Tetons: Grand, Brewed and Distilled

The rig with our guard moose ‘Wally’.

Our original plans had us staying for an extended period near Yellowstone then the Tetons.  Over the last few months, we made several adjustments to those plans, so we could accommodate other stays which meant we only had a week to explore this area.  We decided to stick to our idea of stopping in one location, setting up house, and driving a little longer to get to some of the sites.  So, we found a nice spot in Rexburg, Idaho (Wakeside RV) and planned our drives into Yellowstone and the Tetons.  The RV park had nice wide and level spots for our rig with room to park the truck.

Rexburg is a small college town and we joked it often had a 1950’s feel to it.  In fact, they even had a drive in theater.  Sherry had never been to a drive in (There is only 1 in the St. Louis area), so we decided to take an evening and go see a movie.  We enjoyed the movie -Jurassic World/Park… 10?  🙂

Sean loved the old projector they had in the concession stand.

We arrived early for a good spot. It was neat to see all the families that later came to enjoy the weather and movie.

Both of us have had minor sinus issues lately (we blame the heavy smoke the last three weeks we were in Glacier) and decided to forgo any major hiking until we felt better.  Therefore, we started our stay by visiting some local sites.  Teton Brewery and Teton Distillery seemed to be great places to visit and also medicinal.

Grand Teton Brewery is in a little town called Victor, with a great view of the Tetons.  On our drive to the brewery, we passed through several small towns and loved this sight of a horse tied up on the sidewalk.

Notice the horse is ‘parked’ at the Old Livery.

It definitely harkened back to the distant past.  The brewery has a small tasting room as well as outside seating.  We sampled several brews. They do flights by providing you with a small cup of whatever they have on tap.

You can see some of the wares at the Brewery behind Sherry.

They have a good selection and it was very relaxing to sip, sit back and enjoy the time together.  Sean enjoyed the Imperial Stout and bought a bottle for later. 🙂  Sherry really like a brew called ‘Snarling Badger’ – a citrusy pale ale.

We had also researched and knew there was a distillery in the region, but from the website, it looked like they didn’t have a tasting room or tours.  We actually passed the distillery on the way to the brewery and decided that we would stop and see if the website steered us wrong.  To our delight, the Teton Distillery has a small tasting room and small tours.

Our Distillery tour guide.

Since Sherry was our designated driver she limited her intake to a few sips at each stop.  We truly enjoyed the distillery.  Again, a small tasting room but very congenial hostesses.  Before sampling, they offered to take a small group on a tour of their facility.  Afterwards, we did try a few of their wares.  Sherry loved the spicy, sweet taste of their Spiced Apple Moonshine enough that we bought a bottle… Again, for medicinal reasons, mainly.  Sean felt the Bourbon was a much more effective cure for his sinus ailments.

While at the distillery we had great conversation with the hostesses and a local about the region and best ways to see the Grand Tetons.

Early Christmas decorations and a great view of the Tetons.

Following their recommendations, we decided to go to the Targhee Ski Resort and use the chairlift to ‘climb’ 9000′ up Mt. Fred for a great view of the western face of the Tetons.

When we arrived, there were very few people at the resort and the lift tickets were quite reasonable.  The view from the top of Mt. Fred was amazing and yes, we did hike a little to get to the summit for an even better view.

Hiking the Tetons is something we hope to do, but it will have to wait until our next circuit around the country.

Taken with an ND4 filter.

This little guy was taking in the view at the summit as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are loving our travels, still and despite a few mechanical glitches here and there.  The more we see, the more we realize there is to see.  As we left Rexburg, we commented to each other about how much the scenery will change as we move from the mountains to the southwest.  We can’t wait.