30. Crossing Wyoming

Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.

James Thurber

We drove out of the Black Hills after several days at Bear’s Lodge (Devil’s Tower) and only meant to cover a couple hundred miles. This day turned into a series of “We could stop, but… what is over the *next* hill?” and so we wound up arriving in the Grand Tetons that evening. Longest driving day of the trip thus far, but absolutely the most amazing as an adventure of constantly changing and incredibly diverse environments.



A distant mountain range, a switchback high country pass, up and down grades we had never seen. We miss our Astro Van, but we’re very glad to be driving the Tundra this day. Dropped a thousand feet in altitude in a bit less than two miles… Whew!


Turns out, the Togwotee Mountain Lodge is a very convenient fuel and rest stop, and we’ve used it now a few times. The first trip through these mountains was in late June and we were struck by the casual inventory of high performance snow gear by the side of any little shop or gas station in the area.