Tuesday, 8/6, first thing the next morning we were doing all we could to get a phone call out(very few spots had service so much that when we asked our waiter at breakfast where to go, he gave us directions to the north end of the overflow parking lot facing the campground - but it worked!!!) and found a room for the rest of our time in Wyoming at the Snake River Lodge and Spa in swanky Teton Village. When you call last minute, anything reasonable is already booked! But, we felt better about things knowing that was taken care of and we wouldn't be sleeping in the rat cabin!
We rented a small motor boat from the marina at Colter Bay and took a tour of Jackson Lake! Such a beautiful morning! We spent two hours motoring around the crisp, clean lake and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. The highlight, hands down, was watching three bald eagles soaring through the trees and over the water looking for their next meal!
After our boat excursion, we ate lunch at the cafe and then hiked the Lakeshore Trail. It was about two miles and gave us a great views of the lake and the Tetons! We also saw a beaver - may have been my first one ever! There had been sightings by others that we passed out on the trail of black bears along the path, so we made a bunch of racket as we walked and had our bear spray in hand and were so thankful that we did not see them. It was a bit freaky, though, knowing that they were somewhere close by and most likely if they didn't at least see us, they most definitely heard us!
When we finished hiking, we left Colter Bay and headed south through Grand Teton National Park. We drove up to the top of Signal Mountain that gave us some amazing views of Jackson Lake and Jackson Hold. We also saw a huuuge bull elk! We stopped at many of the pullouts with great views, we saw deer, more elk and pronghorn and finally pulled into our new accommodations, which was pretty much a resort! We felt like we were in paradise after the night before!
We checked in and unloaded the car and headed to dinner at the Mangy Moose. We then took the free gondola to the top of the mountain! The view was a panoramic of mountains and the rainbow that accompanied them was so pretty! It was getting late by this point, but the pool was too tempting to resist a swim - so a swim it was to end the long, yet beautiful, day!
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| The beautiful Jackson Lake |
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| Bald Eagle flying over |
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| Bald Eagle in the tree |
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| Hiking on Lakeshore Trail |
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| Bull Elk at base of Signal Mountain |
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| From the top of Signal Mountain looking back at Jackson Lake |
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| SO MUCH BETTER!! |
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| There were carved, wood bears everywhere, inside and out! |
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| Riding up Bridger Gondola |
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| Mountain/rainbow from the top |
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| Awesome pool!! |
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The nights got chilly, so this fire felt so good after
swimming - even though the pool was heated it was
cold getting out wet! |
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This was C's favorite part, it was like a geyser and kept you
afloat with water pressure! |
Wednesday, 8/7, we felt like we'd slept in pure luxury - well, we pretty much had! We ate at the hotel and then started the drive back into the National Park to Jenny Lake for some good hiking! A small, narrow, dirt road leads from the Village to the park and along this road we had our first moose siting(of many yet to come!). It was a mama and her two babies and they were amazing to watch! Seeing a moose was one of the main animals I wanted to see while I was there!
We picked up picnic supplies in Moose, WY and made our way to Jenny Lake. We chose to hike the 2.5 miles around the lake to the other side and also took a short detour to Moose Ponds. We didn't see any moose, but we did see a bull elk, marmot and a cinnamon bear! The bear took us by surprise and the kids were about to wet their pants and kept grabbing at our arms to get out of there!
We hiked to Hidden Falls and had our lunch in the cool of the shade and water coming off the falls. The water was so cold, it was the snow melt from the glaciers in the higher elevations. Next we hiked up a scary, rock path to Inspiration Point where we could look back into the valley and mountains surrounding us. We decided to take the boat back across Jenny Lake. It was a good choice - we were all ready for a break!
We drove to Mormon Row where we could see the old iconic barn with the Tetons in the backdrop Then we decided to visit Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve where we took the three mile hike in and out to the beautiful and very chilly Phelps Lake! A good way to end our hiking for the day!
On our way to dinner we saw another female moose! We did not book a chuck wagon dinner(where they take you out in a horse and covered wagon to a bond fire dinner) because we had not originally been planning to stay in the Village close to where they leave out from, but way up in the park! What we did do was find the next best thing, outdoor BBQ eating, with the mountains as our backdrop and live music. On the way back to the hotel we saw another moose wading in the creek, sticking her head down eating aquatic plants from the bottom. We also saw deer and elk!
Our night ended, again, with a swim!
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| Mama moose and her two babies |
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| Jenny Lake Trail |
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| Moose Ponds |
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| Cinnamon bear |
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| Hidden Falls |
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| Scary hike to Inspiration Point |
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| Top of Inspiration Point |
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| Boat ride back |
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| We had just been in there... somewhere! |
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| Mormon Row |
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| Trail to Phelps Lake |
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| There were so many pretty wild flowers up there! |
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| Phelps Lake |
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| The water was perfectly clear! |
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| Buhahaha!! |
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| Our take on a "chuck wagon":) |
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The robes were not only fancy, but so warm after getting
out of the pool! |
Thursday, 8/8, was the day S had been looking forward to the most! Horseback riding day! We had a huge breakfast at the hotel and drove back into the forest to Jackson Lake corrals for a tow hour horseback ride through the Tetons. It was Michael's first time on a horse! C was on Creme Soda, S on Faye, M on Bubba and I was on Molly bringing up there rear - which I actually prefer and apparently Molly does too! What a beautiful, relaxing ride with lots of information from our guide on the area and great views of the Tetons! We saw a red fox hunting its next meal, which the horses kept a sharp eye on that little guy!
After our ride, we stayed and had lunch at Jackson Lake Lodge. Our server was from Greenville! Small world! We were all pretty tired by this point and drove back to the hotel for a nap and vegging out in front of the TV for a bit!
When we'd recuperated, we rode the Bridger Gondola back up to the top of the mountain again and had dinner up there! Then we took an amazing hike up to and along the ridge! We were the only ones up there as far as we could tell and kept our bear spray ready, just in case! By the time we rode back down the gondola and returned to our hotel, it was just enough time for our nightly ritual of a quick swim before lights out!
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| SO much sage! |
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| Mr. Fox |
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| C got a walking stick |
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A storm was rolling in and the lighting of the day gave such a great
view of the glacier! |
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| At the hotel, hoping the rain would go away! |
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| It did and up we went in the gondola! |
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| There wasn't anybody up on this trail! Beautiful! |
Friday, 8/9, we changed up our breakfast routine and ate at Mangy Moose Cafe since we didn't have to be anywhere
quite so early as the other days!
This was the day C had been looking forward to most! We drove into the town of Jackson to Dave Henson's Whitewater for our whitewater rafting adventure down the Snake River. One the way, we saw another moose, still not a male though! Our rafting trip was so fun! There were six kids in our raft, including ous - 4 boys ages 7-9 and 2 girls ages 10+11! We all had a ball! The boys were all totally wild and crazy, C was by far not the wildest! They sat up front in the raft just begging to be drenched in the rapids. The girls tried the front for a few minutes, but were content to sit in the middle! There were slower parts of the river where the kids and some of the adults jumped in and it was so cold that it about took their breath away! The whole experience was awesome and we are already talking about trying to go again in NC in the near future!
The bus brought us back to Jackson about 2pm and we were starving! One of the families that we met rafting had a vacation house in the Village and came to Jackson frequently and had suggested eating at The Local. They weren't kidding, the burgers were delicious! We then went and checked out our pictures from the rafting trip which were liarious and then did some souvenier shopping around Jackson. We killed enough time doing that to see the Jackson Shoot Out in the town square. It was short, cute and loud!
We still weren't hungry due to our late lunch so we drove out along the Hoback River to see if we could find some big horned sheep. No luck, but we did meet some people who pointed out a well known bear's den at a turnout we'd stopped at! Thankfully the bear was not around!
It was past dinner time at this point and we stopped at the Gun Barrel Steakhouse on the way back to the hotel. We attempted to get some packing done knowing that the next morning we would need to leave extra early to drive back to Bozeman to catch our flight home!
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| Downtown Jackson, WY |
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| Our whitewater rafting guide building |
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| Don't know who you'll run into shopping in Jackson |
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| Jackson Shoot Out |
Today, Saturday, 8/10, the alarms were going off early this morning at 4:30am. We finished packing and sadly started the long day of traveling back home! We left before breakfast was being served, but fortified with coffee and hot chocolate we got on the road with plans to stop later for breakfast! Because of our change in accommodations, we had quite the drive to get back to the Bozeman airport. Our travels took us through the beautiful farm land of Idaho! A state none of us had been to, but oh my it was so picturesque which we were not expecting!
We stopped in Ashton, Idaho at Trails Inn Restaurant. It was one of those country places where everyone knew everyone and they also knew we were not from around there:) It was delicious and we were hungry! Things don't cost as much in Ashton as they do in Jackson, that's for sure!
We arrived at the airport with a couple of hours before departure. We turned in the Tahoe, checked our bags again hoping they'd make it all the way to SC with us, grabbed lunch and before we knew it we were boarding the plane. The kids were a lot more relaxed this time, knowing what to expect, and also this was the leg of the trip that had the movies which they were very much looking forward to! We had a layover again in Chicago where we grabbed dinner and boarded our final plane, a small one again, to home! Our plane touched down about 9:45 and less than an hour later we were home and in bed - a perk of living near a small airport!
What an absolutely amazing trip that none of us will ever forget! We all loved Wyoming, and Montana and Idaho, and are looking forward to another trip out that way one day!!
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| Sweet babies! |
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| Goodbye Wyoming, Hello Idaho |
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| Beautiful sunrise over Idaho fields |
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| Sad to have left, but oh so glad to be home! |
