Currently in Hot Springs National Park. You know that feeling when you go to a park and aren't expecting much and it over delivers? This wasn't the case. At all. It's small, it's in the middle of a city, and it's loud. The springs are cool for a few minutes but other than that, there ain't much here. Had I planned better, I would have tried to spend more time at Lake Hamilton. But it was on the list, I knocked it off, and I'm having fun with the family. Luckily the campsite (very small and compact) had just opened up from being closed for two months so we grabbed a spot last night even though we had a hotel. My son and I are camping right now While my wife is still in the hotel (and I hear cars on the big road next to us).

One last thing on the Hot Springs trip: we stayed two nights at the Arlington and while it's ok, it's not what I had in mind. Maybe it's because everything was not open, but is was also very dated. It could use some major touch ups and still maintain the old charm, but it just seemed work down. That said, we spent our third night at Hotel Hale on Bathhouse Row. It's much nicer!!!! And cleaner. And the bath water is from the hot springs so if your wife/kids want to do the mineral bath at a bathhouse, it's about $40 saved per person by staying there. The Hale restaurant is pretty good too.

In the Tetons right now. This is the view from outside my tent.

You sure you didn't cut that out of Backpacker Magazine?

BSD said:

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Please send GPS coordinates and reservation information.

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No reservation! Dispersed camping in Curtis Canyon right next to Jackson. Go about 1.5 miles past the "paid" Curtis Canyon campsite. Coordinates are roughly: 43.5117218, -110.6499021.

There's a dirt lot with some primitive campsites around it. Just gotta walk about 100 meters to get to the viewpoint. I paid $0 and I feel like I had the best view in the world for 5 days.

Back to the Grand Canyon this past weekend. Definitely a much smaller crowd than normal this time of year, but the trails (that are open) were much more enjoyable because of it. Hiked Bright Angel down to the Three-Mile Resthouse and back with pretty minimal foot traffic to navigate through.

Was admittedly strange to see the busses not running and the visitor centers closed. Anyways, here's a pic from the south rim trail when the sun was starting to go down. Still one of most beautiful things I've seen.