Grand Teton National Park
9/15/2018 & 9/16/2018
A Very Scenic Mountian Range
Saturday 9/15/2018 We left Yellowstone National Park today and are heading to The Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. To get to The Grand Tetons we had to enter the West entrance of Yellowstone and travel through the interior of the park to exit out the South entrance. It was less than 100 miles but fairly slow going since the speed limit is low throughout the park. When you exit the South entrance we began driving the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Parkway until we reached the entrance of The Grand Tetons. Once we entered the park, we drove along beautiful Jackson Lake and were able to take many scenic photos with the Tetons in the background. We are staying at Colter Bay Campground inside the park. This campground was very nice with a lot of trees giving us more of the primitive camping feeling we like. We set up and then went to explore the area. We took a walk to the visitor's center and general store with a gift shop which are all just a short distance from the campground. We continued walking to Jackson Lake and sat for a while on a log bench and enjoyed the peace and quiet. There are still a lot of people around but it's not nearly as packed as Yellowstone.
Sunday 9/16/2018 The main attraction in the Grand Tetons is, surprise! The Grand Teton Mountains. We drove the Teton Park Road through the park and stopped at most of the pullouts along the way to take photos of the different angles of the mountain range. We stopped at The Jackson Lake Lodge and went inside to admire the architecture before traveling a little further down the road to The Jackson Lake Dam and Reservoir. Next, we stopped at the Jenny Lake Lodge which was a small but beautiful, rustic, wood building. We continued taking pictures of the mountains as we drove to the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor's Center. This also had a grand view of the Grand Tetons.
Next on our agenda was a stop at Jackson, Wyoming. This is a small town with a very country-western theme. It was very full of tourists but we managed to find a parking space not too far away from the main district. We found a small little restaurant/bar tucked away inside a quiet alcove. You order your own food at the bar and they bring it to your table. This was the first place we've eaten at that has discontinued using plastic straws and cup lids in an effort to save the sea turtles. After our meal, we walked to the town square. You can enter the town square at four different corners each with a giant archway made entirely of thousands of elk antlers. (No Elk were harmed to build these as they are collected at the nearby National Elk Refuge after they are shed) We continued walking through the town taking photos of a few sights along the way. We took a few more photos of the Tetons on the way back to the campground, went for another hike near the Jackson Lake and waited to see the sunset.
Monday 9/17/2018 Today we packed up the trailer and are headed towards Kearney, Nebraska to visit Vernon and Laurel.