State(s): Wyoming
Link: https://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm
Days: 2.5
Month: August
Hotel: Colter Bay Lodge (cabin)
Hikes: 5 = 9.5 miles
Ice Cream: N/A
Grand Teton National Park was another fun park to visit! Everything is centered around the Grand Teton Mountains, which are very large. True to our trip planning tradition, the #KohnEffect was in full force leading up to this park visit. A couple months before, Teton Pass collapsed: https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/08/travel/teton-pass-crack-landslide-collapse/index.html
Day 1
After finishing the morning in Yellowstone National Park, then traveling through John D Rockefeller Jr National Parkway, we made it to Grand Teton!
Our first stop was Jackson Lake Overlook. This was a great stop with a beautiful view of the lake!
Since we were a bit too early to check into our cabin at Colter Bay, we headed for the Colter Bay grocery store. As you’d expect, it was a bit expensive, but you can’t beat the convenience. We stocked back up on breakfast and lunch foods to ensure we didn’t run out before the end of our trip.
Next up was the Colter Bay Visitor Center. The visitor center was nice, we stamped our passport book and looked at some maps. One thing we noticed was the maps were not nearly as detailed as Yellowstone. Thankfully, we did our homework before the trip and had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do.
After checking in to the cabins at Colter Bay Lodge, we headed over for dinner at John Colter’s Ranch House. Everyone liked their food, and the cost was in line with the more expensive prices we’ve come to expect while eating a nice meal at a national park.
After dinner we took a stroll along the easy 2-mile double loop, Lakeshore Trail. It had pavement, rocks, gravel, and tree roots, depending on where you were on the trail. The trail goes around the lake and starts behind the visitor center. We saw an injured deer along the way. The views of the lake with the mountains in the backdrop were perfectly lit by the setting sun. Make sure you pay attention to the double loop on this trail. Part of our group headed back early and ended up getting lost; it’s easy to keep going in circles unintentionally.
Day 2
This day inadvertently started early; at 3:30am we woke up to the noise of a bag moving around. After investigating, it turns out we had a mouse in our garbage can. Unfortunately, the lodge was not helpful, so I had to take the mouse outside myself.
Our planned morning started at Snake River Overlook for sunrise. We left the Colter Bay cabins at 5:30am to get there about a half hour before sunrise. The view was stunning as the sunlight started kissing the top of the mountains.
We came back to the cabins to meet with the rest of our group, then headed out to Blacktail Ponds Overlook. On the way, we saw a bison on the side of the road. Once there, we took a nice short walk to and along the water. We probably hiked around 0.75 miles out and back, but we didn’t keep track. Sadly, we didn’t spot any wildlife.
Laurence S Rockefeller Preserve was next on our list. We arrived there at 9:50am. After 25 minutes we only moved 2 cars, and one was because the person left. We were going hike Lake Creek – Woodland Trail Loop but ended up leaving because there were still several cars in front of us before we could park.
Then we went to Sawmill Pond Overlook. After hearing from someone else they saw a bear with two cubs, we were on a mission to find them. After standing still by a trail, we were able to hear some sticks breaking and some movement in the water. Finally, we were able to see a mama bear with two cubs across the pond, going into the trees!
Our next step was to TA Moulton Barn, a barn built back in 1915 that is still standing. The Tetons as a backdrop made for some nice photos.
Wanting to see more of the beauty around, we stopped at Teton Point Turnout. It had breathtaking views of the Tetons.
Then we went to the Elk Ranch Flats Turnout. Here there was a field of pretty purple flowers in front of the mountains.
We made a quick pit stop at the cabins to check-in on my mom and game plan the rest of the day.
Lunch Tree Hill, an easy 0.5-mile lollipop loop was our next adventure. There was a huge open field with lots of grass, shrubs, and trees. At this point it was about 3:30pm – although we didn’t see animals, we’re pretty positive there must have been some hiding in the field.
Our last hike for the night was Christian Pond Loop, a 3.5-mile moderate trail. You share the trail with horses so watch out for their droppings! This was a nice hike where you could hear birds; at one point we even saw shrubs/a small tree moving but we never ended up seeing what animal was causing it to move.
At this point we were all a bit hungry and ready for dinner. Pioneer Grill was just down the road. Everyone was happy with their food.
Our final stop for the night was the Willow Flats Overlook. On the left side of the parking lot is a small path that takes you to the end of the hill. You can look out for animals. We went a little earlier than sunset. It started raining and I was ready to call it quits for the night. We didn’t end up staying long enough to see any animals.
Around 11pm we had another unwelcome guest in our cabin (another mouse), this time caught in a trap that housekeeping set. We quickly called and the engineering crew came out to pick up the mouse and set a new trap.
Day 3
Early in the morning, around 1:20am, we awoke again to another mouse. Unfortunately, this one didn’t go to a trap, so it was running around the cabin a bit then eventually went into the wall. At one point I felt the pillow moving but never found the mouse. Engineering came back out and they couldn’t find the mouse either. After we woke up, we decided we were leaving the lodge a day earlier than expected because of this mouse problem. The people at the lodge were very nice, we were just ready for a good night’s sleep.
Since we no longer had the cabin, we dropped my mom off at Jenny Lake Lodge since she was still having trouble with her knee. The people there were very nice to her and allowed her to stay in the lobby while we went out on a hike.
The rest of us headed to Jenny Lake Visitor Center. From here we took the Discovery Trail to the boat area. The people at the boat shuttle were very nice and gave all of us a free round trip ride since we had my brother and his wife with us, who are in the military.
Once to the other side of the lake, we hiked 0.5 miles (easy – 1 mile total including the way back) to Hidden Falls. We saw other falls on the way there, Cascade Creek. We saw a bear, or maybe two, we aren’t sure. There was one up on a ledge area and another one a bit further down the trail, but it could have been the same one.
After watching Hidden Falls for a while, we continued on another 0.5-mile (moderate – 1 mile total including the way back) hike to Inspiration Point. This had breath taking views! We hiked another 0.75 miles out and back, just to keep exploring the landscape and take in the views. In total, we hiked around 2.75 miles.
Once we arrived back at the dock, we waited for the 3rd boat in line to get back to the other side, thankfully boats come every 5 minutes or so! During our wait we saw a snake on the rocks by the water, and a chipmunk eating a Dorito; please make sure you’re not intentionally feeding wildlife!
Lunch this day was at Dornan’s Pizza and Pasta Company in Moose. We sat out on the porch – the pizza was really good!
Our final stops in Grand Teton were overlooks at Signal Mountain Summit. The first one was at Jackson Lake Overlook. It had beautiful views of the lake and the trees to the left of the lake. The final stop was the Overlook at the top of the summit. It had incredible views and was very peaceful.
Because of the mouse problem at Colter Bay Lodge, we decided to spend the final night of our trip back in West Yellowstone so we were closer to the airport the next day, at Yellowstone Westgate Hotel. Once we unloaded the car we headed over to Buffalo Bar for dinner. Our food was really good; huckleberry BBQ pulled pork and salmon tacos. After that, we filled up our gas tank, turned in our bear spray, and headed to Yellow Truck Canyon Street Courtyard for a delicious chocolate chip cookie-ice cream sandwich!
