We have been posting blog and social media updates on a month+ delay, both for safety’s sake and also because we take some time to think, write, and revise. But there’s so much going on currently on our 2 week journey along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail that we want to remember and record accurately that we have decided to back-burner the rest of our winter posts (one day we’ll get to more posts about our time in Park City, UT; Sun Valley, ID; and Jackson, WY). This way we can experiment with using the blog in real time — or at least try to keep up!
So, we spent our last week of ski season in Jackson, where we loved Snow King the best (a huge dump of powder even opened the back bowl just in time for Emma’s birthday!) and we also enjoyed our excursions into the backcountry of Grand Teton National Park and Teton Pass. Didn’t even ski JHMR.
The drive back east was harrowing, with multiple delays and re-routes due to high winds across SE Wyoming and the entire width of Nebraska — in one spot, I-80 was closed completely to “light high-profile vehicles” and we spent some cold and windy nights in truck stops as we navigated around unexpectedly severe weather patterns. I-80 actually has gates built-in at certain points and along access roads so it can be completely closed when needed, which, along with its isolated stretches, give it a forbidding feeling. We passed two trailers (one RV and one utility trailer) overturned by the side of the highway, blown over by the wind. The middle of the country is vast, and while those endless grassy prairies look mellow, the climate in this area can be harsh.
The Peace of Wild Things 