Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks (May 13 - May 24, 2021)

“I like the mountains because they make me feel small. They help me sort out what’s important in life.” - Mark Obmascik

Charley and I have had a lot of wonderful experiences, seen a ton of breathtaking views, and laid our eyes on unique and incredible wildlife throughout our trip but no single place has wrapped all of those things into one amazing package like Grand Teton National Park.  I wish I had taken better notes while we were planning this trip because I know that Grand Teton National Park was top of my must-see list but I can’t remember exactly why. I must have seen a YouTube video or read something that made me want to visit. At any rate, I’m obviously very happy we chose to spend time in the Tetons.

Early in our planning process, we picked out a few places that we thought our families might want to visit as well. We were hopeful that each of our kids, their significant others, and our parents would be able to take some time and meet us along the way as we traveled. We knew that Wyoming would be a place that my parents would like to visit and so, for that reason, we booked ten nights at Colter Bay RV Park in the Grand Teton National Park. Ten nights gave us enough time to settle in for a few days, welcome my parents for a nearly week, and then have a few days to wrap things up before leaving. Things fell into place for them (and us!) and they were able to fly out to Jackson Hole, Wyoming two days after we arrived. Planning travel routes etc. when it involves just Charley and me is one thing but adding others into the mix adds a whole other level of anxiety. We’re so glad that everything worked out perfectly and we were able to spend some much-needed time with family.

Our campground, Colter Bay RV Park, was located at the north end of Grand Teton National Park in Colter Bay Village on Jackson Lake. The RV Park is a National Park concessionaire (on National Park property but privately owned). Several other amenities are also located in Colter Bay and within walking distance of our campground – visitor’s center, grocery store, convenience store, launderette, marina, and restaurant. Only the visitor’s center, convenience store, and launderette were open during our stay as we were there preseason. Everything else opened Monday, May 24th, the day we left. Judging by the size of the parking lots, Colter Bay gets very busy during the season so we were happy to give up a few amenities for smaller crowds. Also within walking distance of our campground was an incredible view of the Tetons across Jackson Lake. When I say incredible, I mean take-your-breath-away incredible! I’m convinced that this view was why our campsite was so pricey. We’ve paid less for a hotel room but you get what you pay for and in this case, it was worth every penny. Colter Bay RV Park was clean, well laid out and we loved our site. One of our favorite camping spots so far!

I think I might have wanted to visit the Tetons because I knew there was a good chance we could see a moose in the park. We’ve been to the Vermont/New Hampshire/Maine area several times and in spite of all the “moose crossing” signs in New England and many evening “moose hunting” trips around lakes and swamps, we’ve never seen one. Seeing a moose in the wild has sort of become my life’s goal. Shortly after we arrived and set up camp in Colter Bay, we hopped in the Excursion to go on our first Grand Teton moose hunt. About a mile and a half down the road, we saw several cars pulled to the side of the road (we’ve since realized that when you see lots of cars along the side of the road, someone has spotted wildlife) and as we approached, we tried to figure out what everyone was looking at. At first I thought we were looking at the back end of a couple of elk but as we got closer we realized they were GRIZZLY bears! That was our first of many grizzly bear sightings (all from the safety of our vehicle). The amazing thing about Grand Teton National Park is that we didn’t have to go hunting for wildlife. We saw some sort of wildlife nearly every time we left our campground. We didn’t see a moose that first night but we thrilled that we unexpectedly saw a pair of grizzly bears.

The weather during our stay was mostly sunny with warm days and cool nights with some rainy/snowy weather toward the end. My parents arrived at about 9:30 in the evening so it was dark as we made the forty-mile drive from the Jackson Hole airport back to our campground. I was keeping my fingers crossed that the following morning would be clear so that we could take the short walk from our campground down to Colter Bay where they could get their first real glimpse of the Teton Mountains. I called it “operation shock and awe” because the view sort of sneaks up on you if you aren’t expecting it. Thankfully it was a clear beautiful morning and my parents were absolutely blown away by the view. That morning set the stage for an incredible week of exploring the Tetons and nearby Yellowstone National Park with my parents.

I could ramble on for several more paragraphs about how amazing the Tetons are, how I can’t believe we saw so much wildlife in one park, and how weird Yellowstone is (don’t get me wrong, I like it. It’s just weird) but this time I’m going to let the pictures tell the bulk of the story. That’s where you’ll really get a feel for the most amazing ten days we’ve had yet. I’m afraid, from here on out, I’ll compare everything we see and do to the Tetons. And yes, I finally got to see my moose J

Between Salt Lake City and Grand Teton National Park, we spent one night in the parking lot of the Idaho Potato Museum. Not our favorite Harvest Host location because their parking lot was between a busy intersection and a set of railroad tracks (bad for sleeping) but their museum was nice and their fries were delicious.

Idaho was so pretty! Unfortunately, we were just passing through.

National Park #8

We’ve traveled approximately 8000 miles. Never had a dish fall out of the cupboard until we landed in a place where we would actually need all four of our dinner plates.

Our site at Colter Bay RV Park

We were in the park for just a few hours before we saw these grizzlies about a mile and a half from our campsite. We saw this same pair again the following morning.

Our first evening drive around the park. This is Oxbow Bend at dusk.

“Be Bear Aware” signs everywhere. We came prepared!

We did a moderate hike, about three miles total, to Taggart Lake before my parents arrived.

It was a beautiful hike! And I wasn’t as nervous about bears as I thought I would be.

There was snow on portions of our Taggart Lake hike.

At Taggart Lake. We wanted to continue hiking another mile and a half to Bradley Lake but the snow on the trail was too deep.

We also did some hiking around Jackson Lake from Colter Bay.

Cold Jackson Lake

The Tetons from inside the Jackson Hole airport. By the time my parents arrived, it was too dark to really see the mountains.

Operation shock and awe was a success!

A different grizzly in another area of the park. Someone at one of the shops in Jackson Hole told us that there are 200 - 300 grizzlies in Grand Teton National Park.

With my parents at Schwabacher Landing, supposedly a good place to see moose.

Pretty Pronghorn

This herd of bison was huge!

One of my favorite things about National Parks is that you can always find a place to have a nice picnic lunch.

At Jenny Lake

The iconic Moulton Barn, which sits on one of the last pieces of land sold to the National Park Service, is often photographed at sunrise.

To get to Grand Teton National Park, we had to cross the Teton Pass. 8,431 feet at its peak with 10 % grades up and down. It was a little nerve-wracking with the trailer but actually really enjoyable when we crossed it with my parents (minus the trailer).

Jackson Hole from the Teton Pass

When we left the campground this morning, I said to my family “Maybe today is my day”. Five minutes later! He (she?) walked out of the woods across the field then back into the woods on the other side very quickly. Perfect timing for sure. And it was the only moose we saw.

The Antler Arch in Jackson, Wyoming

Me, Amelia Earhart, and my mom in downtown Jackson

We brought two bottles of Lupo’s with us. We used the first one at the Grand Canyon and decided that GTNP was worthy of the second.

National Park #9. The south entrance to Yellowstone is only about 20 miles from Colter Bay Village.

The first Yellowstone “hydrothermal feature” that we saw and we were amazed by it.

West Thumb Geyser Basin. I wasn’t expecting so many hot springs, mud pots, geysers, etc all in one place.

At the West Thumb Geyser Basin YNP

Also at the West Thumb Geyser Basin YNP

The West Thumb Geyser Basin borders Yellowstone Lake

It does surprise me that people are allowed to walk around all that boiling water.

Some of the hydrothermal features were beyond the shoreline of the lake. So interesting to look at!

The bright blue ones were my favorite and if I’m remembering correctly, they’re the hottest.

That’s Old Faithful in the background. It erupts approximately every hour and a half. We were there long enough to watch it erupt twice. The first time we were close and videotaped it, the second time we were further away and took pictures.

Old Faithful. We ate our lunch while waiting for an eruption.

There are lots of other geysers, hot springs, etc near Old Faithful. We walked around to look at them between eruptions. Notice the Bison laying very close to the walkway.

There’s a bird on his back.

Old Faithful Inn

Water boiling from the ground is just so strange to see.

The second Old Faithful eruption

We spent a whole day in Yellowstone and saw only a small portion of the park. This is at the Midway Geyser Basin.

Midway Geyser Basin. The steam was so intense in spots that we could barely see in front of us.

Charley was walking with my mom but this lady stepped in the way as I took the picture :)

I can’t imagine what it was like to discover a place like this!

We watched Colter Bay Village slowly get ready for the season. One day the marina was empty, the next day - lots of boats waiting to be rented.

We saw a lot of Elk from a distance and a few close to the road as we were driving along. They actually reduce the speed in the park at night because of the risk of colliding with wildlife.

We had one really heavy rain day. As Charley said, we were upgraded to a lakefront site.

A little rain didn’t stop Charley from grilling a mean ribeye.

We couldn’t eat at the picnic table but they tasted just as good inside the camper.

Goodbye Mom and Dad. Our week with them went really fast!

At the Jackson Hole airport

I’ve been following a Grand Teton National Park page on Facebook and became familiar with this grizzly. They call her 399 and she’s pretty famous because she has four cubs. They were born last year and from what I understand she will cut them loose soon. I thought her name (399) had something to do with her weight but a shop owner in town said all the bears in the park are numbered and that’s just her identification number.

Bear jam! I’m convinced that the Rangers are tracking most if not all of the grizzlies. Rangers are always present in situations like this because they, unfortunately, have to keep people at a safe distance. All of my grizzly photos are taken from the car as we were driving through.

We saw lots of foxes including one (not this one) that surprised us on a hike around Jackson Lake. I took this picture from the car and I think I caught him doing his business.

After my parents left, we realized we never took a drive up Signal Mountain where you can apparently see all of the Jackson Hole valley from the top. It was rainy so we knew we wouldn’t see much but we went up anyway. Along the way, the rain turned to snow.

Nope, can’t see anything. Next time!

Our route to our next stop in Montana took us through Yellowstone. It was snowy for the first several miles. This portion of the road opened for the season the day before we arrived in the Tetons and now I understand why.

As we drove through Yellowstone on our way to Montana, we saw lots and lots of baby Bison. We didn’t see any babies while we were there five days prior. I’m thinking these babies were brand new. So cute!

*Photo out of order* This was taken at the Continental Divide when we visited Yellowstone with my parents….

….the same spot as we drove through five days later.