At last year’s regional SPE conference, I learned that the fall 2018 conference would be in Grand Teton National Park. I was pretty intrigued, but it was this spring when I learned that the conference theme was “Human/Nature” that I knew I had to go, and I had to submit a proposal to speak. I was accepted, and even though I had just done the drive to Yellowstone/Grand Teton NP in June with my dad, Nat and I made a plan to drive – and meet Katie and Matt and Dan, who would drive up from the Denver area. The Thursday before the conference, we drove the 10.5 hours to our beloved Lava Hot Springs and camped in one of the KOA’s cabins for the first time (after getting in the hot springs the moment we arrived at 10pm, of course). The drive across Oregon and Idaho was nothing too exciting (we have done it so many times now) but it was the 3.5-hour trip from Lava Hot Springs to the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton NP Friday morning, in southeast Idaho and into the western edge of Wyoming, that was insanely gorgeous. And once we got to the ranch we were blown away. That first picture of the Tetons a fourth of the way down was our view for the two days we spent at the conference location. I really loved getting to be in these beautiful, historic buildings, listening to artists, may of whom I’ve admired for years, talk about their work concerned with humans and nature. Katie and Matt took kayaks out onto Jackson Lake. We had home-cooked meals together, and we all got to stay in the same room! I was really excited about how our lodging situation worked out, since we were told to expect to stay in bunkbeds in a communal room with as many as 10 other people. The five of us had our own room with our own bathroom, Dan just had to sleep on the floor 😆 After the conference, we were off for a day in the parks together and a night at a cabin in the mountains.