A Teton Church Service and then Welcome to Idaho

After six nights at Falls Campground, we've decided that it's time to head down the road. It's not great timing to leave on a Sunday morning, as that complicates going to church. But this week it opened up a unique opportunity. We left the campground at 8:00 this morning, getting the last view of the mountains we have come to love.

Less than hour later, we see another group of peaks that are becoming familiar. It's the Tetons, and the wild-fire smoke has cleared for us to have a nice view this morning.

This is the first time we've waited in a long line of vehicles to get into church. Even at 9:00, we see 40 cars in front of us at the entrance to Grand Teton National Park.

We made it through the line and got a spot in the parking lot at the little church inside the national park. That's not an easy task since we are driving the motor home with the pickup attached on this moving day morning. This is the view of the Chapel of the Transfiguration in front of the mountains on this beautiful Sunday morning.

Built in 1925, this little log cabin church was a welcome sight for families that lived in this beautiful valley. While driving another twelve miles to go to church in Jackson doesn't sound like too far in these days of easy car rides, an extra twelve miles on horseback is a very long way! This is a picture of the crowd of horses hitched in front of the church one Sunday morning in the 1920s.

We were surprised at how big the crowd was this morning. When they asked all the guests to introduce themselves, we found that we were worshiping with people from all over this great country. We remember hearing introductions from South Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, California, Michigan, New York . . . and a couple of wanderers from Oklahoma. The church doesn't have pane glass windows, but they open the wooden shutters to let the fresh air and sunlight in this morning. 

That includes the front opening by the altar. The church was situated to frame the Cathedral Mountains of the Teton Range. What a beautiful view! We have wandered into another of God's wonders right here in church! Visiting preachers from all over the country come to preach here, and we really enjoyed the sermon from a man that pastors a congregation of 5,500 members on the east coast. Notice that the offering plates are two white cowboy hats on the altar.

After a good start to this Sunday morning, we are heading through the city of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and following the Snake River to our next destination.

It's a very nice day, and we see plenty of rafts and kayaks floating down the Snake River. We were glad to read that this river is not named after the slimy reptiles that might be in the water, but after a tribe of Indians that lived near here.

It was also on this 136-mile moving day that we crossed into another state. Welcome to Idaho!

While we have been enjoying mountain vistas, we are now seeing the fertile valleys of Idaho. We were greeted with golden fields of wheat ready to be harvested. As soon as Denisa asked, "Where are the Idaho potatoes?" we started seeing these irrigated fields with little white blooms on the bush-like plants. In fact, this field of potatoes is just a couple miles from our next camp site. We are staying at another first-come-first-served campground, and we found that Juniper Campground has been very busy all summer. We were lucky to find an open spot in this park ran by Bonneville County, Idaho.

We made the drive in the pickup to see the largest town in Bonneville County--Idaho Falls. The Snake River flows through downtown Idaho Falls, and makes a waterfall that goes on for blocks in its downtown.

We stopped in several places to take different pictures as we walked from the visitor center to the end of the falls.

This downtown area is decorated with animal benches and sculptures, and it was a nice day to walk along the river.

We also enjoyed the flower gardens and these unusual blooms atop tall stalks.

When we realized how far this paved path goes, we decided this was not a walking trail--it was a biking trail. So we unloaded our bicycles and took off on a loop ride along the Snake River.

We started on one side of the river, crossed over the bridge, and returned on the other side. Some parts of the ride were quite industrial, other parts were more residential, and we even rode through a college campus.

But we seemed to only take pictures of the pretty flowers and the Snake River views that we liked. It was a good workout, as we rode our bikes 9.8-miles by the time our loop came back to the pickup.

After a beautiful Sunday morning worship service as we left Wyoming, we also liked our introduction to a new state. We think we're going to like it here in Idaho!