On the way to our recent last minute lake escape, we stopped over in Jackson, WY and spent a day and a half exploring Grand Teton National Park. We’d never been and knew we wouldn’t have enough time there so we hit just a couple of highlights. That meant no real hiking, fortunately. Ha! I mean, UN-fortunately. Of course I do, honey.
Jackson is a super cute little town that completely embraces its inner cowboy. We weren’t the only ones, however with the grand idea of escaping (everything) and the town was PACKED. They were requiring masks, thank goodness, but there was pretty much 0 social distancing going on. We were able to book a dawn(!?), open-truck tour at the last minute, but dawn meant pre-sunrise + temps in 40’s + freezing annie = grouchy annie (it’s a complicated equation, I know), but given we’ve been experiencing high 90’s in our neck of the woods for way to long (and even going further North didn’t look like that was going to change-boo), we didn’t pack any cold weather gear. So before dinner that evening, that meant a mini shopping excursion in town to find a long sleeve top + vest = happy annie. We were supremely uncomfortable being around so many people though so I basically got the first items I knew I would wear again and we escaped to our hotel.
We were hoping to get take out and eat back in our hotel room. Well, our hotel was a hell-hole; a tiny, dank and dark cave of a room so we wanted to spend as little time in there as possible. We went in search of outdoor dining and found a grand option in the restaurant attached to our hotel. (Message me if you want to know the deets – I’m happy to share and save you from what may be a very disappointing experience given the hotel prices in Jackson.)
Anyone who knows, me and if you don’t, you really have no excuse now, knows that I’m more of a sunset gal than a sunrise gal, but the mere sight of Grand Teton and the opportunity to see more wildlife (seeing a bear and/or a bald eagle would be super grand) when they’re out foraging before the heat of the day, was more than enough to get me to agree to the early morning rise.
We completely lucked out and ended up in a two-truck convoy with our truck completely empty with the exception of the two of us and our guide/driver. Wrapped in warm blankets (there is clearly a heaven) with binoculars in hand, we proceeded to have a wonderful, grand experience. In short order, hidden in the trees beside the dirt road we were on, we saw a toddler moose pestering his mama for milk. More species of birds than we could count and several pronghorn on the plains of the park soon followed. No elk sightings, unfortunately, but we get to see those during bugling in Estes Park every Fall. Also, no bears (black or grizzly) which wasn’t so grand, but we did get bison galore after a hot tip from our awesome guide.
Saw a couple skirmishes too, but nothing like this!
But mostly, there was just calm. It was busier than we would have thought, but we could easily avoid others. We still wore our masks even outside when we were in parking areas, though.
We already can’t wait to return to Grand Teton again and this time it’s beautiful sister, Yellowstone will be on deck, as well. We’re incredibly lucky that places like this are practically in our backyard.
We didn’t see any bald eagles in Grand Teton, but we did once we arrived at our rented lake house in the tippy top of Northern Idaho!
Then we put the camera down, because there was a lot of relaxin’, drinkin’, snoozin’, readin’, kayakin’, paddle boardin’ and swimmin’ on deck. Unfortunately, the heat followed us and instead of the normal July temps in the 70’s & 80’s, we were toppin’ out at 98! Thank goodness for cool lake water, cold frose’s, birdsong and killer views.
Damn, life is grand.