Since School Started...

My next trip was the week of Labor Day.  This semester I have a class on Sustainable Tourism with Dr. Kelly Bricker (who's also the Chair of the Board for the International Ecotourism Society, TIES) and each year TIES hosts the Ecotourim and Sustainable Tourism Conference which for 2010 was in Portland.  I wanted to go and since I'd never been to Idaho or Oregon, I decided to drive.  The conference was on Thursday and Friday and I had Saturday free to explore.  I got to hear Rick Ridgeway, VP at Patagonia, talk about Freedom to Roam which helps establish wildlife corridors for animals to migrate and Bruce Poon Tip, founder of GAP Adventures speak at the conference.  I attended sessions on reducing climate footprint, voluntourism, and creating a sense of place to name a few.  Overall it was an interesting and informative two days that also featured a sustainable culinary showcase and the announcement that Hilton Head will be the location for 2011.  I've got my flip flops packed!  On Saturday, I took the opportunity to travel into Washington state and go to Mount St. Helens since it was only 70 miles or so north of Portland.  I definitely ended up spending more time than I had originally intended but I had an awesome (and educational) time!  While in Portland, I also stopped by Voodoo Doughnut.  I'd seen them on either the Food Network or the Travel Channel and thought it would be neat to check out.  I gotta say they have the most unique doughnuts I've ever seen and if you're ever in Portland try the Maple and Bacon doughnut, it looks kind of funny but is actually really good!

More recently, again traveling as part of my sustainable tourism class, we went to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.  Ten of us drove up on Friday Oct. 1 and drove to the Kelly Campus of Teton Science Schools.  We got there at 10:30 at night and you'd probably think we were just a bunch of city slickers standing in the cold looking at the stars, but you can see so many more stars out there than you can see even out in the country in NC.  I hadn't seen that many stars since I was in South Dakota (ten years ago, I think).  I even got to see shooting stars (and yes, Mom I know they're actually asteroids and not stars).  Then the next morning after breakfast (we were at breakfast at 6am) when we went back outside there were the Tetons in the predawn light. 

After that we loaded up and went to meet our guide Megan who works for Wildlife Expeditions that is actually a division of the Teton Science Schools.  She took us up to Yellowstone where we watched Old Faithful erupt, walked beside the Grand Prismatic Spring, saw the mud pots, walked to Artists Point to see the lower falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  The next day we also had a guide from Wildlife Expeditions, Colin who took us into Grand Teton.  And while we were there...we saw a black bear!  That evening we stayed in Jackson at the Snow King Resort and had dinner at the Snake River Brewing Co. We drove back to Salt Lake on Monday.