It was last days of our stay in Utah and we were heading to Salt Lake City for our last stop. This stop is a must for any Landcruiser lover, Landcruiser Heritage Museum.
After an amazing and refreshing drive through the mountains and visiting ski resorts and villages along the way, we arrived at Salt Lake city. We had an amazing Persian lunch in the city and directly headed to the museum.
Even though we watched few videos about this place and the history of all the cars there, being physically there was a unique experience.
We were the only one there, and spent hours seeing the cars one by one and learn about them.Â
One of the highlights was the troopy that they used for their project 7 and has been to all 7 continents. We were wondering if we can take Chaapaar to all the seven continents!
We took a photo in the front gate and had a chat with the nice lady at the reception about our travel plans and the fact that we shipped our car from New Zealand and then, she kindly offered us to take the car to the back of the building and take a photo with our car and the whole collection!
That took our experience to another level. After spending hours there, it was time to head out of the Salt Lake city before the rush hour and find a camp spot
We thought we could get out of the Salt Lake city before the rush hour but we were wrong. Took us a very long and slow drive to get out the city and outskirt of the city and find a very nice camp site next to a small river in a canyon. It was nice and cool and a great change after few hot weeks in central and southern Utah. The next morning was the day to say goodbye to Utah and enter a new state, Idaho! We haven’t planned much for Idaho, except crossing through the southern part of the state to get to Wyoming, but the few days that we have spent in Idaho was amazing. We’ve learnt quickly in this trip that, what comes in between points of interest and what we are planning to see is often the most surprising and exciting parts of the trip. And Crossing through Idaho was another example.
We had a few great days in Idaho, filled with great drives in the countryside, lots of wildlife and lakes and great camp spots.Â
We’ve spent few days doing nothing, fishing, having drinks and good food and enjoying the cool breeze.
From there it was time to head into Wyoming. We followed the beautiful Snake River upstream to its source in Wyoming.
It starts in Wyoming and carry on to the southern Idaho and then continues to Oregon border and meets the Columbia river in Washington. After spending a lot of time next to the Colorado river and chasing the canyons it was flowing through, we had a new river to follow!
Just before getting to Wyoming and our first stop, Jackson hole, we had a great few days next to the snake river, did amazing barbeques and swims in the snake river.
We weren’t sure what to expect in terms of camp spots, when we get closer to the national parks in Wyoming so we enjoyed the most of awesome campsites along the way.
The first town we stopped at Wyoming was Jackson Hole. It is a great winter destination for Skiing in Wyoming and it is also one of the gateways to get to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.Â
Jackson Hole is a dream destination for Skiing in Wyoming and it is for a good reason. Just look at how amazing is the ski slopes and their proximity to the town center, hotels and bars. We would love to come back to the Jackson Hole in winter. We expected that to be too touristy and it was but the vibe of the town was really awesome. There were lots of art galleries around with great art pieces that we enjoyed exploring too.Â
After spending a great day in Jackson Hole we headed toward Grand Teton national park and found a camp spot in the outskirt of the national park boundary and in Grand Teton national forest area.
The spot was great in between mountains, forest and lots of wild flowers. It also gave us the opportunity to be close to the national park entry and be able to start really early in the morning. Grand Teton national park is a great place to explore with the great snow covered grand Teton range and it is definitely less popular comparing to its neighboring national park, the Yellowstone National Park. But it still receives a fair amount of visitors. One of the famous walks in the park is The Inspiration Point via Jenny Lake Boat Shuttle. We wanted to ignore this one and choose another walk in the park. We picked the moose ponds and mixed it with another walk that was going through the lupin field and a great view of the mount Teton in the background.
The Grand Teton national park was great. We only spend a day in the park but it was peaceful and not crowded for the most parts. We also met another overlander in a troopy in the park. That was the first other troopy and the first other overlander that we met along they way in almost 3 months that we started the trip. We shared some stories and unfortunately had to say goodbye because he was at the end of his trip and was taking his troopy back to Germany pretty soon.
After spending a great day walking and swimming, seeing our first moose and finding a new friend, we thought that we had a great day and it is time to go and find a camp just outside of the Grand Teton and before the southern entrance to the Yellowstone national park. But the Grand Teton had more waiting for us on the way out. We encountered a big herd of Bisons on our way out! That was a great surprise. We spent more time looking at the bisons and how their elder ones, lead the younger ones through the meadows and passing the busy roads. We also got lucky and found an amazing camp spot between Yellowstone and Grand Teton to spend the night and be close to the Yellowstone for the following day. We were lucky with the camp spots and the weather for the last few days but we soon realized that it is going to change. From here we were heading to Yellowstone and Yellowstone had few surprises for us. More on that in the next post. Till then take care and enjoy life!
