The Teton Valley Balloon Rally (TVBR) was held this past Fourth of July holiday weekend - wait, hold up, two blog posts within seven day? What happened to the real Elliot? I’m still alive, or, at least I think I am. The fourteen hour drive one-way to and from really does a number on the body.

Nihilism aside, this was my second year attending TVBR as a volunteer and I must recommend that you should visit it too. It’s a smaller balloon rally, with twenty seven balloons this year, compared to others but, this event has location to its advantage. Take a look at the photo at the beginning. See those tall peaks in the background? That’s Grand Teton, and it’s always visible during the festival. Admittedly, I didn’t get many photos of Grand Teton in the background this time. Strange... I don’t know why I left it out of so many photos. It’s a beautiful location, and if you’re into hiking/outdoor activities, Driggs offers those in spades.

Flights only happened one day of the four, which is okay to me. Compared to getting completely “skunked” (as they call it for no flights at all), I’ll settle for the single day of flights. That’s not to say the other days had nothing, two of them had balloons stand up as static displays.

For all y’all reading this, I would advise planning to attend every day of the hot air balloon festival because of the weather. Not all days are guaranteed to be successful. I always hear it when other spectators come up to me (I tend to look official somehow) asking about why the balloons aren’t flying. Then I can hear the disappointment expressed in their voices as they reveal that they only planned one day for the event. This is forgivable; they didn’t know. But I want you to know! Upon reading this, you now know to attend as many days of a balloon rally as you can.

If you wish to attend this event, I would recommend volunteering for it as well. The organizers, Margaret and Virginia are fun to work with. The volunteer work ain’t difficult, and you’re in good company with the other volunteers. It’s a great opportunity to make friends. Website link

Photography-wise, I think that I got a few keepers here. I’ll have to work on making sure to include Grand Teton in more photos next time. While the people there make the event unique, viewers aren’t going to know that. Having Grand Teton in the frame will ensure that people know that TVBR is smack right next to that majestic mountain. As a final note: just kind of ignore the photos of the live band though. I’m no concert photographer. But they were there, and I tried to photograph them!

Take a look through the photos below. You can click on the thumbnails to view an enlarged image.