July 15

July 16

Having an early arrival in Idaho meant time for a delicious patio lunch at a Mexican restaurant near our camp, such a treat to not cook! Our main task after that was to source some water and groceries. Easy enough but pretty time consuming as the closest town with a good sized grocery store was 45 minutes south. Once settled back in camp we gathered and cut some downed wood, Camden did most of the cutting and chopping work to warrant a campfire. Complete with s’mores or course. We stayed up super late to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Neowise comet that was discovered by astronomers back in March. We walked over to the lake since it provides the largest vista and sure enough, up in the northwest sky there was the comet! What a unique sighting, surely a collective experience we will always remember.

I’m starting to take great satisfaction in a job well done on the road. Traveling with a vintage trailer poses some unique challenges, something is always on the fritz or needing some upkeep. Fortunately, nothing major yet, but plenty of little things to keep us on our toes. When we were in Logan, Utah we started to address our messed up screen door, today was the day to get it fully restored and re-screened. Zach and I worked on it together while the kids roamed around back and forth to the lake we are parked near. It’s so much better now and was a relatively easy job. Now we’re hedging our bets for what might go out next, the water heater or something else. Later, we took a drive around to the dam at Island Park lake, we spotted 3 moose there wading near the lakeshore and eating grasses and willow. We’ve been wrapping up a lot of our evenings the same way we did back in Denver, with a sunset walk. Sunsets are later here and will continue to get later as we move further north, so the kids have been reveling in the much more liberal bedtimes.

July 17

We have a bucket list of items to see, eat, and do (mostly compiled by our 14yo) while on the road. One of those was rafting so we took advantage of being in a less touristy place to book a reservation and float down the Henry’s Fork River. The river was calm and mostly slow, but we still didn’t know what we were doing. Figuring it all out as a family was a fun challenge. The kids absolutely loved it! We liked it alright too, it was just a bigger workout than originally anticipated. It was at this point in the trip we’ve realized that we’ve stayed at or very near a body of water the entire time we’ve been on the road. Being Colorado natives, staying on or near a body of water is a rare treat. Our new normal had Natalie researching paddle boards for future dates on the water.

July 18

I am really starting to like this once a week laundry routine. We go to a laundromat, load up 4 washers and get set to work. In less than an hour we have it all done and folded up ready to put back in our bins. Much more efficient than never ending laundry cycles at home with blurred endings, someone inevitably parked in the dryer, and clothes that never get put away.

We drove to the top of Sawtell peak and had awesome 360 degree views of Yellowstone, the Tetons, and all the lakes and rivers and valleys that made up this area. The elevation at the top was 9800’, high for the area. We’ve been camping anywhere between 3000-6000’ and the weather is considerably less harsh than Denver’s mile high summer sun. We’re still getting used to the lower altitudes, we are accustomed to camping above 8000’ and having temperatures plummet overnight, getting bundled up by the fire before bed, and waking up to frosty cool air. A campfire has happened once, and not out of necessity, more for novelty. The poofy warm coats have remained in the car topper minus one frosty morning start leaving Yellowstone. We’re not sad about it – not tending a fire means we have more time for evening walks and games and sunset chasing, plus when living out of a trailer you don’t necessarily always want campfire smoke scents coating all of your things all of the time. Idaho left us feeling more refreshed and excited for the wilderness that was to come further north.