God's Country...

It was such a nice day again Friday that the seven year old thought it would be a good time to get even with his dad, who nailed him with a snowball a couple days ago. He came and knocked on the door, and wanted us to get dad for him. Dad was sneaky - can you see him just coming around the house in the background, along with big sister?

It turned into quite the snowball fight.


After all the daycare kids went home, my wonderful husband surprised me by asking me to dinner ... in Jackson Hole.

I thought I would include a few pictures along the way for you to see how we are spoiled by our scenery out here. It's about an hour and a half drive to downtown Jackson Hole, and this is the scenery we must suffer through to get there ;)


The Sawtooth Mountains...

Near Bondurant...

Entering the Hoback Canyon...

In the canyon...
Battle Mountain...


Close to the end of the canyon. When we got around the corner, we were in for a real treat...

Can you see that brown hillside? Look closely - it was crawling with elk. We couldn't count them, there were so many. But we estimated that there had to be close to a thousand of them. There were so many that I couldn't get them all into the frame of the picture - they kept coming up over the top and around the side of the mountain. I have never seen so many together in the wild in one place before. We've seen them like this on the elk refuge, where they feed them all winter, but this was amazing to me. It never gets old. Here are some close-ups...


Since it's Springtime, the males have already shed their antlers. They mostly do this while they are on the refuge. The local boy scout troop gets to gather the antlers and sell them at the auction in Jackson each year. They are the richest troop in the entire US.


We saw several mountain sheep too, but I didn't get a chance to get a picture of them.

So as we pulled into Jackson, I was happy. A perfect sunset greeted us.

It was the end of a perfect drive. Oh, and our steak dinner was amazing :) (We ate at Burke's Chop House, which I highly recommend.)

Oh, and in case you're wondering, this is what it looks like at home. Our town is in the foreground - with the trees. The Wind River Mountains are our backdrop :)

And here's a closer look at Fremont Peak, which was surrounded in clouds. It has been beautiful weather in town for the past couple days, but the mountains have received a lot more snow.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!