Pt 36 – There’s a Jackalope in Dubois

Wednesday, May 22nd – Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

After staying the night in Sinks Canyon State Park, we fed the fish at the “Popo Agie Rise” (where the river reappears after flowing underground from the “Sinks”), checked out the park’s visitor center where I asked the ranger where some good hiking trails were that lead up the cliffs, and before hitting the trail, we walked to the “Popo Agie Sinks” (where the river flows and disappears into the caverns and reappears hours later at the “Rise”).

We drove to the trailhead and hiked up to the cliffs spotting several anchors embedded in the rock wall left by climbers. The views were great!

We hiked the Sage Draw Loop Trail by the campground before driving back to Lander to eat lunch in City Park. Meth head mohawk man was back at it, guarding the bathrooms for reasons unknown.

After we ate, we headed over to “Elemental Performance & Fitness” to use their indoor climbing gym. It was only $8 to use the gym for the day and included showers (with a towel), which we really needed at that point in time. I suspected my climbing shoes were too small. They’re supposed to be tiny, but my feet were feeling like sausages. We climbed some of the easier routes, while scary thug meatheads were in the other room yelling as they were pumping some serious iron.

Before leaving Lander, we stopped by “Wild Iris” to thank the guy for all his help. As we were driving out of town, we could see the storm from miles away out in the mountains before the rain reached us. We drove along the Wind River and saw many deer on the side of the road as we approached the cute little town of Dubois.

It was nighttime, so everything was closed except for the bars and motels as we passed it by. We decided to do a U-Turn and stay there the night. It seemed like we were driving in circles for hours trying to find a discreet place to park. Even though it was nighttime, the town was very active, and several areas had signs specifically stating “No Overnight Parking.” We checked some of the motels, but they were asking for too much money. We tried to get them to lower the price since it was so late at night, but none of them budged. We checked the laundromat to see if it was open 24 hours, and it wasn’t.

We settled on a spot close to the library. It was a busy road and every car that passed by snapped me out of my slumber. I was waiting for someone to start knocking on our window at any second to force us to leave. It was going to be a restless night!

We got lucky and didn’t get disturbed overnight. We got up really early to move the van and to check out the town of Dubois. Our first stop was “Tammy’s Coffee Haus” to fill up on some caffeine to bring us back to life. An old man poked fun at me and pointed at my purse asking why I was carrying around a feed bag. We checked out some crazy antler art at one of the stores and saw the “World’s Largest Jackalope Exhibit” in another. I couldn’t resist. I had to sit on it. I didn’t care how stupid I looked.

We were mildly disappointed since the town looked more happening at night with all the neons lit up. We left Dubois and got stuck in a heavy fog while traveling up the mountain. Trevor’s altitude sickness was getting so bad he had to pull over and have me drive.

I drove into Teton National Forest and the fog began to clear. We could see the Tetons in the distance and got even more excited when we approached the sign for the Grand Teton National Park.