Rexburg Temple + Packsaddle Lake

On our last day in Rexburg, we decided that we wanted to get up first thing and attend the Rexburg Temple. That means after two nights of camping, we had to make our grungy selves look respectable again. And so we combed our hair, put on our Sunday clothes, stuffed ourselves with pop tarts, and we were ready to go. And I'd say we clean up pretty nice, yeah?

The lovely Rexburg Temple

After the temple, we headed over to my favorite little Mexican food place ever, Ramire's. I used to eat here ALL THE TIME. In fact, I think I eventually got semi-famous there. Unfortunately, the owner was not there this time. But last time we came to Rexburg (after two years of my absence from this town, mind you), he still remembered me! He greeted me and shook my hand like we were old pals. It was probably one of the happiest moments of my life.

Jacob ordered the texano burrito

I stuck with my usual bean and cheese.

After lunch, we headed out into the backcountry to find a little place called Packsaddle Lake. We didn't know a lot about this Lake, and had some trouble finding the trailhead with the poor directions we found online. We even had trouble remembering the name of the lake—Packsaddle? Saddlepack? Sackpaddle? Paddlesack? I think it changed every time.

We did, however, find this breath-taking view of the Tetons.

We decided that the peaks of the Tetons look like a place where the Grinch would live.

Luckily, when we were about to get ourselves completely lost, a very nice man on with a very nice four-wheeler told us we needed to drive much further to get to the trailhead or else we would be hiking for hours. Not only did he give us this kind advice, but followed us there and gave us a ride on his ATV all the way to the top of the trail—probably saving us a good hour or so of hiking.

Seriously. We were so grateful for this guy. He completely saved our day—not to mention, we got a fun ATV ride through the forest! Bless you, ATV man. Bless you.

our guardian angel on an ATV

Where the ATV man dropped us off, we overlooked a sweeping view of the mountains with sight of a blue lake hiding in the trees. We followed a steep path down into the valley that soon opened up to this....

We had a fun time playing on this crazy make-shift diving board. It was a true balancing act. 

Much harder than it looks.

My first attempt....

As soon as I heard Jacob say the word "gymnast," I got so psyched out and completely lost my balance! 

I Never did like the balance beam.

This place had the most insane rope wing I had ever seen in my life. Too many horrifying scenarios kept playing through my mind of me hitting the ground instead of the water, and so I wimped out. But Jacob had a nice go with it. Look at him soar. 

Tetons!

We hiked back to our car—no more ATV angel to give us rides. But we did make friends with some critters along the way.

these cows did not like us one bit.

As much as we enjoy "roughin' it," we also enjoy being clean and napping on couches and stuff. When my friend, Kari, invited us over to her place to do exactly that—and make us dinner—it felt like the best thing that had ever happened to us.

look at our poor sunburnt faces.

We headed back to our little camp, and before bed, we built a fire and serenaded eachother on guitar. It was a nice way to end this adventurous weekend. Just the two of us.

We got snug in our tent and sleeping bags, and fell asleep to the sound of coyotes howling in the distance for one more night before heading home to Provo.