We leave behind our house in West Yellowstone and hopefully nothing else and drive a short distance to the Idaho Border.

This is what this sign looked like in 2010, a little less covered in stickers, and we could see then that we were at the Continental Divide again.

We take Route 20 and then Route 33 through Idaho and see lots of potato fields and wheat fields but not much traffic.

We make a stop in Briggs and find a picnic area for lunch. We basically ate ham and cheese sandwiches every day of this trip for lunch including today. Briggs has a population of about 2,000 and was the largest town we went through on the way to Jackson. It was about a 3 1/2 hour trip from West Yellowstone to Jackson, all on two-lane road.

The most exciting section of the drive was going through the Teton Pass which starts in Idaho and about halfway up, crosses into Wyoming. This was not like a typical mountain highway with switchbacks. Instead the road seemed to be straight up, then straight down. And the gradient was 10 percent most places. At the top, we look down into Jackson Hole.

In Jackson, we check into the SpringHill Suites. Nice hotel with good Internet connection. We are back in civilization. We had booked a boat trip this afternoon on the Snake River. Half of us go on a wildlife-viewing float.

We see bunches of eagles all along the shoreline and a few other birds, but no four-legged animals.

Our guide tells us that moose are frequently seen on the early morning trips. Our trip left at 3 pm. He also tells us the river is down because of irrigation needs of the ranchers for crops and his biggest challenge is maneuvering us so we don’t become stuck in some of the more shallow spots. Our trip is nice but too long. The raft became very uncomfortable after about one hour and we were out for about two hours. Some Class 1 rapids near the end of our trip provided a few splashes of excitement.

The other half of the group went on a whitewater raft trip also on the Snake River but had a bit more action. Their time in the raft passed quickly. They were told, however, that they didn’t need wetsuits because the water was fairly warm so the shivering bus ride back seemed long.

We eat dinner at a nearly restaurant and have a quiet overnight in Jackson.

The next day we have time for some shopping before our flight leaves. Besides summer activities, Jackson is also a major ski area and as a result, has lots of restaurants. One that was recommended to us was Liberty Burger and another was Merry Piglets Mexican Grill. They happen to be adjacent to each other.

Another recommendation was Pinky G’s Pizzeria.

We took our food to the grassy square in the middle of the shopping area and ate at the tables shown below on the far left.

Jackson also has lots of stores with hiking apparel. But the store that interested me the most was Teton Gravity Research. My grandson found it first and then we went there to check it out.

The owners of these stores are the Jones brothers who are considered the best in the business at making extreme ski films. One of the first ones I saw was Steep in the early 2000s and it featured – as many of their films did – both Shane McConkey and Doug Coombs. Both did extreme skiing and McConkey was a BASE jumper. And both died as result of their sport. A theatre is available in the store to watch films and also on display here, was one of the early cameras used in filming. We ended up purchasing a couple of tee shirts (grandson) and an insulated cup (me).

Another stop was at Wild West Designs – basically a furniture store – where Ross was able to find an ongoing poker game.

So our national park family vacation comes to an end as we drive to the Jackson Hole Airport that afternoon, return our unused bear spray, and fly home. We were very glad we went back to Yellowstone. The only disappointment was the smoky haze that especially obscured the Tetons. Otherwise, everything went smoothly and we didn’t have the crowds to deal with that we worried about. Maybe early August is a good time to travel to national parks.