Author Topic: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho  (Read 109845 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline SkinnyBenny

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 16698
  • good time rock-n-roll plastic banana FM type
    • View Profile
Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #125 on: June 18, 2013, 05:16:00 PM »
Oh man. We could've pak'd in Jackson Hole 2gether. :frown:
"walking around mhk and crying in the rain because of love lost is the absolute purest and best thing in the world.  i hope i fall in love during the next few weeks and get my heart broken and it starts raining just to experience it one last time."   --Dlew12

Offline Emo EMAW

  • PCKK7DC Survivor
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *******
  • Posts: 17891
  • Unrepentant traditional emobro
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #126 on: June 18, 2013, 05:18:43 PM »
Had no idea there was a K-State club in Jackson Hole.  My folks just bought land in Driggs.   :excited:

Offline wELLsculptedbrows

  • Combo-Fan
  • **
  • Posts: 653
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #127 on: June 18, 2013, 05:36:19 PM »
Oh well, safe travels!

Yeah the there were like six Spirit-Clubbers/'Catbackers (3 couples?) at the Silver Dollar. They were all really nice and said there were usually more people, but it was only baseball. 

Offline SkinnyBenny

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 16698
  • good time rock-n-roll plastic banana FM type
    • View Profile
Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #128 on: June 18, 2013, 06:13:11 PM »
crap! If I had known I would've gone there to watch instead of Pinky G's Pizza place. :frown:
"walking around mhk and crying in the rain because of love lost is the absolute purest and best thing in the world.  i hope i fall in love during the next few weeks and get my heart broken and it starts raining just to experience it one last time."   --Dlew12

Offline WonderMeal

  • Combo-Fan
  • **
  • Posts: 487
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #129 on: June 18, 2013, 08:26:03 PM »
=Mods?=, please merge with travel thread.

 :rolleyes:

Offline SkinnyBenny

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 16698
  • good time rock-n-roll plastic banana FM type
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #130 on: June 29, 2013, 12:52:57 PM »
Enormous photo drop within the next day or so hopefully.
"walking around mhk and crying in the rain because of love lost is the absolute purest and best thing in the world.  i hope i fall in love during the next few weeks and get my heart broken and it starts raining just to experience it one last time."   --Dlew12

Offline Tobias

  • Fattyfest Champion
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *****
  • Posts: 29139
  • hypoclique lieutenant
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #131 on: June 29, 2013, 02:41:37 PM »
Enormous photo drop within the next day or so hopefully.

:drool:

Offline SkinnyBenny

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 16698
  • good time rock-n-roll plastic banana FM type
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #132 on: June 29, 2013, 02:46:03 PM »
It was really fun you guys.  :blush:
"walking around mhk and crying in the rain because of love lost is the absolute purest and best thing in the world.  i hope i fall in love during the next few weeks and get my heart broken and it starts raining just to experience it one last time."   --Dlew12

Offline EllRobersonisInnocent

  • PCKK7DC Survivor
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *******
  • Posts: 7690
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #133 on: July 01, 2013, 01:22:50 PM »
Enormous photo drop within the next day or so hopefully.

 :don'tcare:

Offline SkinnyBenny

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 16698
  • good time rock-n-roll plastic banana FM type
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #134 on: July 02, 2013, 03:08:56 PM »
Enormous photo drop within the next day or so hopefully.

 :don'tcare:

Sorry. Taking way longer than I though to sort through/edit the 50 billion pictures I took.

Montana teaser:
"walking around mhk and crying in the rain because of love lost is the absolute purest and best thing in the world.  i hope i fall in love during the next few weeks and get my heart broken and it starts raining just to experience it one last time."   --Dlew12

Offline Tobias

  • Fattyfest Champion
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *****
  • Posts: 29139
  • hypoclique lieutenant
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #135 on: July 02, 2013, 03:28:03 PM »
:D

Offline hemmy

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 6676
  • RIP The After Party
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #136 on: July 02, 2013, 03:39:09 PM »
Much better visibility than my trip to the Austrian Alps last month.

Offline SkinnyBenny

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 16698
  • good time rock-n-roll plastic banana FM type
    • View Profile
Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #137 on: July 02, 2013, 04:07:25 PM »
Much better visibility than my trip to the Austrian Alps last month.

Post pics anyway, still sounds elite. :thumbs:
"walking around mhk and crying in the rain because of love lost is the absolute purest and best thing in the world.  i hope i fall in love during the next few weeks and get my heart broken and it starts raining just to experience it one last time."   --Dlew12

Offline wELLsculptedbrows

  • Combo-Fan
  • **
  • Posts: 653
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #138 on: July 02, 2013, 04:10:08 PM »


Did you see any of these?




Plenty of these, I imagine.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2013, 04:56:51 PM by wELLsculptedbrows »

Offline Emo EMAW

  • PCKK7DC Survivor
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *******
  • Posts: 17891
  • Unrepentant traditional emobro
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #139 on: July 02, 2013, 05:08:25 PM »
Firehole?

Offline SkinnyBenny

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 16698
  • good time rock-n-roll plastic banana FM type
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #140 on: July 04, 2013, 01:34:02 AM »
All right. So I've been slowly editing and uploading the 50 billion pictures I took on this journey. I'll try to skinny it down to make it tolerable, but guys. It was so great. In addition to all the stud hikes and boss scenery I saw in nature, I also went to a bunch of college towns in the area and got a lot of pictures of their pud press boxes and whatnot. I won't clutter up this thread with those, I'll put them in their own thread. I'll go state by state with these updates in subsequent posts.

Feel free to :martaviousdnr: the crap out of these next very long posts and just look at the pictures. Fine by me.  :don'tcare:


COLORADO

Landed in Denver. First thing I saw was that awesome girl on the plane who was wearing that Amelia Earhart shirt. Picked up my luggage (which btw, I flew SW and just put a ton of camping crap including my tent in my 2 free checked bags) and found my way to the rental car place about 10 miles away. I saved a ton of money by renting a car A) through Costco, and 2) from a rental car place off-site. Got unlimited miles on my car, which was good because at the end of the journey I had run up a tab of about 4,100 miles.  :eek: 

Went to a Rockies game with some buds I haven't seen in a few years. It was fun. No idea who won because we were sitting a mile away, kinda behind a pole (why the F are there any baseball stadiums built in the last 20 years that have obstructed view?  :curse: ). We just decided to get super pak'd and not pay attention. I forgot to take pictures, which is too bad because there were signs everywhere for the prevalent local grocery story which has the name King Sooper's. Lolwut.

Anyway, I stayed the night in Littleton, which was just adorable you guys. The next morning I went about an hour south to Colorado Springs. spent a bunch of time exploring the Air Force Academy, which was like Cult Aggie only real and respectable. I went to their visitor center thing and watched a 20 minute documentary on what it's like to be a frosh falconcat. Seems like it wouldn't be very fun. But as for football, their The Setting is fantastic. (Still nothing on THE The Setting, obviously, but that's for another thread.)

Here's the Air Force academy's weird cathedral thingy that seems to be their signature building. Crane!  :excited:


Spent most of the day in Colorado Springs. Seems like a medium elite to elite place to live, other than the wildfires which would ravage the city about a week and a half later. Cool downtown and whatnot. Drove around playing REO Speedwagon really loud and people seemed into it. The only thing really holding them back from being a super elite city is probably the religi-weirdos. In retrospect, I wish I had gone to see the Focus On The Family visitor center. Would've signed GPC's office up for some free inspirational tapes or something. Anyway.

From there it was on to a small town outside of Greeley, CO., where a few other friends live. Planned to hang out there for about a day and a half, watch the Bat Cats pull off a 9th inning miracle against the Beavcats, and go to see Uhh Yeah Dude live. There's a small town betwixt Greeley and Fort Collins that is REALLY proud of how many testicles they eat. Weird.






Know what's the most elite place? Like, THE most elite? (Possibly more elite than Boulder because the people are still studs but not awful humans?) Fort Collins. Holy wow. Hour from Denver, close to Wyoming, great setting right at the Rockies, and a completely elite downtown. They even have a Taco Bell in a really fancy building right near campus. I hiked a mountain that overlooks CSU's stadium. When I got to the top I walked over the other side and saw that there was this picturesque, sparkling lake at the bottom of the other side. Would no doubt have been a site for elite Mountain West roadies.

This one's from the top of the mountain. Doesn't really do justic to how great it was, because it's looking off in the other direction away from the mountains. But just trust me that it was sweet. Sorry about the weird dusty stuff on my lens.  :embarrassed:






That's the end of the first few days because I had to get on to Wyoming, but I ended my trip with a few days back in Denver so we'll revisit that later.

Also, there is weed everywhere. Nobody cares.
« Last Edit: July 04, 2013, 01:42:22 AM by SkinnyBenny »
"walking around mhk and crying in the rain because of love lost is the absolute purest and best thing in the world.  i hope i fall in love during the next few weeks and get my heart broken and it starts raining just to experience it one last time."   --Dlew12

Offline puniraptor

  • Tastemaker
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 21335
  • nostalgic reason
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #141 on: July 10, 2013, 01:12:26 PM »
Beautiful storytelling and wondrous images, skinben.

made me feel like I had a vacation.

 :thumbs:

Offline ben ji

  • Senior Moderator
  • PCKK7DC Survivor
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *******
  • Posts: 11565
  • Alot of people dont hit on an 18
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #142 on: July 10, 2013, 01:40:46 PM »
Good stuff skin ben.

Thinking about taking a mini vision quest to colorado to do some hiking/fishing/camping in early august.

Offline ew2x4

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 3918
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #143 on: July 10, 2013, 02:05:15 PM »
We totally could have pak'd at the AF Cathedral.

Offline SkinnyBenny

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 16698
  • good time rock-n-roll plastic banana FM type
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #144 on: July 10, 2013, 06:48:26 PM »
We totally could have pak'd at the AF Cathedral.

 :don'tcare:

Haven't even really started on the good stuff yet, btw. Got busy with work and kinda forgot about this. My burst. Pics coming soon.
"walking around mhk and crying in the rain because of love lost is the absolute purest and best thing in the world.  i hope i fall in love during the next few weeks and get my heart broken and it starts raining just to experience it one last time."   --Dlew12

Online chum1

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 21894
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #145 on: July 10, 2013, 06:55:52 PM »
Agree on Ft. Collins.  It's the best.

Offline SkinnyBenny

  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • ****
  • Posts: 16698
  • good time rock-n-roll plastic banana FM type
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #146 on: July 10, 2013, 07:45:01 PM »

WYOMING


Wyoming is super awesome. I loved it. It's very much an alien planet, if I haven't said that already. Weirdo rock formations, lots of bubbling pools, bison everywhere, etc. Or they may be buffalo. I don't know the difference. Either way, enormous photo drop coming here. If you quote this post, be sure to delete all the image code because it's gonna be reeeeeally long I bet.

So I drove up from Fort Collins in the late afternoon/early evening. My first impression of SE Wyoming is that it was very Flint Hills-y but not quite as plateau'd and with some weird rock formations thrown in. None in this photo, but you can picture it.






Got into Cheyenne with enough time before the Bat Cats' impending OSU game 2 beatdown to cruise the downtown near the capitol. The building itself is nice (gold dome), but whatever. You've seen one state capitol, you've seen 'em all (except LA, NY, FL, and AK). One thing I did notice though is that they have this statue out front. I was conflicted about it because the townie MHS Indian in me loved it, but also it seemed like an ominous reminder of the inevitably racist sculpture they're gonna put in the MHK roundabout. Either way, giving him a peace pipe seems a bit much. Racists.






Here's a good picture of what SE/Southern Wyoming looks like. State is SUUUUUPER deserted, btw. Always jockeying for 49th in population with Alaska, if I recall correctly.








Drove an hour past Cheyenne and stopped off in Laramie to see UW's town and campus and stadium and arena. It was decent. Verrry small though, like 30,000 townies small. I'll post a bunch of stadium pictures in the other stadium thread, but they did have this that I'll just drop off here.

I don't know.

From Laramie I basically drove the length of southern Wyoming along the interstate, heading toward Jackson Hole. I saw this kinda weird billboard in Wyoming a lot. She's crying. Buckle up.





Now we get into the really elite nature'y stuff, because there is almost no civilization that I could find west of Laramie. But tons of awesome crap to look at. After a few hours, the rolling hills and rock formations turn to small, rock'y (not Rocky) mountains, and then before you know it you're 45 minutes outside of Jackson Hole and looking at these badboys.





It's important to note that practically every day I thought to myself, "This is so badass. Way cooler than the badass thing I saw yesterday." Each day the scenery kept getting increasingly better. It was amazing. And I realized I'd stepped into Mother Nature's big leagues when I reached that point about 45 minutes outside of Jackson. I want to live on this farm.






Fast interstates gave way to windy mountain roads and I knew I was heading into one of the truly elite areas in our country.



That night I went into Jackson Hole's downtown. Went to Pinky G's pizzeria to watch the Bat Cats lose a heartbreaker in the third game. Watched on a tiny TV while some hot chick at the bar was being relentlessly hit on by some dicknose. The town itself is about what I expected: extremely elite, very touristy/resorty, and full of seasonal worker early twentysomethings who come there to smoke weed and take people on whitewater rafting tours. Small town, but every inch of it is great. Weird note: Jackson Hole High School is located on a street called High School Road. lolwut.

Camped that night at a campground on Hoback River. Just kinda found it. Had to set up my tent in the dark after the game which sucked, until I finished and looked up and saw more stars than I have ever seen in my life. Man. Super starry skies are way better than skies with very few stars. I wish I had a camera capable of getting a picture of it, but I don't so here's a daytime picture of where I camped. It was right by a rushing river.








From there it was on to Grand Teton National Park/Yellowstone National Park. What I didn't realize is that the Grand Tetons start, like, six miles after you get through Jackson Hole. Here are a bunch of Teton pictures.














Then it was Yellowstone time. I actually ended up spending way less time in Yellowstone than was recommended here. Basically wasn't even there for a full 24 hours, unfortunately. This was partly because all the campsites were completely booked up. Which was weird, because it wasn't even bumper-to-bumper traffic or anything and it was, like, Tuesday or something. Would love to go back, because what I did see was very cool. I basically just went up the west side of it. Didn't get to explore the eastern part of Yellowstone at all, which is gonna be first on my list when I go back to the area. Feel like I missed out on a lot of cool stuff, but I realized it would be absolutely impossible to do everything I wanted to do in the ten or so days I had, so I cut Yellowstone short this time so I could get on up to Montana. Anyway, here are a bunch of Yellowstone pictures. Notable things I saw besides a ton of incredible views were Lewis Falls, and Old Faithful Bubbly Ground Park.

Lots of tall, skinny trees all bunched together along the highway. Actually this was all over western Wyoming. Any arborkats know what kinda trees they were?






Stud kid fishing all by himself in Lewis Falls.





Now for pictures from Old Faithful. I expected it to be just that one big dumb geyser, but the park in which Old Faithful is contained is actually very big. Lots of geysers. Lots of blurbling, foamy, steamy pools rising up from the center of the earth. And yeah, bison everywhere. I sent Future Mrs. SB a picture and she called it The Land Before Time and she was right. I walked around TLBT for about 4 hours. Probably walked a total of about 5 miles. Also there's a huuuge lodge there. Might consider staying there if I ever go back, just because it looks weird and kinda hokey. Anyway, pictures.




























After a few days in Wyoming SB already knew this was the best, #1 trip. Thought it couldn't possibly get any cooler. But SB hadn't been to Montana yet.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2013, 07:54:21 PM by SkinnyBenny »
"walking around mhk and crying in the rain because of love lost is the absolute purest and best thing in the world.  i hope i fall in love during the next few weeks and get my heart broken and it starts raining just to experience it one last time."   --Dlew12

Offline Kat Kid

  • Global Moderator
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *****
  • Posts: 20444
    • View Profile
Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #147 on: July 10, 2013, 07:50:15 PM »
Good job skinny Benny.

Offline tdaver

  • Katpak'r
  • ***
  • Posts: 1882
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #148 on: July 10, 2013, 08:33:12 PM »
great trip report.  can't wait to see Montana. 

Offline Emo EMAW

  • PCKK7DC Survivor
  • Pak'r Élitaire
  • *******
  • Posts: 17891
  • Unrepentant traditional emobro
    • View Profile
Re: Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
« Reply #149 on: July 10, 2013, 11:17:02 PM »
Little 10 y/o Emo stayed in that lodge.  I'd get up early every morning to grab the paper and see which MLB teams won and lost and the pitching match ups for the day.   Good times. 

No bears or woofs?