August 3rd thru 5th

Friday morning Diane walked over to the market while I posted the week’s happenings on the blog.  I finished posting around 1:00 and we decided to take a walk around Alpine.  The town is really small but they had a nice Ace Hardware store and we purchased a splitter for our extension cord.

Then it was off to the Bull Moose Saloon.  The Bull Moose Saloon was fun.  We had the only IPA they carried, Melvin IPA and later learned that it was brewed in Alpine.  Our new friend Roy gave us directions on how to get to the brewery.  The Melvin Brewery sits out by itself about a mile away from town right on the Palisades Reservoir.  After our beers and Idaho potato fries at the Bull Moose we started to walk to the Melvin Brewery but the smoke and heat of the day detoured us to go to the tavern at our campground.  We had a couple more Melvin beers and called it quits for the day.

We had planned Saturday for a trip to Jackson.  Jackson used to be called Jackson Hole.  Because you were going to ask, I don’t know why they changed the name.  But the smoke was a little worse than yesterday so we put the trip off to Sunday.  We instead walked out to the Melvin Brewery.  The walk to the brewery was nice.  There was a dirt road that began across the street from our campground and basically followed the Palisades Reservoir shore all the way to Melvin.   We had a good time, drank good beer, ate some food, bought t shirts and had fun.

Sunday the smoke was a little better but still around as we were on our way to Jackson.  We drove back into Idaho along the Palisades Reservoir and down to Swan Valley to State Hwy 31 to cross the Teton Pass into Jackson.  The pass summit is 8,431 ft. and there would be many scenic vistas but for us on this day the smoke hindered the sights.  The pass boasts 10% grades on each side.  Something you don’t often see.  As we were entering Jackson it began to rain.  It wasn’t much but I had the windshield wipers on for a little while and the streets in Jackson were all wet.

As a 9 or 10 year old kid I remember going to Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks and in Jackson Hole I remember a central town park with arched entrances at the four corners made of deer antlers.  The park and deer antler entrances are still there.  The town was bustling but we found a parking place pretty easily.  We took pictures of the park entrances, window shopped and had lunch at the Snake River Brewery before going back to Alpine.  The drive back was along the Snake River.  The upper part had people fishing and the lower had plenty of rafters.  A fun day.