog just kept trying to run away, for good reason. As we were leaving, we met his person who was really cool and didn’t seem to be upset that our dog was trying to sexually assault his dog. I don’t think we will be back at PG&J’s anytime (ever again) soon. Now you know why there are no photos from this experience! However, the concept is really cool, was super clean and well maintained with lots of room for dogs and people so if you have a normal dog and you’re in Louisville I would definitely visit this establishment!

After our 45 minutes of fun at the dog park, we headed back to the hotel to shower up. We spent the rest of the day walking around downtown getting snacks and drinks. We stopped by Garage Bar, Feast, La Bodeguita de Mima and Angel's Envy distillery. Highly recommend all of these joints but Angel's Envy was definitely the highlight. We did a super basic tasting but learned a ton and Angel's Envy is very tasty bourbon (coming someone who typically DOES NOT like bourbon straight). From Angel's Envy we headed to the waterfront to secure a firework watching location. Greg was allowed at the waterfront and could care less about fireworks which worked out great. After fireworks, we headed back to The Moxy to relax before heading home to Nashville the next morning.

The next morning, we checked out and walked all along the river front. I couldn’t get over how much Louisville had changed (for the better) since I’d been there last and I truly cannot wait to go back and visit. Next time we visit Louisville, we plan to much more proactive about making tasting/tour reservations at the downtown bourbon distilleries.

I was starting to get majorly depressed about having to resume normal life the next day so we decided to delay that feeling just slightly by stop at Mammoth Cave National Park on our way home. Kudos to Pedro for finding this park for us! Had no idea such a cool spot was so close to home. This park is home to the longest cave system known in the world. Uh, cool! We learned many cool facts along our walk through the park which you can also find here if you’re interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_Cave_National_Park

We didn’t go into Mammoth Cave itself because we had Greg with us but we did see some of the smaller caves which had bats hibernating in them right now! When we were there, the temperature outside with in the low 80 range but the temperature in the cave was in the high 50 range! When we walked by the entrance to Mammoth Cave it kept like standing in front of an open refrigerator door. So wild and a great way to take a break mid-hike and cool down. We have plans to head back to this park, sans dog, so we can really explore the caves more.

From here, we headed back to Nash-Vegas which was only an hour and a half drive. It was weird driving towards the city and seeing the Nashville skyline. Since we had absolutely no food at our house and we were not about to grocery shop our first hour back in town, we stopped at our favorite dive in our neighborhood for a late lunch/early dinner. Suddenly, it kind of felt like we never left!

I promised myself I'd finish this thing and I am two posts away from doing just that!

From Cheyenne, our goal was to drive nine or so hours to Kansas City. We had plans to be in St. Louis the following day to meet up with one of the partners from Pete’s firm and also wanted to be relatively close to Louisville, which is where we had booked a room downtown to do fourth of July activities. We figured one really long driving day would make the rest of the trip a breeze. Our backup plan was to stay in Lincoln, NE for the night if we hit traffic, etc. and didn’t want to go all the way to KC.

The drive really wasn’t that bad! I’m sure in large part because at this point in the voyage we were accustomed to being in the car a lot. We each drove in two hour shifts with pee breaks in between. Since we weren’t 100% sure we would make it to KC, we did not book a room. Our plan was to get past Lincoln and book via HotelTonight and this is what we did. I found a cheap and dog friendly Motel 8; True luxury!

We really wanted KC BBQ for dinner and got some great recs from friends who were local (Q39 seemed to be the resounding winner) but as we got closer, we realized Q39 was downtown and would have been out of the way for us. After 9+ hours of driving, we opted on a BBQ spot that was a couple minutes off the highway and on our route to the Motel 8. We grabbed our to-go BBQ and headed to the motel. As we were driving down the road towards the motel, I noted that our luxury accommodations were right next to a large hotel/casino that looked pretty nice. There was also lots of grassy areas for dog walking which is always a huge plus.

Pete pulled up and I hopped out to check in. As soon as I opened the door, I immediately noticed the smell of cigarettes. Ugh. I reminded myself it was just one night, and we could manage. As I was checking in, the front desk attendant asked if I had a dog (likely saw Gregor in the truck idling out front). I said, “yes” and he then proceeded to ask me if the dog shed. My response, “Well, he’s a dog, so he sheds a bit.” Those of you who know Greg know this is kind of a lie. He sheds A LOT but whatever, this joint was marked as pet friendly on the HotelTonight app! Next thing I know, I’m told we can’t stay because of the dog. WTF! At this point, it’s 8 pm, we are starving and tired and do not want to get back in the car. Because I booked through a third party, I had to call and explain the situation. HotelTonight was great and credited my account within a couple minutes and I was able to book our next luxury stay.

The hotel I booked was across the city, about a 20-minute drive and in the direction we would be heading the next day. As we neared the Quality Inn & Suites the area became more and more industrial and unappealing. Keep in mind, hangry me did not even look at a detailed map to survey the area were the hotel was. Big mistake. We rolled up and were fairly horrified. The Quality Inn & Suites was anything but quality. The hotel was located right next to the highway, behind a diesel gas station for truckers. Lots of people walking around the parking lot fixing cars. What? Half the hotel seemed to be under construction, but I can’t imagine why they were bothering to try to fix it up? When we surveyed the bathroom in our room, we noticed a substantially sized “bubble” in the ceiling that was clearly filled with water. Only a matter of time until the weight of the water ripped through drywall/paint/whatever was holding it together. I was very concerned about this happening while I was in the shower. After all, maybe that was toilet water. WHO KNOWS! We were too scared to walk Gregor/so obviously out of place here, so we hid in our room and ate our BBQ (which was really, really good) and went to bed. I peeled myself out of bed the next morning for a 6 am spin class/motivation to get the F out of there early which is exactly what we did.

We were on the road to St. Louis by 7:45/8 am. As we sped away, leaving the Quality Inn & Suites in the dust, we realized the hotel was one exit from Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium. So maybe during football season it’s less scary there? Kind of doubt it. Also, would love to know where Mahomes lives. Surely not in the area.

In hindsight, I wish we hadn’t been cheapskates and had stayed downtown. Luckily for us, KC is an easy drive from Nashville. I’m determined to get BBQ from Q39.

Despite our less than stellar experience in KC, our drive to STL was only 3.5 hours! We were staying at a Marriott property (FELT LIKE HOME) in the heart of downtown and they let us check in super early. They must have known we had a rough stay in KC.

Anyway, Pete had a bunch of work to catch up on so Gregor and I set out to explore the city on foot. I owed Greg a lot of steps after the nine-hour drive/hiding in the hotel room the day before. We lucked out and the weather was bearable for an 80 lb dog with long hair. We were about half a mile from the The Gateway Arch/waterfront area so we headed that direction. The area had just received a ton of rain so the Mississippi was very, very high (we talkin’ 20+ feet higher than it normally sits). Greg and I did quite a lot of strolling/picture taking of The Gateway Arch. Because Pete researches everything, he had already given me a full rundown of why the arch was built and what is was meant to represent. The history is really cool and you can learn more about it here: https://www.gatewayarch.com/experience/about/

I REALLY wanted to take the tram to the top of the arch but of course tickets were sold out. I opted for an hour-long river boat ride to really get our tourist on. The boat ride was scheduled for 4:15 pm so after our stroll Greg and I headed back to the hotel to force Pete to stop working and be more fun. Pete and I really enjoyed the cruise and learned a bit about STL history. So many gorgeous historic buildings just waiting to be rehabbed so if you’re into that, head on up to STL.

Our drive from Grand Teton to Laramie was just over five hours. The drive went by very quickly thanks to lots of scenery changes. As we moved away from Grand Teton park, the terrain changed from mountainous and green to a more desert appearance with lots of red rock formations. We felt like we were back in New Mexico for a moment. We also drove through two large mountain passes.

We arrived to The Laramie Valley Inn around 4 pm. This place was another dive motel but it was cheap and allowed Gregor and was within walking distance to the downtown area. The Laramie Valley Inn was also a step up from The Cabana Inn so that was a plus. We took Greg for a long-ish walk and then Pete and I went for a run to explore the area. We ran through part of downtown and then headed over to The University of Wyoming campus. The campus was gorgeous! The doors to the basketball arena were open so we snooped around there for a while and reminisced on the good ole college days. We tried to sneak into the football stadium but it was off limits so we stared through the fence instead. On our way back to the motel, we ran through the residential area around campus and both agreed we could live there. The houses were quaint and so close to downtown. Also there were sidewalks everywhere which is a huge luxury to me after 3+ years of living in Nashville.

After our run, we showered up and set off on foot to explore downtown Laramie. We started by stopping at Bond’s Brewing Company which we had noticed on our run. They had trivia going on while we were there so it was a fun and busy atmosphere for a Tuesday. We had one beer and then headed to The Crowbar & Grill for dinner. Pete had planned to get a salad but then he got a burger with feta and grilled mushrooms with a side of fries. He did admit he was disgusted with himself but confirmed the burger just may have been the best one he has ever had. I had a salad and it was fabulous. I think this establishment is mostly known for their pizza because everyone around us was ordering it and it looked REALLY GOOD. If you are in Laramie, please go here and try the pizza and report back!

After dinner, we walked around the corner to The Buckhorn Bar & Parlor, which is Laramie’s oldest and most historic bar. The bar is 116 years old! Think lots of mahogany, funky light fixtures, etc. The walls are now decorated with taxidermy animals, old photos and posters. But what makes The Buckhorn most famous is a bullet that’s been lodged in the glass behind the bar for 45 years. The story goes that a regular “flew into a fit of rage” when the bartender ignored his advances. In his drunken stupor, he pulled out a pistol and put one shot into the ceiling, one into the alley outside and the other into the mirror which you can still see today. This Buckhorn is a must visit in Laramie.

Laramie was a very funky little western town and I loved the time we spent there. Like 97% of the cities and towns we have visited on this trip, I wished we had one more day to explore. I also imagine Laramie is completely different when school is in session and would totally be into going back to experience that and WYO football game.

The next morning, I got up and went for a run while Pete caught up on some work. We walked Greg around downtown and did a little shopping and coffee drinking and then we hit the road to Cheyenne.

Cheyenne was only a 50 minute drive from Laramie and was mostly a stopover for us. Pete had a ton of work to catch up on so he was stuck in the Air BnB doing that until around 5 pm. While Pete worked, Greg and I did a lot of walking. Our Air BnB was a tiny studio “apartment” (really just a bedroom with it’s own private entrance and bathroom connected) but it was a half mile walk to downtown and located in a safe neighborhood. Greg and I walked all throughout downtown and the surrounding area and we both agreed we liked Cheyenne, which sort of just felt like a larger version of Laramie.

Once Pete was finally free from work, we ditched Greg and walked downtown to give Pete a chance to check out the area and grab dinner. We ended up eating at The Albany, which was another historic establishment. The Albany was built in 1905 and was originally a hotel. The Albany family bought the building 42 years ago and has run the business since then.

We had dinner at the bar and ended up chatting with the gentleman next to us who happened to be a teacher/artist/author. I mentioned that my mom had just retired after many years working in an elementary school as a literacy specialist. After he heard that, he insisted on grabbing a copy of his book from his car (which he had also illustrated via silk painting) which he signed and handed to me to gift to my mom. We have truly met the coolest/kindest people on this road trip. Fully support anyone who wants to purchase "Green Dream" by Edward Marron.

The next morning, we got up early and took Gregor on a long walk before it got hot and prepped our brains for a 6 - 9 hour driving day. Our plan was to get just outside Lincoln, NE and decide whether we wanted to continue on to Kansas City, MO. Pete had planned to fuel up with some instant oatmeal but as soon as we turned the microwave on it blew the fuse in our room (and maybe the rest of the house, no idea) so we abandoned breakfast, packed our gear and hit the road. Very glad that I am not someone who uses a blow dryer because doing that the night before would have been a real buzz kill.

Our drive from Yellowstone to our accommodations in Grand Teton was a short and scenic 3.5 hours. The majority of the drive was through Yellowstone, with the southern park exit leading right into the northern entrance of Grand Teton National Park. As we drove through Grand Teton, we stopped at one of the larger lodges/resorts to walk around with Greg and take in some incredible views of Jackson Lake and the Teton Range. We found a short/easy trail near the lodge and decided to check it out. Of course, there was a big sign notifying us that bears frequent the area and we had left the bear spray in the car. We decided to go for it since it was hot outside and around midday, when bears are typically least active. The first person we passed on the trail had bear spray dangling from a necklace, which didn’t ease my anxiety. Luckily, we only spotted a deer laying in the shade of a tree and Pete had the chance to use his new favorite toy, the binoculars. We passed one family on the walking trail and they likely assumed we were staying at the resort so they told us that the evening prior, they had seen wolves hunting a group of elk in a clearing viewable from the back patio area. So cool and I once again experienced wolf FOMO. Since it was in the 80’s this day and we had Greg with us, we decided to head to the lodge/cabin where we were staying for the next couple nights.

We stayed at the Togwotee Mountain Lodge, which is approximately 20 minutes from the east entrance and an easy drive. The lodge has a main building with a restaurant and saloon and cabins cabins situated back behind the lodge. On our way to the lodge, we passed a couple flashing signs stating “BEARS IN ROADWAY, STAY IN CAR” etc. We hadn’t seen signs like this before so we were interested and kept our eyes peeled but didn’t see any bears or other wildlife. While I was checking in, I noticed a little sign regarding “bear hazing” going on for the month of June. I asked the guy at the front desk what that meant and he explained that a group of “bear watchers” had spotted a Grizzly bear frequenting the area along this particular roadway (the road the lodge was on) and began coming out to look for the bears and blocking traffic, etc. And then… They began giving snacks to one of the bears! The bear was given the name Felicia, and she had cubs and continued to hang by the roadway hoping for food. This is obviously extremely dangerous for the bears and the idiot people who were getting out of their cars to take photos. So that explains all the signs we saw on our drive to the cabin. Bear hazing means wildlife management is working to scare/bother the bears in a particular area to get them to move away to an area less populated with people. They generally will shoot the bears in the bum with rubber pellets, etc. Given this information, we were on high alert of bears around the cabin. Our cabin was awesome. So much space, so quiet and peaceful and in the middle of nowhere.

After we settled in, Pete played disc golf (there was a 9-hole course built by some employees at the lodge) and Greg and I walked around with him while he played. We remembered to bring the bear spray this time.

We had intended on grabbing some items from the store on site but when they pretty much only had chips for sale and PB + jelly supplies, so we settled on some craft beer instead and did dinner at the Red Fox Saloon which was located in the lodge and was literally the only option within a 25 minute drive! The food/drinks were very good and the bartender, Danny, was hilarious.

The next morning we got up relatively early, took Greg for a short walk around the lodge property and headed into Grand Teton National Park. We had read that parking near trailheads was super limited so arriving early was a must. We left the cabin later than intended and arrived to the trailhead around 8:30 am. We lucked out and go the very last available parking spot.

We ended up doing an 8-mile hike around Jenny Lake, which Danny had recommended to us. The hike was easy/mostly flat but really beautiful. A couple sections were very crowded but the majority of the hike wasn’t, which was great. We also saw a handful of people with bells attached to their backpacks, which were meant to let bears know you’re around so you don’t sneak up on them. Wish I had known about this before since we actually had a mini cowbell with us (we had attached this to Greg’s collar in the past). This day in Grand Teton was our last day in bear country but if you plan to hike in bear country this seems like a cheap and easy move.

After our hike, we headed to Dornan’s for pizza, which was another recommendation from Danny. Pizza was super good and vibes were cool. We enjoyed our pizza with a front row view of the Teton Mountain Range. Arguably the best restaurant view in Grand Teton! After lunch, we considered going to Jackson for a little bit, but were worried about leaving Greg for much longer so we decided to head back to the lodge. Additionally, Pete had a 4:15 disc golf tee time with Tyler, a lodge staff member and the guy who built the disc golf course! We had met him the night before at the Red Fox Saloon while he was working. Seems like all of the staff live on site in staff housing, which is pretty neat and seems like a great opportunity for a reality TV show.

We arrived back to the cabin post hike, opened the door and… Where was Greg? Never a good sign if he’s not at the door to greet us. Pete noticed the bathroom door was shut and when he opened it, there was Greg! Greg had gone into the bathroom to drink his water, the door had shut behind and thus he was stuck in there with no lights on. Very sad. That’s not the end of this story, though. Pete let Greg out and after using the bathroom, he mentioned that Greg had scratched at the door. I asked how bad it was and Pete said, “Not that bad.” This was an inaccurate statement by Pete. There were wood splinters and shavings all over the bathroom floor. The door and pieces of the doorframe likely needed to be replaced. Gregor has never done anything like this before so I felt especially awful that he was freaking out so badly in the dark bathroom. We checked his paws for cuts and there were none, phew, and he was happy as could be once he was out of the bathroom so I am hoping there is no lingering mental trauma. I delayed coming clean to the front desk staff until we checked out the next morning. Luckily, they were cool about it and still haven’t called me to tell me how much I’ll be charged for damages. Greg’s plot to become the world’s priciest mutt continues.

Grand Teton was gorgeous and once again, we needed a lot more time to really explore this park. If you are planning a visit, I would schedule two full days at the very least.

Alert: This is going to be a long one. I am going to try to include lots of detail so when someone asks me about what to do in Yellowstone I can just send them here.

Our drive from Idaho Falls to The Yellowstone River Motel was just under three hours with 1.5 of those hours driving through the park. We lucked out with the weather that day as it was in the low 60’s and overcast (perfect weather for safely leaving Greg in the car for a few minutes). Once we realized we would be driving through the park for 1.5 hours regardless we decided to make some stops so we would have less to cram into the next two days. We stopped off at numerous hot springs and geysers with the highlight for me being Artist Paint Pots. “Paint Pots” are basically little geysers that have heated the rock up enough to melt it and turn it into a mud/clay like substance. They bubble and shoot this mud/clay substance into the air. It’s mildly addicting to watch. After we had our fill of hot springs and geysers for the day, we continued north to the park exit. A few miles before the park exit, we hit a ton of traffic. Someone told me before our visit that if there are traffic jams and cars pulled over, to keep your eyes peeled. Since we were Yellowstone rookies we almost kept driving (also because Pete was stressing about work), but, at the last second, I saw a spot to pull off so we did. We got out of the car and tried to act like we knew what everyone was staring at. Then we saw it! A little chunky black bear rummaging around in the bushes below us. We watched the bear do bear things for a while and then hit the road, feeling lucky we had seen a bear so soon into our time in Yellowstone. The lucky feeling was still fresh when Pete spotted another bear, potentially a small grizzly, running along a ridgeline a half mile before the park exit (and very close to town).

Initially, I really wanted to stay in West Yellowstone. The road throughout the park is set up like a figure eight and the West Yellowstone park entrance is the most central. If you stay in West Yellowstone, you can essentially see/do all the major sites/hikes without ever having to backtrack driving wise. Of course, because I waited so long to book accommodations (and because we had a dog with us) there were no available accommodations in West Yellowstone, or really ANYWHERE. Planning Yellowstone was probably the biggest trip stressor for me once I realized we might be staying 40+ minutes away from a park entrance. Through extensive internet searching, I found the Yellowstone River Motel, which is located in Gardiner, MT. The only way to make reservations is to call them (CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE) and I truly think that’s the only reason I ended up securing a room. The motel was awesome. Dated, but clean and steps away from the north park entrance. The motel was also right on the Yellowstone River and had an amazing patio/yard space with grills, picnic tables, chairs, etc. Highly recommend staying here if you want to save a few dollars and stay right outside the park. Also, no sales tax in MT so win win.

After five or six stops in the park on our way to the motel, we arrived around 5 pm. Pete had an angry client so he needed to send a tax return out so this man-child would stop sending him angry emails. Most restaurants in Gardiner that were within walking distance closed at 8 pm on week nights so we had very limited food options since Pete didn’t wrap up work until 7:30 pm or so. We discovered the Iron Horse Saloon was open later and a short walk from us so we headed there. The bar/restaurant was right on the Yellowstone River and had a huge deck overlooking the river. We had to wait to be seated so we got a drink and stared at the river, which was lovely. The food was decent and cheap and we are easy to please. Pete got an elk burger because when in Rome! I would recommend this place if you are visiting Yellowstone/staying in Gardiner. No other establishment offers river views like Iron Horse. After dinner, we got right into bed because the plan was to get up EARLY and head to Lamar Valley in hopes of seeing some wildlife. Lamar Valley is where a lot of bison hang out which brings the bears, wolves, coyotes, etc.

Our alarm was set for 4:50 am and sunrise was at 5:30 am. This is where we went wrong. Lamar Valley was an hour drive from us and we should have planned to be there at 5:30/5:45 am. Seems crazy but that truly gives you the best chance to see some action. Alas, we were up walking Greg by 5:20 am or so. I was on high alert for bears and elk. The elk are EVERYWHERE in Gardiner and they are used to people but they will be aggressive if they feel threatened. My worry is always Greg acting a fool and causing an animal to come after us. Luckily, we mostly saw elk from afar on this walk. However, we were walking down a little bank towards the river when Pete pointed out a tiny deer on the hillside. I assured him it was fake because it was so still and looked exactly like those fake deer people set up in their yards to use for target practice. We continued on and when we looped back Pete pointed to the fake deer who hadn’t moved at all with the exception of it’s head so it could watch us. Long story short, the deer wasn’t fake and luckily it was a doe so she just stood like a statue and waited for us to leave her alone. From here, we dropped Greg off and headed to Lamar Valley.

The drive through the park at this early hour was a breeze. I cannot stress enough, especially in Yellowstone, that the earlier you make it into the park the better. We were in the valley by 7 am. Lamar Valley is gorgeous and this was both Pete and I’s favorite part of Yellowstone. You are away from the crowds and it’s quiet and peaceful (if you’re there early or late). Upon arriving to the valley, we realized we were idiots because we didn’t have binoculars. Literally every single other people/couple we saw had binoculars. UGH! Regardless, we had a wonderful morning despite only seeing bison. We left around 9 am to get back to take Greg out before horseback riding at 11 am.

We arrived to Hell’s- A-Roarin’ ranch just before 11 am after driving 10 miles up an unpaved mountain road. We had scheduled a two-hour ride around the mountain. We waited around a bit before getting on our horses. Pete was assigned Jimmy and I was assigned Pet. We started out and three minutes into the ride, Jimmy was kicked by another jerk horse, which of course caused him to jump sideways. Pedro handled it like the true cowboy he is, but I wondered how the next hour and fifty seven minutes would go. Two minutes after this incident, one of the guides/fake cowboys gives me the heads up that Pet was very bad on a ride earlier and “needs her space” or she’ll kick. Oh great. So now I have one hour and fifty four minutes to worry about Pet kicking another horse and potentially causing someone else to fall off/get hurt. We trudged onward and I warned anyone around me to stay back from Pet’s booty or else. Luckily, she did give signals when she was getting angry and, because I grew up riding horses, I could read these signals. Halfway through the ride I decided it was best for mine and Pet’s anxieties if we moved into the caboose position so that’s what we did and we had no incidents, thankfully!

Back to Pete and Jimmy… I really didn’t see Pete much during the ride. On trail rides, the horses typically have “friends” who they like to walk near so you are supposed to let them choose their marching order. I’ll let Pete step in here to give you the 4-1-1 on Jimmy’s overall disposition:

Jimmy is a stubborn and tired old horse. He only has one speed and it’s just slightly faster than the horses in front of him. Despite my continuous pulls on his reigns, he refused to give the other horses their space, preferring to ride up on their hind sides until his nose was nearly touching their rears. He would slow down momentarily and in a matter of seconds we would be back where we started. We spent time near the front of the pack, at the back of the pack, and eventually ended up somewhere in the middle. Jimmy didn’t seem to have any “friends” and couldn’t seem to find his place in the marching order. He mostly followed my lead, but I could tell he didn’t care much for me.

Throughout the ride, the guides/cowboys chatted us up. They were both super young (17 and 22) and lived on the ranch. They all bunked up in a basement together similar to the depiction in Paramount’s series, Yellowstone. Guide one, Logan, was 22 and from South Carolina. He was heading into his senior year at Clemson and was doing this for the summer before joining the rest of us in the rat race. Prior to earlier this spring, he had no experience riding horses. Guide 2, Hanley, was 17 and from outside of Billings, MT. He was… a “good ole boy” if you know what I mean. He meant well but was annoying AF and talked to me for at least 20 minutes which was painful. He grew up on a ranch and recently dropped out of high school, because another student had “disrespected” our flag and/or anthem. He worked his way among the group, telling the same stories over and over about killing rattlesnakes, rodeo injuries, and about that one time last year when he dropped out of high school.

The ride continued and, at this point, I was wishing it was one hour and not two. The ride was very slow. Many stops to wait for people who didn’t really have control of their horse (horses going of the path, stopping to eat grass, etc.). Finally, though, we were in the home stretch back to the ranch. Even though Pet and I were pulling up the rear we had a good view of the horses in front of us. All of a sudden, I see Jimmy and Pete jump sideways and up onto a hill after the horse in front of him decided to back up into Jimmy. Once again, Pete managed to stay on Jimmy and crisis was averted. Phew. This happened again just before the trail ended at the road to the ranch, this time with Jimmy jumping off the trail over some logs and into the long brush. We were both ready to say goodbye and Jimmy, Pet, Hanley, and the rest of the group.

After the horse ride, we were pretty exhausted (mentally and physically) so we headed back to the motel to shower/walk Greg/nap. We had decided earlier in the day to go back to Lamar Valley that night to see if we could spy some wildlife after talking to a woman at the ranch who told us about a wolf den located in Slough Creek. She had been there that morning and seen some of the pups playing. SO JEALOUS.

Before heading back to Lamar Valley, we stopped off and bought binoculars. I will just say, I was very thankful there is no sales tax in MT and I plan to take up bird watching once I get back to Nashville.

We headed out around 5 pm with plans to arrive to Slough Creek around 6 pm and continue into Lamar Valley after. As we were driving through the park, we once again saw people pulled over so we did the same and were delighted to see a mother black bear and her cub. The cub was adorable (obviously). Although the bears were not far from the road, we quickly put our new binocs to use for an up-close look.

We continued on to Slough Creek and Lamar Valley and saw lots of bison but not much else. We realized we should have asked the woman at the ranch exactly WHERE the wolf den was. Fail. Regardless, it was really cool to be back in the same area 12 hours later. We caught the “golden hour” in the valley and again we didn’t have to deal with traffic/crowds/trouble parking/etc. In my option, the move for Lamar Valley is to be there at sunrise or sunset (the sun sets really late this time of year, around 9:20 pm) and post up in camping chairs with some ‘nocs and just wait.

The next day was our last day in Yellowstone and we planned a marathon drive around the bottom loop to see as much as possibly could. We had already driven the top loop, with the exception of the Tower Falls stretch of road, which is closed until next year. I knew that the Grand Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful would be a nightmare of people so we planned to be on the road early. We stopped at many other geysers and hot springs this day as well. They are basically endless to the point that Pete stated he was done with geysers and hot springs. Oh Pete. We arrived to Grand Prismatic about 9 am. A lot of cars were pulling into the parking lot, so we opted to park on the road and walk. There was a trail and it was a 10 minute walk so not bad. Since it was early in the day, it was 50 degrees out which meant all of the springs in the park were extra steamy. Hadn’t thought about that when it came to seeing the colors of the Grand Prismatic. This one was a let down for me. Although still stunning, there was so much steam you really couldn’t see much. When the wind blew, you could see a bit more but still it wasn’t what I had seen in pictures. We also tried to stop here on our way to Grand Teton National Park as it was on the route and we figured that later in the day, when it was warmer, we would be able to see more. We arrived around 1:30 pm and the amount of people – OH MY GOD. We bagged it and continued onward. We could see from the road that there was still quite a bit of steam coming off the springs so I’m not sure how you really win here unless you manage to go early in the morning in July/August on a really breezy day. If anyone has tips, please share, because I’m sure we will be back in Yellowstone at some point!

From Grand Prismatic we continued to Old Faithful. The National Parks app predicts when Old Faithful will erupt, but there is no cell service in the park so this was relatively useless to us. OF’s eruptions occur every 60/90 minutes. We arrived a few minutes after 10 am and had no trouble parking. We hustled over and could see a large crowd already there. A good sign. We found spots to sit on the ground and eavesdropped on people nearby to determine when OF was scheduled to erupt. We ended up only waiting 25 minutes or so which felt like a major win! Old Faithful was spectacular as were all the other geysers in this area (there is a trail that wraps around the backside of OF with many other geysers and hot springs. We spent quite a bit of time at this stop before continuing onward.

Once past Old Faithful the traffic and people thinned out a lot. The loop takes you past Yellowstone Lake which is the largest lake in the United States at a high elevation (I believe it’s around 7k feet). We stopped at one of the beaches to walk around and noticed lots of animal poop on the beach. As I was getting back into the truck, I noticed a sign stating the area was closed due to bear activity. Whoops. We had lunch in Hayden Valley, which was very similar to Lamar Valley and known for lots of grizzly and other wildlife activity. We hung out for a while in our camping chairs but we were there in the middle of the day, so I didn’t expect much wildlife. We saw more bison and did some birding watching thanks to the newly acquired binoculars. We also stopped at the Mud Volcano which was really cool and fairly quick (and no trouble parking) and The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which is incredible. There was a hike down into the canyon that looked fairly easy and rewarding, but by this point, Greg had been alone in the motel room for most of the day so we didn’t have time to hike down into the canyon. I would highly recommend this hike and had I known how beautiful and impressive the canyon was, I would have skipped over some of the 175 hot springs/geysers we saw.

Finally, after nine hours in Yellowstone, we made it back to a very happy Greg. We went for a walk and then Pete and I treated ourselves to rainbow trout for dinner.

All in all, an amazing couple days. Pete and I both agreed one more full day would have been perfect and we would have started it by going back to Lamar Valley again for sunrise. A couple other pro tips:

- BINOCULARS.

- Download the Yellowstone map so you can access it offline. You are still able to see your location while offline and the map clearly shows all of the points of interest. We referenced this map multiple times every day.

- If you plan to hike, bring bear spray (duh).

- In hindsight, while West Yellowstone is very central I imagine this area is the worst for traffic/parking/annoying crowds of people. If you don’t mind driving a tad more, staying at one of the other entrances may be the better move.