The Journey to Alaska {Days 4-6}

Day #4 of our drive to Alaska took us from Denver, Colorado to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was a long day of driving. We were so happy to see when we arrived that they had Albertson's & Smith's grocery stores there, so we felt like we had a little piece of Vegas welcoming us into town. We stopped at Albertson's on our way into town to get provisions for dinner & the next day because Day #5 was a scheduled "rest day" for us to explore Grand Tetons National Park & get a break from driving!

{stopping at a small town post office along on our route to mail post cards}

We stayed at an Airbnb just outside the gate to Grand Tetons. After checking in & eating a quick dinner, we went out for a short walk. There was a huge field in front of our building for the kids to run/play in & a paved trail directly across the street at the National Elk Refuge.

The picture below is on the trail of the Elk Refuge, just steps from our Airbnb. The picture doesn't do it justice. but we have never seen dandelions like this before! They were enormous!

Our "rest day" was so perfectly timed (again, Derek knocked it out of the park planning this trip for us!), and it was just what we needed. We went for a hike in Grand Tetons to Taggart Lake, trimmed the kids' fingernails (real like doesn't stop when you're on the road), LAUNDRY!!, the kids wrote more post cards to friends & started a comic together (it was so nice for them to get to play & do things together..aka not be strapped in seat belts and car seats all day), and we strolled around downtown Jackson Hole a bit & got ice cream for dessert! Such a good day.

Day #6 took us from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone National Park, and then we ended the day in Bozeman, Montana. While driving through Yellowstone, we saw countless signs to watch out for wildlife. It kind of became a running joke amongst us because we hadn't seen a single animal! Well, that all changed on this day. We saw a herd of buffalo running across the street right in front of us! It was so amazing to watch this unfold before our eyes. It was definitely a first for us to see buffalo running. This stretch of the drive was also noteworthy because Shelby pulled a loose tooth out while we were driving. We were also surprised by how hot it was there. Every single time we got out of the car, we expected to find the "cooler" temperatures...but it wasn't here! 

{Brady isn't pictured here because he had fallen asleep, and there was no way we were waking up for a quick photo op!}

The pictures below are from Grand Prismatic Springs...the colors were amazing! 

{picnic lunch at Yellowstone Lake & the view did not disappoint!}

We made our way through the park to find Old Faithful, which was amazing to see in person. However, this part of Yellowstone was way too touristy/crowded for my personal preference. We also thought it was interesting how the times it will erupt are estimations, and there were lots of "false starts" before the big eruption.

From Yellowstone, we continued our drive to Bozeman, Montana..which may have been one of the most gorgeous parts of our entire drive! Simply stunning. We stopped at an Olive Garden for dinner before checking into our hotel room that evening, and breadsticks never tasted so good!

And it's shocking that I don't have a single picture of this because we literally used these all day every day on this journey, but walkie talkies were one of the best things we bought for this trip. After just the first day of driving we quickly realized how annoying/frustrating it was to not be able to communicate between cars when we were out of cell phone range {we had no idea how thankful we'd be in the days to come on the AlCan}, so we made a pit stop at Wal-Mart to pick some up. They were so, so helpful to us throughout the entire trip.