a week in the west

We've just returned from a wonderful week in Wyoming and Montana, where we visited with friends, stayed at some great lodges and saw absolutely magnificent scenery. We had perfect weather - clear, blue skies, low 70's in the afternoons and 40's at night. The stars were out, the elk were bugling (an eerie sound the bull elk makes at night during the mating season) and the aspens were turning a glorious yellow. We couldn't have picked a better week to take a break.

First we traveled from Jackson Hole up to Yellowstone, where the crowds were minimal and we saw Old Faithful put on her mind-boggling show:

We drove on up to Big Sky where we stayed in a magnificent lodge 4 miles up the side of a mountain. Here's the view of the inground hot tub looking into the hills:

The scenic views took our breath away everywhere we turned:

Next up, a visit to Virginia City, where we saw the early version of JOOLZ:

From there we traveled to a working ranch, where we stayed one night on our way back to Jackson Hole. This is Brad Pitt and Robert Redford territory - near the Madison River where "A River Runs Through It" was filmed. More magnificent scenery and many, many fly fishermen out in the middle of the river, doing their best to catch the trout:

Finally, back to Jackson Hole to spend some time with our dear friends, Mary and Ken. We ate well, visited with Mary's family, shopped, found several exciting, new artists for JOOLZ, relaxed and continued to drink in the scenery. Here's our view of the Tetons from the restaurant where we had dinner last night:

We got up at 5am this morning to catch our plane to Chicago, missing Jackson's predicted two inches of snow by a couple of hours. Phew!!

What a trip! One of our best ever....thanks to Mary and Ken, Mary's dear mother and our friends Susan and Ron, who shared some time with us in their West Yellowstone getaway spot. We'd love to do it all over again...