Day 15: 6/16/24
From: Boise, ID
To: Grand Teton National Park, WY (Colter Bay Campground) by way of Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID
Distance: 403 miles

Up at 7. Maybe the first time an alarm has actually woken us up. Showers, breakfast, and off we go, leaving exciting Boise behind us. Did breakfast include Idaho potatoes? Yes, of course it did. (They were really good, actually.)

Happy Father’s Day! I take the first 2 1/2 hour drive to Craters of the Moon National Monument. The drive is easy. (No wide loads hauling houses or sheds this time.) and within an hour, we come across an M1A1, the tank Husband used to be a gunner on back in the mid-nineties. We stop so he can touch the tank and reminisce. Then onward once more.

Craters of the Moon certainly announces its presence dramatically, black lava rock spilling onto the grasslands seemingly out of nowhere. We decide to hike the lava tube caves, but before we can do so, the park rangers have to ask questions. Have we been in caves before? (Yes) Are we wearing anything we might have worn in those caves? (Not likely) 

They need to make sure a certain type of fungus doesn’t spread to the bats in their cave system, and mold spores can stay on clothing for years even through the wash.

With that, we head through the park, admiring the lava rock spread out for miles. Then a 1.5 mile walk across the paved trails through the rock and into the caves created by lava. I use two walking sticks to make sure I don’t twist an ankle, a hip, a knee, or whatever else might come out of joint. And everyone is careful about making sure I don’t misstep. I know they mean well, but I feel about 900 years old right now. Just put me in a backpack and call me Yoda.

A quick lunch and a stop for gas and then we’re bound for Grand Teton National Park 4 hours away. Along the way, we pass several mounds that look like they could have once been volcanic, but haven’t been in a very long time. We also pass signs for the free Atomic Museum and for a Radioactive Waste Management Complex. We’ll take a hard pass on those and keep going.

The scenery changes into beautiful picturesque mountains as we pass Palisade Reservoir. Someone once told me not to travel through southern Idaho because it’s terribly boring and all desert, but this trip has been anything but boring. And anyone who thinks this is boring desert hasn’t traveled New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona desert…

We cross into Wyoming and head for Jackson, where we can stop at Target and pick up the extra blankets I ordered yesterday. One more hour to go! But it’s much less than an hour when we see our first view of the Grand Tetons. They are stunning through and through, especially with the setting sun highlighting their peaks. Opposite the mountains, on the other side of the highway is a herd of bison to welcome us.

Shortly after we arrive at the campground, there’s an enormous backup of cars and people on the side of the road. Nate and I know exactly what this means. There’s likely a bear somewhere in the meadow.

And we’re right.

The bear is a good 500 yards or more away and hardly visible in the high meadow grass. We *think* it’s a black bear, but it’s so far away, it’s hard to tell.

We set up camp quickly when we arrive at our site and do our best to avoid mosquitoes. They are plentiful here. Ugh. Husband starts a fire and we douse ourselves in a light covering of DEET to keep them away. We’ll see. At least two in our party are prone to bites. But the repellant works and we don’t get a single bite!

Dinner consists of dehydrated camp meals around the fire. Then it’s an early bed as the temp drops and we climb beneath the (many, new) blankets for warmth. Only it’s not an early bed because at 8:30, a couple of college kids show up to the site across from ours, shout curses at each other, blare their music, sing (badly), drink, and dance on top of their car and the picnic table. Quiet hours begin at 10, which means everyone in this campground has to listen to this nonsense for at least an hour and a half before we can call a ranger. Remember a few days ago when we were discussing how awesome other campers are? These two are the exception.

I am appalled by the behavior. They could behave this way in their basement back home. Why come to a national park? Why come into nature to blare music, get high, and sing and dance like a couple of knuckleheads? At 9:30, someone finally yells “Give it a rest!” which is much nicer than I would have been had I the gall to speak up. But this hasn’t stopped them at all. Families and campers all through the park are having a miserable experience because these two just keep howling tunelessly into the darkness and everything is “f-ing this” or “f-ing that.”

They continue until exactly 10 pm, which means they know exactly what they’re doing. They came with every intention of intruding on the very solitude and the connection with nature that people come here for. They were here to be awful for an hour and a half before quiet hours started so everyone around them had to hear their “epic jam sesh.” That’s really what they called it (loudly). For the record, their vocals sucked and their air guitar needs a tuning. I hope a bear smells beer on their breath tonight and decides to visit.

P.S. I’ve been slaughtered on Threads for my stodgy old-lady attitude towards these fun-loving kids who were clearly *just* having “safe, harmless fun” in a national park. I “must never have camped in my life if I think this is abnormal behavior.”

At this point, I’m just letting the comments and clicks accumulate. <Gives a bow> Thanks for your help with the social media algorithm. I’m guessing most of these folks have never been in a national park and don’t know anything about camp etiquette. There’s certainly a time and a place for partying and having loud fun. I stand by my statement that a national park isn’t it.