It’s summer road trip time. Banff or bust!

Dan and I are headed to Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, for a few reasons:

1. We are road trip people by nature; in fact, we will be hitting a few cities that we have driven through before;
2. We have had our eye on Banff for years now, and have been “saving” it until we’d relocated to Colorado;
3. It’s our birthday trip! My birthday is August 5th and Dan’s is the 12th (today!). In lieu of gifts, we usually travel.

Here’s the birthday boy — we were lucky enough to stumble upon Old Stones Smokehouse and Country Pizza while driving through Pinedale, Wyoming.

We are spending the night in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and tomorrow morning we leave for Idaho. While in Jackson, we took a very quick spin through Grand Teton National Park. This was our first visit to Teton; we’ve been through Yellowstone, which is only an hour from Teton, but we hadn’t had the time for a detour at the time.

I’ve said this a hundred times before, but always let Dan choose the hotel. On these long trips we usually hit Best Westerns and Holiday Inns, but every now and then Dan finds a fantastic boutique hotel and we splurge. In Jackson Hole we pulled up to the Anvil Hotel, outfitted in Woolrich and sporting its own adorable mercantile setup and on-demand fancy coffee.

Onwards, to Idaho!

Part 1: Jackson Hole
Part 2: Craters of the Moon 
Part 3: Idaho Falls
Part 4: Kootenay National Park
Part 5: Banff National Park 
Part 6: Calgary
Part 7: Edmonton Fringe Festival
Part 8: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Part 9: The Home Stretch