Road Trip: Grand Teton

 With two weeks to kill, Caroline and I headed up to some National Parks. She REALLY wanted to go to Canada. We even renewed our passports with the hope that we could travel there. But, alas, the Canadian government had other plans. Their borders were closed to tourists because of COVID. We got tantalizingly close to Canada, but couldn't actually visit.

Boo.

Instead, we visited some of our old favorites and some new places.

First up, Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

This was taken near "Mormon Row." 

Those mountains are something else.

Breathtaking.

There's a small church in that area,

called Chapel of the Transfiguration.

Can you imagine THIS being your view while your worshipped?

It is little, but gorgeous.

It was raining a bit that morning.

Trying to re-create one of our pics from our last visit,

three years ago. Wow has she grown up in that time!

One of the tricky things about National Parks:

figuring out where to sleep.

Unless you plan a year or more in advance, you can't

really get a place INSIDE the parks.

And I don't plan that far ahead.

Last time we came to Grand Teton, we stayed the night

in Idaho, over an hour's drive away.

I hate wasting all that time driving there and back in the morning.

I did find an AirBnB in Jackson, Wyoming.

But it was $300 a night.

And it didn't have a shower...

Um, no thanks.

So we got super adventurous.

And slept in the van!

I bought myself a little blow-up mattress.

And folded down a couple of seats.

But it was still a rough night's sleep for me.

Care Bear just reclined the passenger seat and slept great!

Young bodies can do that.

Our campground was called Gros Ventre.

Weird name.

It was within walking distance of the Gros Ventre river.

We walked down there, hoping to catch a glimpse of another moose.

But we didn't have any luck.

It was still fun to explore, though.

Home Sweet Home.

for the night.

I'm not a camper and have never seen our name

on a reserved camping sign. Ha!

Our other adventure at Grand Teton was a hike at Jenny Lake.

Last time we were at Jenny Lake, C 

made friends with a butterfly.

2017

She found another one this year,

that was almost as friendly!

We did a hike that was a little bit challenging,

but mostly just enjoyable.

First we took the boat ride across Jenny Lake.

This was new for us this year.

It was fun and a little pricey,

$18 for adults, $10 for kids round trip.

We sat in the back and got a little spray from the boat.

Fun views of the mountains on our hike.

The first stop on the hike is Hidden Falls.

They are GORGEOUS.

And not very far up the trail, a little over half a mile.

The part of the trail from Hidden Falls to Inspiration Point

is a little more taxing. Care Bear and I had to catch our breath

a few times.

But the view from up there is really pretty, too.

And there are super in-your-face 

Ground Squirrels.

Um... what are you doing on my leg?

I didn't have any food and wasn't trying to 

get his attention. It was CRAZY.

And kinda creepy.

When we felt sufficiently inspired,

we headed back down the trail.

We had to wait in line for a bit to catch the

boat back across the river.

Near the restrooms, we saw the CUTEST baby deer!

Oh, and his mom was there, too.

This was a creative cairn we saw along the shore of the lake.

Grand Teton is beautiful!

We haven't spent any time in Jackson, Wyoming,

but the main square of town has these giant

antler arches on all four corners.

Aren't they crazy?