denver & jackson

Main Street in Jackson
Side Street showing snow on the footpath

Town Square

Snow on car Friday morning

Town Square in Jackson

Friday 14th March.

Had a bit of a sleep in today to rest from our big drive. The car was covered in about 10 cms of snow and so were all the roads. We went for a look around the town and took some photos and bought some souvenirs. Jackson was a really nice place if you wanted to ski, but alas we had not come prepared for snow. Toady we were heading for Salt Lake City, it was only around 450 ks away. Once we worked out the roads we set off. The first way we wanted to go was shut for cars without chains or 4wd, so I asked for other directions from a local who told us what roads were open. We headed off again and this time with success. Today we had about 40 ks of snow driving where you could not see bitumen and the car slipped and slid a bit but it was not too bad. In Australia you can not even drive any roads in the snow anything like what we did without chains. It was a bit scary and Bronte did panic a bit but we made it with no hiccups to the cars. The entire drive today was through snow covered mountains and a thin layer of snow over most of the road. The temp almost never got above 0, most of the journey was -2 until we hit the city where it was a balmy 7 degrees. Went out for dinner tonight to the local pub and the meals were good. We have just come back from Walmart shopping and we are in love with Walmart, they have so much stuff and it's so much cheaper than home. Can they come to Australia?

Ice build-up from driving on icy roads

Some of the better driving conditions

When the roads got bad

Scene heading to Yellow Stone

Thursday 13th March.

Lesson 1, when you decide to go to a place check and make sure you have all the details. Today we got up early and decided to head to Salt Lake City. On the way I started to read the Lonely Planet guide and realised Yellow Stone National Park was not far out of our way and it would be nice to visit. It was however about 600 ks and around 9 hour drive. I plotted the directions into the Tom Tom and away we went. We stopped for lunch and had Subway with around 300 ks from our destination. The temp outside was -2 and there was a little snow falling. After lunch we continued to Lander where we stopped for petrol and changed drivers. The further we got the colder it was, the more snow was falling and the greater the snow on the side of the road. We drove through a place called Dubois and the snow was even more pretty on the trees. At this point in time I made the comment of "Yellow Stone National Park is going to be cold if we have this much snow here." We kept driving and the road started to get very slushy and wet, then the road got worse and we were still around 60 ks from our destination. The temp had dropped to -5 and the road was just ice, I was only travelling at about 40kph and just taking it easy. The road got steeper and more windey and I slowed even further, at this point in time I sad to Bronte I can't keep going it's too slippery. I pulled the car over and got out, the ground was very slippery to stand on. I got back in and tried to drive off and the wheels spun and we started to move, I put on the brakes and the car slid to a stop. After a couple minutes of debating and only about 40ks from the end we kept going. The road started to get better again after about 10ks. I could actually see parts of the yellow line on the road and in some places it was black with visible bitumen. We made it to the next turn off and now only had 15 ks to go. This road we entered went through the ranger station and to Colter Bay Village, our destination. The road got bad again, all you could see was snow and marker posts to follow the track! We arrived at Colter Bay Village and it was deserted!! no one there at all. I turned the car around and it slipped and slid about a bit. We now thought we would head to a place called Jackson Hole which was another 50 ks and it was a larger town. The road was bad for the 15 ks again till we got back to the turn off. We travelled about half an hour and we were now in Jackson. It was real pretty, we found a motel and checked in. As I was checking in I asked the lady about Yellow Stone Park. She replied "The park closes for Winter and does not open till April." Back to lesson 1, check the details before you drive into a ski resort with a front wheel drive car without chains and winter tyres. We had travelled all that way for no reason, however Jackson was an amazing place, beautiful would be the best way to describe it. We went for a bit of a walk around to check out the town. I was not a bad size and had lots of shops and fast food chains etc. Later that night I checked the road weather maps of the area to get info on us getting back out. The road we had entered was closed to vehicles without chains or 4wd, but the roads out to Salt Lake City were not to bad.

Road on the way to Denver

Wednesday 12th March.
Started our morning from Grand Junction and headed for Denver. The highway was surprising as we went through some very pretty scenery, the mountains were all snow covered and we had snow to the edges of the road. Once we arrived we found our cheap motel that we booked on wotif.com and checked in. Walked down the road a bit and had KFC for lunch. After lunch we went for a drive in to the city to a shopping centre called Cherry Gardens. We had checked out the internet and found a Croc shop. Bronte wanted a new pair of Crocs which are not available in Australia. We managed to find the Crocs and Bronte was excited with his new Crocs! We went back to our motel and had a bit of a rest as we both still have our colds.