Gillette to Jackson, WY

Day 4 of Two Dads One Land Yacht

-4:00am Slick Rick is awoken by a freight train outside hotel

-5:40am I wake up because I sleep like a bear

-6:00am Depart Gillette, Head toward Buffalo, WY

-7:10am Arrive in Buffalo, WY

Arrived in Buffalo for a quick pit stop to grab some gas and coffee before heading into Bighorn National Forest. I was scrambling to finish up the blog from the day before because Wyoming is basically the middle of nowhere and I knew I'd lose cell service eventually. Buffalo Wyoming at the time was 46 degrees, snowing somehow, and the town was at about 4,500 feet in elevation.

-8:00am Loaf Mountain Overlook 8,150 feet elevation

At this point we had started taking the death road to the top of Bighorn National Forest, and Slick Rick was hyping me up about how high we would eventually climb. We started out around 4,500ft and climbed upward in the Land Yacht, burning fuel and obliterating any bugs that came within 10 yards of my windshield. We pulled off at this overlook to checkout where we would be climbing, and I was finally onboard Slick's Hype Train.

-8:20am Powder River Pass

Holy angry Land Yacht. At 9,666 feet above sea level there's practically no air, and last time I checked, cars need gas and air to run, so without one of those things Land Yacht was pissed. Screaming up the hill at 4 thousand RPM I thought the thing was gonna explode, but somehow we made it to the top. The views were not as hype as I had hoped for, but the road was really cool, so I'll take it.

-9:00am James T. Saban Lookout

Slick Rick had briefly mentioned to me that there was some cool overlook tower in the woods that we had to take a dirt road to, and then hike up the tower. I'm not gonna turn down driving on a dirt road, so when we saw the entrance I got excited. The dirt road was really more like an ATV track, covered in 14 inches of snow which laid on top of a ton of mud. Basically the last thing you want to drive a 5,000lb truck on, but hey I have a low IQ and a lead foot... Lets just say it got a little tricky going up, and about halfway we decided to call it quits and turn back. Below checkout what the track looked like from Slick Rick's blurry point of view, and then a quick vid of us at the furthest point before turning back:

-9:30am Ten Sleep Canyon

In a matter of minutes from being stuck on a snow covered track, we had come down off the mountains, and into this really cool canyon. Slick and I thought we had wound up in a different country:

-10:15am Thermopolis, Wyoming

This place was supposed to be sweet. It was crap. "World's Largest Hot Springs" my ass. This state park basically claimed it would have a bunch of natural hot springs, a huge natural area with Buffalo, and all kinds of other nonsensical lies. There was like 3 hot springs the size of Land Yacht, 7 Buffalo in a field the size of my backyard, and this random pile of old rusty cars in the grass that they though was some sort of "attraction"

-11:00am Wind River Canyon

This drive was really cool, we were headed to Dubios, Wyoming and Slick Rick had nerd-ed out real hard by finding this scenic byway through a canyon. This road was filled with tons of steep grades, trucks with their brakes literally on fire, and railroad tracks that had been taken out by landslides.

-12:50 Lunch at Cowboy Cafe in Dubois

This lunch was pretty damn good, I think this was about the 7th burger I've eaten on the trip, and it was really good, so I'm going to retire from burgers for a little while. 8/10 would consume again.

-1:30 Jackalope

All throughout South Dakota and Wyoming these wierdos are obsessed with this concept of a Jackalope. It's basically a mythical creature that is a rabbit with deer antlers. It's like their version of big foot I guess, but they had this super sized one you could take a picture on so here ya go:

-2:00pm Bridger- Teton National Forest

This was one of the most interesting car rides I have ever experienced. At the base of this road, we were about 6,000 feet above sea level, and it was around 42 degrees outside. As we climbed upward into the mountains, it started snowing and dropped to about 20 degrees. The entire landscape around us became winter in the blink of an eye. I've heard people say that it can snow at any time at high altitude, but experiencing snow in May first hand was pretty cool.

-3:00pm Moran Junction

As you roll off the snowstorm mountain, everything goes flat again for a little while. Then out of absolutely nowhere, the Tetons appear.

-3:20pm Accident waiting to happen

In Grand Teton National Park, there are ton of animals all over the place. Signs tell you to watch out for bears and moose and buffalo, but I figured they would just be in fenced off areas doing their own thing. I was wrong. Buffalo just wander into the street, charging at cars, people, and other buffalo just because they're big and dumb. With the snowy backdrop and the buffalo all over, I got a pretty cool pic of one just chillin with his friends. If I wind up unemployed in the future NatGeo will be calling my name for my sick pic taking skills:

-3:23pm Jackson Lake

This lake was straight up glass, and if I had a rowing shell, or a wakeboarding boat you know I'd be out there causing problems.

-3:25pm Signal Mountain attempt

When we entered Grand Teton National Park, the dude working the ranger booth told us that this route we wanted to take was open and that we would be able to get to it. Dude was an idiot. We were trying to get to Signal Mountain, which is about 45min inside of the park. After making it all the way to the entrance point of mountain, it was all locked up because of the snow, so we had to go back the way we came in, dodge a couple road-buffalo and exit the park.

-3:45pm Mormon Row

Apparently there is some iconic photo out there of this old barn with the Tetons in the background, so we drove out there to check it out. To be honest I had no idea which barn we were supposed to be looking at but I think it was this one?? (natgeo I take venmo)

-4:00pm Snake River Turnout

All along the main road outside of the park there are these turnout areas where you can pull over and be a tourist to snap some pics. Slick Rick told me that back in the day a million years ago when he was here as a kid, his dad (Jim Bob / Busta Move) took a pic just like this one below. Total Dad Move

-4:05pm Schwabacher Road

Slick Rick came in clutch with some secret dirt road that he magically knew about. The road led you down to the Snake River, and you could hike down a short trail to get a new perspective on the mountains. At 13,000 feet these things are massive

-4:25pm Heading into Jackson

On the main road back into Jackson, Wyoming I saw something running along the side of the road and originally thought it was a fox. Slick Rick called from a mile away that it was a coyote. He was right. Don't doubt a fellow dad.

-5:30pm Hotel Check-in

-7:00pm Dinner in Jackson

Slick Rick kept talking about this restaurant called the "Million Dollar Cowboy Bar" and how we were gonna go there since he went there when he was a kid. We were all hyped up to go in, but when we walked in the door some crazy Russian bouncer appeared and carded me and since I'm basically a fetus (not 21), we couldn't go in...

-10:15pm Hotel

I've been writing this blog for about an hour now, meanwhile Slick Rick is bugging out because we are headed for Yellowstone tomorrow afternoon. It's supposed to snow 18 inches there tomorrow, and is predicted to be the biggest "winter storm" (aka May 18th storm) since 1975... Might wind up being trapped in Jackson forever, only time will tell.