Quote: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again." Thomas H. Palmer

We left out of Utah with fall in the air, headed north to Grand Teton National Park with hopes of getting one of the walk-up camping spots that night and moving to a site with power the next morning. JoAnn thought the plan foolish but I felt that we were after the Labor Day vacation season and should be fine. We were able to secure a spot in the dry camping area, first come/first serve section but the ranger at the gate all but laughed at our plan to move to the section that had power. He said there were three with ADA cards waiting for the spots opening up. We were lucky to get into the generator loop, taking the last spot available. We were only planning to stay for 3 to 4 days so we should have enough propane for that length stay. Cool nights and plenty of propane for heat, we should be good. We had filled our fresh water tank most the way so while not ideal, it should be quite comfortable. The park rules are you cannot run your generator between 8PM and 8AM but we have a battery and 12V systems…so this will be our first taste of ‘real camping’.

The next morning taught us that we were not as prepared as we thought… the inside of the camper was cold, somewhere in the 40’s. After the day warmed up and we were able to better understand what happened to our heat we were able to reassess our current situation. The one battery we had was too low to crank the generator once 8AM came around. I got it jumped off from the truck and our heater started working and the trailer started warming up! Our one dealer supplied deep cycle marine battery wasn’t enough to carry us through the night. With over 20 years of Scouting and tent camping I thought I was prepared for most any camping situation… I have a lot to learn about trailer camping and boon docking.

We had added Grand Teton NP to our list because 10 years ago I had visited the Tetons and Yellowstone while working on a trail building project in Bridger-Teton with the Boy Scouts. I had always wanted to return and spend some time in both parks and share them with JoAnn. I had only gotten a taste of them before but knew she would enjoy seeing them through her camera. Grand Teton NP is the little sister to the pinnacle of National Parks, Yellowstone. It was made a National Park 57 years after Yellowstone and is about 2/3 its size but spectacular in a much different way. You can retrace the footsteps of Ansel Adams, taking photographs from all the popular spots.

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