Bradley and Taggart Lakes

I am happy to report that we have all arrived safely!  I have to say, there's nothing like a brand new car with shiny buttons to make you feel old in life.  I am not kidding when I say it took us 15 minutes to figure out how to turn on the lights to our van!  Everything is automated, you don't even need a key to start this puppy...there are so many buttons Derek has shut himself in the car door twice because we don't know how to shut them manually.

Anywho, back to the reason we are here.  We picked up out colleagues at 9 pm last night.  After 3 plane changes they were very happy to arrive and get some much needed rest.  Arriving at night they did not get a chance to see much of the city and the beautiful mountain range all around us.  Igor has said his favorite surprise was waking up to the beauty in our backyard.

We had a wonderful first day of hiking around the Taggart-Bradley Lake Loop.  It was a beautiful hike that takes you through meadows and some forested areas that offer some great vistas.   We saw so many species today, too many to post, so here are some of my favorites that were on my phone:

Embarking on our journey

Beautiful scenery along the way

Julia, Igor and Oksana botanizing

Agastache urticifolia

Always important to make new friends

Ipomopsis aggregata

Linaria vulgaris

Spiraea splendens

The traffic lines to get back into Jackson are very long each evening so we thought it was only fitting to play one of our favorite songs:

 Once you have listened to Johnny, there is only one place to go - The Cowboy Bar, for the real western experience! After some good country music and buffalo burgers, I think we have converted Oleg to a true western cowboy!