Day 2 August 30, 2025 Idaho Falls Idaho to Riverton Wyoming 255 miles
We ate breakfast this morning at the Wendy’s just down the street from our hotel. The staff was really friendly and the food was good. We still managed to get away about nine.
A big farmers market is going on along the river next to the falls. The weather should be great for a day of shopping. The rest of down town was reasonably quiet.
The morning air is cool so our sweatshirts felt good. We don’t have the side curtains on so the woodie is rather chilly in the morning. The skies are mostly blue so hopefully no rain.
Our route takes us over the Teton Pass. We have crossed this pass a few other times. It is a long climb up and a long descent with grades of 10% sometimes. Last year when we crossed the crews were working to repair a major mud slide that took out a big section of road. That is now all repaired and traffic flowed normally. Today there was lots of traffic. All the pull outs were full of cars. Seems like numerous hikers are already out and about. We have also seen far more RVs. Since this is Labor Day weekend and good weather all the recreational enthusiasts are out in force. The top of the pass is 8431 feet.
Not far from the bottom of the pass is Jackson Wyoming. This is a real tourist town and today was extremely busy. I bet you could not get a room here tonight. Most likely not an RV spot either. Lots of different types of vehicles and pedestrians everywhere. We saw several elk and a couple of moose in town. Unfortunately they were all statues.
Once we got through the town the traffic thinned out some. Luckily this stretch of road is relatively flat so we could drive a little faster. Teton National Park begins just outside of Jackson. The Teton Mountains are so beautiful. Today they were somewhat in the clouds. This meant the tops of the peaks were not as easy to see. A bike path parallels the road for much of the park. Quite a few bikes along the way. The park has several turnouts which are all full of tourists. We stopped at one for lunch so we could have a beautiful view. Several people stopped to ask about the car or to have their picture taken with the car.
Shortly after lunch we came to a large herd of bison. We didn’t remember seeing them in this area before. They were not on the road and most were peacefully grazing.
We crossed the continental divide with an elevation of 9858 feet. Thankfully the traffic has really thinned out. Most were in Yellowstone, the Tetons and Jackson. The terrain flattens out and cattle ranches are more prevalent. Two fields had a few long horn cattle. The horns sure are long. One field had a very large herd of antelope.
We follow along what we think is the Wind River. The mountains on the opposite side of the river have some color running horizontally all along. Not as colorful as some of Utah, Colorado or New Mexico, but still interesting.
We stopped at a rest stop about 40 miles from our destination. What a nice rest stop. They had playground equipment, nice grass, and covered picnic tables. Everything was well maintained and clean.
It took about an hour to get to Riverton from the rest stop. We stopped for gas before going to the hotel. A Dollar Tree was almost next door. After checking in to the hotel we returned to the Dollar Tree to see if they had more of the cinnamon licorice. Connie had purchased some in Boise and it was really good. This store didn’t have cinnamon but did have lemonade so we will try that. Every trip needs some junk food.
Since its a left turn to get back to the hotel we decided to try the alley. Well that was interesting. The area at the back of the hotel was blocked off so you could not drive from the alley to the hotel. Then the alley did not continue on to the next road but turned to the left and continued about a block before turning left again. It finally got to a paved street that eventually took us to a traffic light back to the hotel. The alley kept getting smaller and less traveled. There were weeds growing down the middle. Maybe it was an undiscovered part of the Oregon Trail?
We ate our Chinese leftovers in the room for supper and went to bed early. The night before had not been a good one.
Yesterday Rob was stung or bitten by what he thinks was a flying ant that came into the car through the window. It really hurt for a while but he is doing fine today.
The car has a new sound that is something to do with the clutch. It only makes a noise when you depress the clutch. It sounds like the throw out bearing is dry. Last week when we were replacing the transmission we installed a new sealed throw out bearing. More later if it becomes a problem.
Spoffords Travel 