Wide open skies

 Green River Lakes, in the Wind River Range in Wyoming, is spectacular.  These are a few of my favorite images of the terrain.

Our trip began with an afternoon/evening in Salt Lake City.  We visited Temple Square, with it's manicured gardens and water fountains and reflecting pools.  We toured the new conference center, and the old tabernacle.  I appreciate the new and the polished, but the rawness of the old tabernacle was more interesting to me.

 In the morning we woke up early to go pick up our rental RV, but not without a stop at the hotel gym.  My kids are obsessed with hotel gyms.  I don't get it, but just look at them...pure joy.  Thankfully it was vacant.

 Our truck was massive.  We needed one that could seat 6, so we ended up with a Ram 3500.  We all really liked it, except when we averaged 11 mpg towing the camper.  The drive took about 6 hours.  The last one of which on the gravel road below.  The ranger said it would be like a washboard.  She wasn't kidding.  We rattled the stove apart and the truck kicked up a rock which put a hole in the camper.  The bumps were so jarring that the kids were begging us to give up and just pull over and camp on the side of the road.

But we powered through, and we got the best campsite in the place with an incredible view of lower green river lake.

 Jer cooked fantastic dinners every night.

Temperatures at night were in the low 30's.  Kids were still thawing out as they ate their pancakes in the morning.  By 9 am the sun would come up over the mountain and it would instantly warm the place.  It would reach 80 degrees later in the day.  Warm enough for some swimming in the lake. Sort of.  The water was a chilly 50 degrees.  

We did a lot of hiking and exploring.  We walked an 11 mile loop around the lake, and discovered that Libby's limit is about 8 miles, but she pushed through.  After that day we decided we needed a relaxing day on the beach.

 promise I'm not picking my nose.  I'm usually the one taking the pictures, so I don't have many to choose from to prove I was there.

 Fog down on the lake in the early morning.

 Our last day we packed up and drove to a ranch where the gravel road met the paved.  Our horses could sense our inexperience and acted like stubborn teenagers with a substitute teacher.  James's horse, Bugsy, kept stopping to eat, which they were not supposed to do on the trail.  Then he would run to catch up with us.

Then we said farewell to the Winds, and drove back to Salt Lake City to return the trailer.  That evening we visited old friends, Merrill and Jill Ballantyne and their two boys.  These two grew up together, friends since nursery.  It was great to see them laugh together.

Our last full day we went to Olympic Park in Park City.  We did all the crazy zip lines, extreme tubing, and ropes courses.

 That is the Olympic bobsled track from the 2002 games in the background.  My boys eat this stuff up.

Jer's niece Rachelle, and her husband Bryan and daughter Rylan, had us over for dessert that evening.  We had a great time visiting with them, and sadly I forgot to take a picture.

That is all.  We woke early and returned home to Maryland.  That was Tommy's favorite part.  Home buddy.

That is photo overload, and still I could not do it justice.  I could not capture the stars, the colors, and the vastness.  I'm filled with gratitude for this beautiful earth.