Summer In Yellowstone - Getting There

Other posts in this series:
Summer In Yellowstone - Getting There
Summer in Yellowstone - Sunday Morning
Summer in Yellowstone - Sunday Afternoon & Canyons Lodging
Summer in Yellowstone - Mammoth Hot Springs and the Lamar Valley
Summer in Yellowstone - The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
Summer in Yellowstone - The Last Days

My friend C and I decided we wanted to spend a few days exploring the beauty of Yellowstone, the world's first national park.  Luckily we decided well in advance because when we started looking in the fall of 2012 for lodging in the summer of 2013, there were already some days sold out!

We'd originally thought about going in May, wanting to try to go while school was in session but we found out the park doesn't actually open until the week before Memorial Day.  Wanting to avoid holiday traffic we decided to head west on Saturday, June 1st.  It would have been nice to have flown directly into Jackson Hole, WY, just steps from the park but it was cost-prohibitive.  Instead we decided to fly into Salt Lake City and make the 6-hour drive.  The benefit was that we could each have a non-stop flight and on the way back we'd get to touch base with a couple of friends who live in the area.

The flights were uneventful and reasonably on time so we grabbed our rental car and set out for the town of Jackson.  Our phone's GPS systems directed us one way on the trip up and another way on the trip back.  In both cases we were out in the middle of nowhere quite a lot and were glad for the long summer daylight hours.

We arrived in Jackson in the late afternoon and enjoyed our time walking around the picturesque town square.  We didn't find anywhere there that we were just dying to try out for dinner so we hopped in the car and headed up to the ski resort.

We found the world-famous Mangy Moose was open so we stopped in and had a lovely dinner out on the patio.  Even though I know Jackson Hole is one of the steeper resorts, seeing the slopes without snow made them look crazy-difficult.  I've only skied here once, years ago, and I'd like to come back to see if I can do a better job on the slopes now than I could before.

After dinner it was back to town for another walk-around and we found a local ice cream shop.  Since it was summer vacation, ice cream is practically a requirement, right?  Of course we had some!
After a quick stop at the grocery for some snack items for the week it was back to the hotel.  After getting up early for our flights and driving most of the afternoon, it was nice to finally relax.

The antlers are collected each year from the elk preserve just outside of town. 
There are arches like this at all four corners of the park on the town square.