Colorado - Wyoming
Disclaimer: many food descriptions in this post, do not read without a snack nearby. Also, don't be too jealous, remember we are sleeping in a truck bed and do not have any indoor space to escape the winter weather.
The morning after skiing at Steamboat we decided to take some chill time since we both fried our legs hard the day before. We slept until we woke up and then I did a nice hour long yoga practice (Yoga with Adriene on Youtube) while Chris researched some silly car stuff. After that, it was around 9-9:30 and we were mostly thinking about food. I found some food that was basically random snacks to make up a meal and Chris got himself some other leftovers we had around. When we finally pulled ourselves together enough to go out in public, we headed back to the mountain to use our mountain coaster tickets.
When we arrived in the base village at Steamboat, it was just before 10:30 and the mountain coaster opened at 11:00. We enjoyed the sunshine outside and walked around the shops to buy some cool Steamboat gear. We finished just in time to walk back over to the mountain coaster almost exactly at 11 and were the first ones on for the day! So I know most people have never even heard of a mountain coaster; I first learned they existed when I was in Germany and my host family took me to one for a fun weekend activity in the Black Forest. In short, it is a gravity fed roller coaster. Since it's run off of gravity (after an electric cable system pulls you to the top) you begin to coast downhill along the twisty tracks and you have a brake system to go as fast or as slow as you please. Chris is normally not a fan of roller coasters so I let him 'drive' but I bought my ticket to ride with him so we'd have more weight and pick up speed faster. It was awesome. We both loved it and nearly bought another round of tickets if they hadn't been so expensive.
After we finished up in the base village town, we headed back to the house to take the dogs out for a walk. Well...I walked the dogs while Chris fixed our battery box and replaced the ignition coil on the truck...gotta take advantage of the warm sunny Colorado weather. Next, we decided it was time for some more relaxing and calm work. We put on some dumb movie and Chris watched it while I did some job searching and updated this blog. Our fancy splurge dinner reservations were at 6:45 so we decided to walk around downtown Steamboat Springs before that. Our Airbnb was just a block off the main street so we walked over and toured around the stores for an hour. They had plenty of fun western, ski towney, adventurey goods across the array of stores. We even got to talk to some locals about what it's like to live in a destination ski town and how they ended up there. Chris got a new steel minimalist wallet and I got a cone of fresh roasted cinnamon vanilla pecans (that I am thoroughly enjoying while I write this post). We also got chocolate turtles from the same shop and ate them as we walked through a free art gallery next door. The woman who made the chocolates was trained in Switzerland but decided to live in Colorado and open a shop there. The art gallery had over a dozen pieces, most of them by traveling artists that focus on depicting nature. Many of the canvas paintings looked like photographs until you stood much closer to see the brush strokes, realism work like that always impresses me. Soon, we went back to the house to get ready for dinner.
Our dinner reservation was at a mountain top restaurant called Hazie's and the reservation time is actually the time you get onto the gondola and then your table is ready fifteen minutes following. We walked over to the gondola and saw a long line of 20 somethings and then a white board sign saying that long line was for the sunset cocktail hour and Hazie's was the line to the right. Well we felt like some high class diners right then because there was no line for us, we proceeded to the carousel and boarded a gondola car alone. It was after dark and the base village as well as the surrounding neighborhoods have lights decorating the buildings all winter long. It was a beautiful ride up the mountain getting to see the bustling town from the peacefulness of the floating car. We arrived at the top and were directed through a building to the entrance of Hazie's where we were seated by grand twelve foot windows looking down over the town like we were in an airplane. The menu was set up as a prix fixe with some a la carte options. I started with a drink called the Mountain Holiday that contained Rumchata with vanilla and cinnamon flavors accompanying. For our first course, we ordered duck wings that were covered in general tso sauce and sesame seeds with some sprouts alongside. Our second course was the salads, Chris got a winter wedge salad with homemade ranch dressing, I had roasted root vegetables that were done perfectly and presented on a piece of slate as a plate. The third course was our entrees, Chris had ordered herb rubbed bison with fingerling potatoes and grilled peppers and onions, I had Elk with a crispy risotto cake and a sugared golden beet. Everything was so filling and we still had dessert coming! I ordered us an adult hot chocolate called the Milky Way and Chris ordered a smore dessert and I got a gingerbread pear dessert. I just ate the pears from mine since the rest was a bit chewy, he loved his and we both enjoyed the hot cocoa. By this point, we were thoroughly stuffed and ready to cruise through town one last time. We boarded the gondola for our descent. The ride down was much more frightening because you realize the height from which you're hanging on the cable a lot more distinctively. It was still pretty but every time the movement stopped (probably for the workers to load or unload equipment) we got some worried that something was wrong...it's interesting how perspective can change your whole mindset. Anyway, we got back to the house safely, took the dogs our for another walk around the neighborhood, and settled in for the night.
On March 9th, we woke up early on our own and then started packing and getting ready, first, because we had to be checked out by 11am and second, because Ratchet had pooped in his crate so we had to figure out how to clean up that mess. I began packing up clothes and other random items we had around the small house, Chris handled the dogs and made sure they were empty and clean to walk around while we packed. Eventually we made breakfast and then continued packing and Chris went to clean up the poopey crate at a self serve car wash. Somehow, we got it all down dogs loaded up and all before 10:30 and we were back on the road...right after one more stop at a local pet store to restock on dog food. The next destination was the Grand Tetons where we would stay in Jackson at the only campground open in the winter, Grand Teton Campground in Fireside. It took us about seven hours to get there which was almost 100% driving through mountains, often without cell service, and seeing rivers, alternating pine forests and sage filled deserts, and a few avalanche warning signs. We arrived safely and checked into our campground by dark.
The first night in Jackson, Chris cooked a turkey chili-esk dinner on our camp stove while I did the daunting pile of laundry we had been collecting in the coin operated laundry room. I felt like I was in college again because that was the only time I ever paid for laundry by the load. While I was waiting for the clothes to dry, hubs brought me a nice big bowl of warm food. It was just what we needed before we braved one of our coldest nights in the truck cap yet. We set up the sleeping area nice and cozy with our king size heated blanket (pulled out of the trailer since so many other heaters broke), and the rest of our other blankets. Since Chris had gotten the new glow plug relay installed, we could plug in household 110V stuff overnight again. We had the blanket going on medium heat, my phone charging, and my computer plugged in while we watched a movie. I unplugged the phone and computer before I fell asleep and left the blanket heating for as long as it could. Neither of us woke up cold but the blanket was off by morning. We definitely viewed it as a success as we were very comfortable despite the temps dropping into the teens.
On the morning of the 10th, we walked the dogs and then I decided I wanted to eat breakfast out instead of cook in the cool morning air. We jumped in the truck and headed to Persephone's Bakery in the town of Jackson Hole. It was an adorable, sustainable minded, everything made in-house bakery and cafe. Chris ordered a chai tea latte and a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, bison sausage, and grainy sourdough toast with apple butter. I ordered a tumeric latte and Persephone's Porridge which is a quinoa, granola, coconut, seed mixture with steamed almond milk poured over it. Everything was very well done, so delicious, fresh, and fueled us up for our day ahead. We left Persephone's and stopped by the visitor center to ask about dog-friendly trails in the area. They recommended we go to a trail on the edge of town so we drove there and set off into the groomed woods trails along a trickling creek.
We hiked for about 8.5 miles passing big wheel bicyclists, cross country skiers, and a whole lot of dogs. This area is very dog friendly so most of this park was off leash if you had confident voice command over your dog. At one point while hiking through the woods, I looked to my right and saw a big mass moving through the trees. Before I fully recognized what it was I called Zena back to me and once I had her secured I looked over again and realized it was a female moose. Looking further into the forest, we observed a few more moving through the area eating vegetation. Chris and I had the dogs on leash at this point and became more cautious as we saw more on both sides of the trail. We tried to keep moving forward until one stopped by the trail in front of us and seemed to be standing her ground looking at us. When we retreated she moved on and we turned back again to go forward and up to the more heavily traveled trail. We caught some more glimpses of them a few dozen yards back in the forest and were very satisfied with that amount of wildlife encounter. We continued on through the wintry forest and made our way back to the truck where we got some water and snacks and then drove back to our campsite.
At the campsite, we took some alone time to ourselves, Chris showered and researched other activities we could do here and I spent some time doing yoga in the laundry room (the best warm, quiet room I could find) before I took my shower. All of the campgrounds have had very nice, clean bathhouses and usually there is no one in them because who is crazy enough to camp in the winter?! Works out for us! After a couple of hours of calm activities, we went out grocery shopping at Albertson's. For dinner we got salad material and a rosemary and garlic rotisserie chicken. We also stocked up on some other veggies and healthy fats for the next few meals. By the time we got back to the site, made our salads, and were eating them in the back on the truck, it was getting pretty cold since the sun was setting. Chris and I cleaned up the site, put away anything that could freeze, and hung out in the truck bed until we went to sleep. Tomorrow will bring a whole other set of great adventures.