rocky mountain np -> grand teton np

today our road was long and hard. leaving estes park, co this morning around 9am, we traversed the rockies multiple times. as if struggling up pass after pass wasn’t enough, rain began to fall; turning dried up creek beds into raging rivers. there were certain points where the wipers ceased to keep up with the heavy water droplets. after taking a beating for a few hours, it seemed the appropriate time for a break as we rolled into the quiet town of lander, wy. lander is a great little community in the middle of nowhere; are type of town. we stopped at wild iris outdoors to stretch our legs and take a break from ‘the burden’ tugging at our back. what a great little outdoor outfitter. after refueling our stomachs at our favorite road trip restaurant, taco bell, we conceded back to the road for another punishing five hours of rain, incline, then fall. hitting dubios, wy at full steam, we didn’t slow until we saw a construction sign that read, ‘pavement ends.’ not sure what to expect what W-DOT means when they say ‘pavement ends,’ we discovered very quickly they mean, ‘pavement ends… but the road continues as a mud pit.’ we drove, in four-wheel, through mud for about ninety minutes until we arrived at the the moran entrance station of grand tetons to a perky park ranger that asked if we had come up from jackson, wy. we answered no, but why; she responded by saying there was a report of a man hitting a tatanka [buffalo; pronounced: Ta-tonka]. this happens more than one might think. we searched two campgrounds until we had found the very last open camp spot at colter bay. a spot with a parking space big enough to fit the xterra and ‘the burden.’ though grass would have been nice to rest our weary bodies on, a six percent grade kept us from pitching the tent in the appropriate tent location, so we put the tent on the gravel pad in front of the truck. at that point it didn’t really matter we would sleep. our headlight rays faded at 12am as we slinked deep into out down sleeping bags as the rain started to get heavy. today was long, we’ll wake tired, but at least we’re in our favorite park. goodnight.