Days 4-6: Jackson, WY and Grand Teton National Park

Sunday morning we woke up early and headed to Grand Teton National Park to claim a campsite at the very popular Jenny Lake Campground. The campground usually fills before 9AM on most summer days. We arrived around 7:30 and waited in line for the ranger station to open at 8AM. The ranger told us we were in the wrong spot to reserve a tent camping site and that at that point, we may be out of luck on getting a campsite. We bee-lined to the campground and were lucky enough to find a site.

We then went back to Jackson, WY and ate lunch at The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. It was a historical building and seemed popular, but we don’t know the story on it. That afternoon we set up our tent and explored the Jenny Lake area. We were just going to walk down to the lake to take a peek at the scenery but ended up walking 7 miles around the lake. After working up an appetite, we splurged on some pizza. On the way to pizza, we saw a moose and its calf. That was pretty exciting!

We were planning on doing a 20 mile hike on Monday and Tuesday in the backcountry. The ranger told us that there was still snow on our route. We tried to fit all of our warm gear in our backpacks, but we couldn’t, so we abandoned that idea. Instead, we back to Jackson, WY for a little while. We also got to take showers which are now a luxury. It was very rainy and cold so we spent most of the day in our tent listening to rain and hail. It was very relaxing. During a break in the storm, we boiled water and ate some Ramen noodles for dinner.

On Tuesday, we woke up early and broke camp. Then we rode a ferry boat across Jenny Lake to the trailhead. We hiked 9 miles in the mountains past several waterfalls. We are so thankful that we went early in the day before the crowds came out. We stayed in Colter Bay Cabins and took a scenic boat cruise on Lake Jackson in the Park. We saw bald eagles on our voyage, which was very exciting.

We’re off to Yellowstone next!

Lesson for today: Do you know what is the number one reason for bald eagle deaths? Drowning. (Look it up if you want to know more. Hint: It has to do with their talons.)