Pepper and I spent Labor Day weekend visiting her brother Doug and his family. They live on the Idaho-Wyoming border, on the west side of Grand Teton National Park. (Which means they’re basically “behind” all the amazing mountains you see in the park.)
We hiked up into the Targhee National Forest and basked in the views of the Teton Valley and the backs of the three main peaks.
It was a gorgeous day, and I was lucky to spend it with such a gorgeous woman.
We also went to Fall Creek Falls, which is a really cool rock formation where Fall Creek feeds into the Snake River. This is a view of some plants waving beneath the water, looking straight down from a bridge:
The falls cascade over a series of rock terraces, which means you can climb around and enjoy splashing in a bunch of little pools. Here are a few shots of the area:
Then we hopped on some mountain bikes and took an awesome trail through the forest along the Snake River. It was a ton of fun.
Two interesting things from our drive: first, as we passed through Anaconda, Montana (what a cool name for a town!), we saw a strange tower in the distance. Was it Orthanc? A weird smokestack? It’s on the hillside a little left of center in this picture, which Pepper took out the car window at 80mph:
Here’s a zoom of the photo; forgive me for the poor image quality. Cell phones and all that.
It turns out that’s the Anaconda Smelter Stack, the remains of a chimney built by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company over a hundred years ago. And it’s built entirely of brick, making it the tallest surviving masonry structure in the world. The Washington Monument would actually fit inside this thing! Pretty cool.
And second, on our drive back, the wonderful sunny 80-degree day turned a bit chilly and we drove for a couple hours through freezing temperatures and snow. The hills were dusted with snow; higher up on the mountains it was definitely deeper. Umm, it’s Labor Day… that’s not supposed to happen!
Overall it was a great trip and a fun way to spend a holiday weekend.