Grand Teton and Jackson, Wyoming

After spending three days in Yellowstone we left via the south entrance through Grand Teton National Park. Grand Teton is very different than Yellowstone, and is known for majestic views and pretty alpine lakes. We only had a half day there, but managed to take a boat ride, do a hike, and see some historic barns.

We started at the Colter Bay Visitor Center right when it opened, then drove along the east side of the park (Teton Park Rd) for panoramic views. The best view was from Lower Schwabacher Landing, with the mountains rising over the river and meadows. Grand Teton has probably the most impressive mountain views in the US, with jagged snowy mountains rising straight up from flat meadows and lakes.

Bonus national park!

The mountains in Grand Teton are impressive.

They're particularly impressive because there aren't many foothills. Just plains and then a huge mountain range.

Views for days.

Us, mountains, water.

Grand Teton National Park is unique because it has a national historic district within the park - "Mormon row," a few barns and houses from the early 1900s. It's a great place to stop for photos, and the view with a barn and the Tetons is an iconic image of the west.

Barn and mountains.

It would have been a rough life living here in the 1800s.

Classic scenes.

The overcast skies gave the barns an almost creepy look.

Next we drove around to the more western side of the park, closer to the mountains, stopping at the Jenny Lake area. This is the busiest area of the park, with services and several hiking trails. We bought tickets to ride a boat across Jenny Lake, then did the short hike to Hidden Falls and Lower Inspiration Point before heading back across the lake. It was really cold on the boat, and there was still a lot of snow near the trails. We would have hiked a little further, but the trail was closed due to heavy snow. Along the way we saw plenty of marmots and a waterfall. The weather was drizzly so the views weren't great, but it was still a good little hike.

Chilly morning on Lake Jenny.

We should have had warmer clothes for this boat ride! It was fun though.

Paul in the VIP seat.

View from the boat.

A weird little plant on the trail.

Still so much snow!

Marmot meeting a tourist on a bridge over a stream.

The views from lower inspiration point were still good despite the cloudy weather.

Paul on the hike.

David is king of the mountain.

Next we drove south to Jackson, a cute tourist town. It was still a bit rainy, but we walked around downtown for a bit, and had lunch at Snake River Brewing before going to Snow King ski resort to ride the Cowboy Coaster (an alpine coaster). Jackson is a nice town and it would be fun to spend more time there. We wrapped up the day by driving the final few hours to Salt Lake City, and flew out the next morning. We didn't as much time as we would have liked in Grand Teton and Jackson, and hope to return some day to explore some more.

Beer sampler for the table at Snake River brewing.

Finally, some real food!

Yum!

Paul with the famous elk antler arch in downtown Jackson.

Too bad the weather was still bad, or we would have walked around more in Jackson.

If there's a coaster near by, of course we had to stop!

A fun little ride.

Beautiful scenery as we drove through Wyoming and Idaho on the way back to Salt Lake City.

We drove through Afton, a small town with a cute stretch of downtown.

The open road!

The weather cleared up a bit and we had amazing views of reflected blue skies.

This area was particularly beautiful.

More Adventures in Yellowstone

Yellowstone is a huge park, and after our first day we had barely scratched the surface. We spent the next two full days exploring the different areas of the park, going on hikes, and watching for wildlife. Day two began with an early morning drive up through Dunraven Pass (8,859 ft), which was still covered in thick snow even though it was almost June. After taking in the amazing views, we descended down toward the road leading to the Lamar Valley. We saw a bear with two cubs, who came very close to our car. Second day, second bear sighting! We continued past an awesome columnar basalt formation, and saw some bighorn sheep before stopping for our big hike of the trip, the Specimen Ridge Trail. This was a great un-crowded hike through a meadow and up a mountain for a fantastic view across the Lamar Valley. We saw a couple of bison, some North American pronghorn, and ground squirrels while hiking. At one point a bison decided to walk right on the trail towards us, so we had to step out of the way for a while.

Driving through the Hayden Valley in the morning.

Snowy Dunraven pass. Doesn't look like summer!

Beautiful views of the snowy mountains and foggy valleys.

A bear with two cubs!

We watched them walk around for a while (from the safety of our car). The cubs were adorable!

Huge basalt formation alongside the road.

First bighorn sighting!

Walking across the first park of the Specimen Ridge Trail. It was a bit chilly at first.

Great views from the trail across the meadow.

David and his Dad with the Lamar Valley in the background.

Specimen Ridge Trail is worth it for the views alone.

Paul on the trail.

We saw a ton of these guys in the meadow on the first part of the trail.

After the hike, we drove through the Lamar Valley, seeing several huge herds of bison. We exited the park's northeast entrance for lunch in Cooke City, Montana. Cooke City is interesting as there's just one road that goes through town from east to west. In the winter the road east is closed and it had still not opened for the season when we arrived. All winter folks living in Cooke City have to drive west through Yellowstone to leave town, which can take a very long time to reach anywhere.

After lunch, we found an ice cream shop while heading back towards Yellowstone. The couple that owned the store were actually retiree school teachers from Fayetteville, near Atlanta. Small world! While eating our ice cream we noticed a moose across the street chilling in a small city park. We spent a little time watching it graze and then headed back into the park. This was the only moose sighting of the trip.

Heading east through the Lamar Valley, near the northeast entrance of Yellowstone.

It's a bit more mountainous on this side of the park.

Obligatory Yellowstone sign shot!

Lunch was at a beer-friendly place. Someone else wrote Atlanta.

Hi Mr. Moose!

The next stop on our tour was Mammoth Hot Springs, which was more than an hour drive from Cooke City. Along the way we stopped at Undine Falls to check out the view. Mammoth Hot Springs is the northern entrance to the park, and has one of the busier visitor areas. There were quite a few elk chilling in the little village center, and lots of tourists running around.

The springs themselves are a series of cascading geothermal features that built up over time. They sort of look like stalagmites; as they both form from the build up of minerals from ground water over time. The springs look different depending on the time of year and rain. The weather was a bit bad when we arrived so we didn't linger.

Undine Falls.

David in front of the Mammoth Hot Springs. 

Completing our visit to the north side of the park, we swung around the west loop road to check out Norris Geyser Basin before returning to the Lake Lodge for the evening. The Norris Geyser Basin hosts a large collection of geysers, mudpots and other geothermal features. Paul really loves checking these out! Norris is one of the most geothermally active areas of the park, and probably the most impressive geyser basin.

Back at the hotel, we had a late reservation for dinner at 8:45 (way past David's Dad's dinner time). The food was expensive for what it was, but it was still the nicest meal we had in Yellowstone, where the food is in general just ok.

Overview of the Norris Geyser Basin.

Steam rising all around in Norris.

Paul with some steam vents.

Boiling water and bacteria.

Norris has fascinating streams of hot geyser water. The different colors are different species of bacteria and microorganisms that live at different temperatures.

Back at Lake Lodge there's still ice built up on Yellowstone Lake.

Paul's dinner.

On our third and final full day in Yellowstone, we focused on the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, one of the central features of the park. It has two huge waterfalls, and multiple scenic viewpoints. Unfortunately a couple of the viewpoints and trails were closed for renovation, but we still had some amazing views of the falls and canyon.

Classic viewpoint of Lower Falls.

The canyon has a beautiful variety of colors from minerals in the rock.

We hiked down to the brink of the lower falls. You can get really close.

Paul at the brink of the falls.

We also stopped at the Canyon visitor center, which had some excellent exhibits on the geology of Yellowstone. This was our favorite visitor center in the park. We had breakfast at the Canyon diner next door, and visited the mud volcano area on our way back to lake lodge. It was a rainy day, but the mud volcano area had some amazing roiling mudpots that were worth getting a little wet for.

A giant model of the park at the canyon visitors center.

A bubbling lake at mud volcano.

This was an impressive steaming, roiling mud lake.

Walking the boardwalk through the steam.

The dragon's mouth, steaming and bubbling.

After mud volcano, we dropped David's Dad off at the hotel to rest, then drove to the West Thumb Geyser Basin, despite the rain. West Thumb is a small but interesting basin with some geothermal features right on the shore of the Lake. We saw a baby elk there too, but didn't linger long due to the soggy weather. We rested back a the hotel for a bit and had a quick dinner at the deli in Lake Lodge, before a short evening drive past LeHardy's Rapids and some wildlife viewing in the Hayden Valley again.

An overview of Lake Yellowstone from a burned hilltop.

This was a pretty cool fact. The other side of lake Yellowstone is farther from a road than anywhere else in the continental US!

Yeah it was a bit rainy all day.

A big blue steaming hot spring in West Thumb.

There was still quite a bit of ice on Lake Yellowstone.

An elk wandering around West Thumb. Her baby was hiding nearby under a tree.

Another cool colorful hot stream full of bacteria.

Quick stop at the rapids.

That wrapped up our final day at Yellowstone. It's a spectacular place, and should be on everyone's bucket list. Our next stop is Grand Teton on the way back to Salt Lake City.