Grand Tetons
Jackson, Wyoming
Welcome back! You’re probably thinking “Finally! A National Park!”
“YES!” (One of my favorites)!
While traveling to Montana to visit my dad’s crazy uncle (yes, the same Uncle Jim from the Yellowstone Post, He’s an absolute legend) we decided to drive down to the Wyoming border to visit the Grand Tetons which is an awesome, beautiful mountain range.
Stop 1: Mormon Row
This is a really cool little flat area of fields across from the base of the mountains. There are iconic! Even though I wasn’t familiar with Mormon row, the silhouettes of the barns are iconic and totally worth driving down (but it may be hard to find a parking spot!)
Secret Spot:
Closer to the base of the mountain there is a sketchy looking turn off that allows you drive down into a group of really cool trees. If you ever get the chance, TAKE IT! My mom found out about it by reading some travel blogs and it was amazing!
We parked the car and took a short hike down to a cool lake that gave us a great view of the Grand Teton (the highest peak). We got to see some of the cool wildlife. There was a family with duckling in the lake (which we named after my dad and his six siblings).
There were only a few people who were down at the spot but there was a small group that were taking pictures with some fancy cameras. We were really confused as to why they seemed so happy to take pictures for a clothing ad, but then we realized…. THERE’S BUTTERFLIES!!!
It turns out all of the gray rocks that continued from the stream were covered in gray butterflies. Their camouflage was perfect because the underside of their wings were a beautiful periwinkle blue/purple color.
We were just excited to see the mountain, but then we got to enjoy the amazing butterflies!!!!!!!! (They are also my mom’s favorite animal, so she went into nature photographer mode and it was awesome!!!)
Stop 2: We also had the chance to go into Jackson (not the real Jackson Hole Ski resort but the little town near it). The center of the town has a cool grass square/public area that has four arches.
These arches are made out of elk antlers which were collected by boy scouts when the elk shed their antlers. My self-proclaimed redneck brother Danny was absolutely in love with the décor of the town.
The town is really cool, and my parents had been there 20 years before so they tried to get us into a bar to show us that the bar stool seats were saddles. Unfortunately, they realized that my brother, Matthew, was only 11, and didn’t let us in but they sounded really cool.
We spent a few hours going into the shops and finding funny slogans and laughing about the jokes on Yeti mugs. We also got to eat at a place my Uncle had been to about 20 years ago. We slowly followed google maps to find an obscure meat-place “Bubba’s” at the end of town. I had a chicken sandwich and it was awesome (hahaha now we’re back to food blogging).
Towards the end of the day we had the opportunity to take a ferry over to the actual Tetons and hike! We did a short hike up to a waterfall! On the way back we saw a small sign that said moose pond, so of course we took a detour!
It was dusk so the wildlife is more active and eating. We quietly (or as quietly as me and my family can be) hiked to the lookout. We were disappointed for about two seconds until… WE SAW A MOOSE.
It was so cool to see him sitting in his namesake pond. About a week later, a fissure had opened up in the hiking trail we had been on and no one was allowed to cross the lake! We were so lucky to get to take this hike!
On the drive back up to Montana, we were fortunate enough to see the sunset over the mountains. We stopped at some pull offs and got to take awesome pictures of the beautiful pink sunset and purple flowers.
This is one of my absolute favorite parks because it has cool hikes, an awesome town, rocking wildlife, and is the most photogenic spot in the world.If you ever have the chance, definitely visit the Tetons!!!