Mountain Girls Road Trip and Instameet

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of attending an Instameet put on by Mountain Girls in Eden, Utah. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and it was definitely something I’ll never forget. In total there were around 16 of us girls, five from Calgary and the rest from all over America. The lovely hosts who put this entire event together, Megan and Kristen, were both from California. I’m so thankful for these ladies and the opportunity they gave me. This trip was easily a once in a life time adventure.

Seeing how it would be much cheaper and safer to carpool, I ended up making the drive to Utah with my friend Shae and two other girls who we had never met before. We all wanted to have as much time as possible and also see as much as possible, so we made the decision to leave at 2 a.m. on the Friday morning. I don’t think any of us realized how excited we would be and that none of us would be able sleep prior to leaving. I attempted to get some sleep before we left but I ended up just staring at the ceiling for hours, unable to fall asleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about how fun the next few days were going to be. At around 12 a.m. I started to get ready and began packing my things into the truck, and at around 1 a.m. I was on my way into Calgary to pick up Shae, Meghan and Vienna. By the  time we had picked everyone up and got onto the highway it was around 2:30.

UEROLL

One close call with a couple of antelopes, one traffic warning issued for speeding, one sunrise, countless coffee stops, and plenty of laughs later, we arrived at Powder Mountain. At this point we had all been awake for far too long and had been sitting in a car for over 12 hours, so we were less than presentable to say the least. Thankfully when we got to the lodge one of our gracious resort hosts welcomed us with open arms and immediately gave us the condo number and a door code so that we could go shower and take a nap before the other girls arrived. We couldn’t have been more happy to do both of those things.

Once we got to our condo, we opened the door and all of us were instantly ooh-ing and ahh-ing over our accommodations. Free of charge and at our disposal was a three storey, four bedroom, six bathroom condo that also had a jacuzzi and an outdoor hot tub. I think we all felt like a kid in a candy store while running around looking at that place. We all felt so grateful and humbled to have been invited to such a wonderful location.

After we showered and made ourselves comfortable, we were joined by another fellow Canadian and then met up with the other girls for an evening sunset hike on Powder Mountain. It was absolutely stunning. We hung out at the top for a bit and chatted with one another and also had a group photo taken by a very talented professional photographer by the name of Zach Allia. The photo I’m talking about is featured at the top of this post. After that we went back down the mountain and got ready to meet for dinner at an amazing restaurant called The North Fork.

utah4

After dinner myself and the other Canadian girls went on a hunt for a bottle of wine. Apparently in Utah you can only get wine and liquor at state liquor stores which there aren’t many of. Thankfully the bartender at the restaurant we went to was nice enough to sell us a re-corked bottle from behind the bar. We took that bottle and went straight back to the house and out into the hot tub. I’m fairly certain the lack of sleep combined with the wine and the hot tub heat made us all feel pretty out of it because it wasn’t long until we were all ready for bed. I had the best sleep ever that night.

The next day we woke up and were welcomed by Megan and Kristen who had breakfast in hand. They invited all of the other girls to our condo. Once they got there we all sat around the large kitchen table and listened as Megan announced that we would be given gift bags full of swag from some pretty fabulous sponsors. It was honestly almost better than Christmas, those ladies sure know how to spoil a girl! Included in our gift bags were Hammocks by Elevate Hammock, a UE Roll portable Bluetooth speaker, clothing, Smith sunglasses, and many other wonderful things. We were all grinning from ear to ear after opening those bags.

After we finished breakfast we all met at the main lodge and then convoyed up to the lodge at the top of Powder Mountain. We got there and walked in and once again were in awe and amazement. The place was stunning! There was a sunken living room that goes by the name of the “Sky Lounge” that was made up of mainly windows. The view from inside was spectacular, and we ended up hanging out there until late that night.

During the day we were treated to a dance lesson by a beautiful (inside and out) professional dancer by the name of Juliana Luna. Attempting to do the choreographed dance was honestly one of the funniest things ever, and it felt amazing to break out of my comfort zone and try something new. After that we made a potluck dinner, drank some wine, and were treated to a private music show put on by the one and only Mike Posner who had been hanging out with us ladies all day. That was probably one of my highlights from the weekend. After that we attempted to have a bonfire but due to the high winds at the top of the mountain we had to put it out, so a few of us hopped in a vehicle and drove to a viewpoint to check out the stars and do some night photography. When we got back we got to have some homemade ice-cream sandwiches made with homemade vegan ice cream created by the resorts head chef. They were delicious! We then went back to the condo to rest up for our journey the next day.

When we woke up the next day, myself and the other Canadian girls packed up our stuff and got ready to say goodbye to all of the amazing ladies we had just met. We could have stayed and left later that day, but we all wanted to check out Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. So we said our goodbyes and off we went.

milkywaytent

Eventually we reached a small town by the name of Jackson in Wyoming. This place was so adorable and reminded all of us of Jasper. We loved it there. We made our way into Grand Teton National Park and took some photos for a product that was given to us by the lovely folks at Mountain Girls, and then we headed back into town for dinner. That night we ended up camping in tents right outside of Grand Teton National Park with a gorgeous view of the mountains and the milky way. We drank some wine and played around with some night photography before layering up and heading to bed.

The next morning we woke up for sunrise to -5 weather and frost on the ground, but thankfully Meghan brought her portable burner and instant coffee. One hot cup of coffee later and we felt like we were right at home. We were treated to a stunning sunrise with alpenglow shining on the Teton mountain range. It was magical! After that we packed up and started making our way home through Yellowstone National Park. We took that way so that we could check out the Old Faithful Geyser, the Grand Prismatic Spring and everything else that the park has to offer. The entire drive through Yellowstone was fantastic.

teton2copy

By the time we were finished at the Grand Prismatic Spring I’m pretty sure all of us were exhausted and just wanted to get home. We stopped for food and then hit the road towards Alberta, singing along to all the songs that played on the way. Thanks to Instagram and Mountain Girls, Shae, Meghan, Vienna and myself were no longer strangers and had shared many stories, laughs and opinions over the course of four days. I think it’s safe to say that we made some lifelong friendships that weekend. I can’t wait to do something like this again.

You may also like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *