Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks have been on our 'list' for years, but this summer we finally made it happen. It was a trip that we began to plan two years ago, then scrapped it in favor of Costa Rica (which was marvelous!) -- but we made it July 5-19th this year. It was weeks (months?) of planning and hours of reading guidebooks and helpful TripAdvisor reviews and forum posts. The research was worth the effort as we did indeed have a fabulous time.
The first big decision was to determine exactly when we could go, but being a teacher, I have total flexibility in the summer (the busiest time of the year in the parks). Then we had to decide where to fly into -- and believe me, there are more options than you might think. We wound up flying direct into Bozeman, which is about two hours away from the northern entrance to Yellowstone. We hadn't been in the airport for more than a few minutes when we saw the mountains right outside, and my younger son looked at me and said, "Mom, I'm home.". Wow, did my heart melt a bit! At the recommendation of the woman at the rental car counter, we ate a great lunch without outdoor seating at The Western Cafe in downtown Bozeman, then shopped a bit for snacks, drinks, and bear spray before heading into the park.
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| Roosevelt Arch |
We took the requisite photographs at the Roosevelt Arch before officially entering Yellowstone, just across the street from a small strip of stores in Gardner, MT. "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People" -- it gives me chills. 'America's Best Idea' is right!
Not long into our trip did we see deer (or sheep?) prancing along on rock ledges above us. We oohed and aahed for a while before continuing on to Mammoth Hot Springs hotel for check-in.
Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel was a quick stop, just to check-in and drop off our bags. We walked over to the lower terraces of Mammoth hot springs -- so close and yet outerworldly at the same time. It was a bit crowded, but the further we walked, the less people we saw. There were, of course, a few tourons. I learned that word on TripAdvisor: tourists who are morons. In this case, walking up to elk to take their pictures, or even walking off the boardwalk despite the signs advising against it due to the potential thin crust.
After peacefully exploring the area, we headed back to Gardner for dinner at the Wild West Corral, a small place with outdoor seating and a view of the mountains. There were still lots of elk around the Mammoth area upon our return. At this point I was feeling very happy about our choice in airports and for our first night's stay. We landed around noon and still had time for a nice lunch, a bit of shopping, a two-hour drive, the exploration of the Lower Terraces, some wildlife viewing, and dinner out. Our room in Mammoth was a bit small, but that wound up being a theme of this trip, and not a big deal though.
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See the screaming face in the Mound Terrace?
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| An elk in front of the hotel -- they were all over, in fact! |
Sunday, we planned a slow drive to Jackson. We drove around the Upper Terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs, stopping here and there. It was warm and sunny, with beautiful blue skies. We were a bit in awe of the formations.
We saw our first bison before breakfast, which was cereal eaten outside at Sheepeater Cliffs (pictures below). What a cool spot -- with tall basalt columns and marmots and chipmunks to watch.
The pictures below are from Roaring Mountain, steam everywhere and a bison calmly relaxing at the base.
Hiking the Back Basin trail at Norris Geyser Basin was next, with lots of thermal features including Steamboat geyser, the world's tallest, though it hasn't erupted in almost a year. There were plenty of steam vents (fumaroles) and we watched Vixen Geyser continuously erupting. So cool! It was our first taste of Yellowstone's amazing thermal features.
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| Steamboat Geyser letting off some steam on the left... And a different view of the erupting Vixen Geyser on the right. |
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| Cistern Spring -- with a lot of dead trees! |
From Norris, we drove toward Hayden Valley, where we saw many more bison, elk, and some hawks / eagles as well.
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| A herd of elk keeping cool in the water. |
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| Part of a large herd of bison walking up and down the hillside, with a few red dogs (baby bison) |
We ate sandwiches we purchased in Mammoth along the shore of Lake Yellowstone, but they weren't very good so didn't wind up buying them again. We exited Yellowstone without stopping again and I napped a bit as we left the park and drove toward Grand Teton National Park. We stopped at Colter Bay to stretch a bit and walked the lakeshore trail a bit (not enough to call it a hike), then stopped at Oxbow Bend, the quintessential photography spot at Grand Teton NP so it seems. It was in fact beautiful and is supposedly a great place to see the sunrise, though we never made it there that early.
Our reservations were at the Motel 6 just outside of Jackson, a few miles south of GTNP's border. The location was great, the price was right, the kids loved the pool, and yes, the room was small -- but it was clean. We ate another meal outside, this time at Sidewinders. We realized that in four meals, we had yet to eat indoors. Good feelings -- and more to come!
On Monday we ate a great breakfast at The Virginian and picked up sandwiches for lunch then we were off. We drove up Moose-Wilson Road, but had no wildlife sightings nor any room in the parking lot of the Lawrence S. Rockefeller Preserve. This didn't get us down -- we knew we'd find somewhere else to gape at the mountains. We continued north and decided to hike to Bradley and Taggart Lakes. What an amazing hike! There were so many wildflowers along the trail and beautiful views of the Tetons and Avalanche Canyon. We probably hiked around six miles, with some inclines, cascades, birds, and butterflies. It was a fairly quiet trail and one of my all-time favorite hikes. I'm sure the hike to Phelps Lake from LSRP would have been great, but I've no regrets for going to Bradley and Taggart Lakes instead!
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| Trying not to post many of my kids, but I couldn't resist! |
On Tuesday, we took the Jenny Lake shuttle ferry ($45 but worth it) to save two miles off our planned hike of the day. It's a short boat ride but the views were lovely. We hiked up to Hidden Falls and could feel how much cooler it was near the water.
Then we had a rocky hike UP to Inspiration Point and a great view down to Jenny Lake. There were lots of chipmunks here, probably because 'tourons' would feed them. We also saw marmot and pika on the trail as we went inward through Cascade Canyon. It was not really a quiet hike; there were were plenty of people, but if you just waited a moment or two you could find some solitude and could hike without strangers.
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| Looking down from the trail near Inspiration Point |
About two and a half miles into the Canyon all of a sudden I notice that people were stopped ahead of us. Yup -- bear, two of them, maybe 40 feet away. Maybe less. A larger bear that was a lighter color and then closer to us a smaller bear that was black. Grizzly or black bear? Who the heck cared at this point. Bear spray in one hand (so glad we bought two) and a camera in the other. My pictures were hysterical -- trees, air, branches -- anything but the bears! We all talked calmly, "hi bear. we're right here. no surprises." and other nonsense. The bears just stared at us and did not behave aggressively at all. Since the bear were more on the Inspiration Point side of the trail, we continued into the Canyon for another 20-30 minutes before the kids said they'd had enough of hiking and we turned back. We joined up with a couple (safety in numbers, right) and started back the way we came. Yes, we saw the bears again, so we went back into the Canyon. Eventually we tried to get back again, and for the third time we saw those bears. This time they wound up going uphill and deeper into the Canyon so we continued back toward Inspiration Point. What a thrill! So glad we had the bear spray, but even more glad not to use it! It was our only bear encounter in the backcountry during our two week vacation, but the bear spray was worthwhile insurance that we wound up giving to the park rangers on our last day.
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| The larger brown-colored bear in the back and the darker bear in the front corner. No humps, so not grizzlies! Whew! |
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| Look at us ruining the beautiful view in Cascade Canyon! |
We had a quick snowball fight on the way back. By the time we wound up back at Jenny Lake, we were happy to have the return shuttle ride, content that our 8 mile hike didn't become 10!
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| We saw this moose on our way back to Jackson -- what a way to end a fantastic day! |
Wednesday, we ate a hearty breakfast at Nora's Fish Creek Lodge then drove up to String Lake, which we circumnavigated (~3.5 miles). It was a lovely walk but not as dramatic as the hike to Taggart/Bradley Lake or in Cascade Canyon. I probably would have thought it was spectacular if it was my first hike of the trip.
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| Lots of "tilted" trees along this trail due to an avalanche. |
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| Looking out at String Lake with the Tetons at our backs. |
We relaxed at the hotel (i.e., the boys went swimming) before heading out to Lewis & Clark Expeditions for a 4:30 whitewater rafting trip. Let me preface this by saying that we didn't really have any intentions to go rafting. In the original plan, we were going to do a 'float' trip through GTNP with a guide that could point out wildlife. In perusing the pictures posted on TripAdvisor (trying to pick which outfit to book with) I noticed that no one actually paddles on these trips besides the guide. The boys immediately nixed the idea of a float trip but really didn't want the whitewater rafting either. I admit I had to push (nag!) a bit and so we actually didn't have any reservations. Lewis & Clark wasn't the first (or second) place we called, but they had availability so we were happy. We thought to do a 12 or 2 o'clock trip, figuring to go when the weather was the warmest, but nothing was open except 4:30 so we took it. Well, the price of the last trip of the day also included a steak dinner at a nearby park, so lucky us.
Our guide was Joe and he was great. Very enthusiastic! Our first big rapids was called "George Washington" and I swear just as it ended and we were pulling ourselves together a bald eagle flew over our heads. The timing couldn't have been better! Magical! There were more rapids to come: Big Kahuna, Lunch Counter, Champagne, and I don't remember the others. The kids loved it. My husband and I loved it. The water wasn't even as cold as I thought it would be. We had quick dry clothes, so that helped, although the boys wore complementary wet suits provided by Lewis & Clarke.
Afterward, we took the bus to the aforementioned picnic where we ate steak, corn on the cob, green salad, potato salad, brownies and lemonade. It was actually a pretty good steak. Not the best I've eaten by any means, but considering the circumstances, it was great! The boys have since asked when we could go rafting again. I guess that's my next thing to research on TripAdvisor, now that we're back home.
Read Part 2:
http://readyforthenextvacation.blogspot.com/2014/08/part-ii-grand-teton-national-park-bit.html
It's been a year -- can we go back? ;-)
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