Idaho Falls ID - Grand Tetons - Yellowstone - Cody WY

Today we spent traveling to Idaho Falls to stage our visit to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks.
As this drive began there was wide open flat expanses of land without a lot of growth on it. A very insignificant looking landscape. This began to change as we approached Twin Falls ID, we began to see large areas Irrigated and large green healthy farm fields because of it. We had lunch in Twin Falls at Elevations Restaurant, which

overlooked a deep canyon with a golf course on the bottom along the Snake River. The waiter told us to be sure and see the falls while we were there so we took the short drive to Shoshone Falls which were indeed beautiful, an unexpected treat.
We continued our drive to Idaho Falls with the highway following along closely to the Snake River. The extensive Irrigation of the farmland was very impressive, pumping from the river and irrigating not only fields full of crops but seemingly empty pastures as well, we had never seen anything like it. Because of it the crops were lush and growing well, field after field after field of irrigation. We spent the night in Idaho Falls and set out in the morning to the Grand Tetons.
We headed into Wyoming and climbed Teton Pass on a winding 2 lane highway and headed into Jackson, near the entrance of the park. We wished we had more time to spend in Jackson, it looked like a bustling little town full of shops and interesting things to see. We did have lunch there before heading to the park. The Grand Tetons are

Grand indeed, very striking and imposing mountains that reminded me on a smaller scale of the Alps the way the mountain tops are shaped. Every turnout on the road afforded another spectacular view of the Mountains. We drove the full length of the park visiting Lake Jenny, and got very close to the base of the mountains.
We then took the short drive to Yellowstone park, located on the same highway further to the North. On the way in we stopped at Lewis Falls and Grant village. We then headed to Old Faithful, to see the geyser, it erupts every 90 minutes or so, and we literally walked the trail and arrived just as it started to erupt. We then wound our way to Geyser basin and took a mile or so hike through the percolating springs and geysers, which bubbled, and belched steam all around us as we hiked on the wooden walkway. We drove around Yellowstone lake and explored a bit the eastern side of the park, but we were running out of daylight so exited through the east exit of Yellowstone

and headed to Cody WY for the night. The drive out of the park was not what we expected, the winding road was fun to drive on, but it was acre after acre of mountains with dead trees from fires, ghostly forests standing of empty trees, beneath them fallen trees spread like matchsticks on the ground, mile after mile. Once outside the park the forests were green once again, soon after the forests began to fade to beautiful red rocks, cliffs and canyons on the way to Cody, said to be one of the most beautiful 50 mile drives in America, it was stunning and truly one of our favorite parts of the trip. As we arrived in Cody it was late and one of the only Restaurants still open for dinner was Cassie's, had a grass fire on the hill behind it, they said not to worry, so we parked the car way out front and went in for dinner. After dinner the fire was out and we headed to our hotel.