1320Fastback wrote:
We're staying in the Tetons right now at Colter Bay and will be for another week. Our plans are to take a scenic float down the Snake River, do some hiking around Jackson, boat tour of Jackson Lake and possibly rent canoes and do some shore line exploring of our own.
When my now 40-something sons were young, they were on year-round schools in Colorado. So we vacationed in the "off-season." They still talk about one September when we spent a week in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. For the first several nights, we stayed in a real log cabin at Colter Bay. Each night we built a wood fire in the big stone fireplace and felt just like Jackson Hole pioneers. And one morning while they were paddling a rented canoe along the shoreline of Jackson Lake, they saw a moose wading in the shallows. Pretty simple things but memories that have lasted a lifetime for them.
A few days later we walked into Old Faithful Lodge and overheard an "old lady" (probably younger then than we are now!) with a New Jersey-accented stage whisper saying, "What are those kids doing here? This is OUR time of the year!" They still laugh when they talk about that little episode. But, needless to say, Old Faithful and the Morning Glory Pool impressed them even more.
Then one very early morning, we drove to Yellowstone Falls. We were the first car in the parking lot and decided to wait a bit for a fog to lift. While sitting in the car, a small herd of buffalo surrounded the car, grazing on the grass in the parking lot landscape strips. A couple of cows were not much more than an arm's length from the car, but none bothered us. In a few minutes they all wandered away, but I am not sure any of us breathed for a good two minutes as we waited to see what would happen. Unfortunately, Yellowstone Falls was a bit anticlimactic after that!
It's hard to choose things that will impress every child, but they don't have to be expensive to become lasting memories.
