DAY 1
We stayed four nights at Fireside Buffalo Valley RV Park, which was only about 10 minutes from the Moran Entrance Station for Grand Teton National Park. On our first full day, we slept late and let the crowds die down before driving around the entire loop and listening to our Guide Along dude. We stopped along the way to get some iconic photos at pull-offs and the Mormon Row Historic District. We also stopped at a spot where people were gathering and pointing at a field; We were hoping to see a moose, but it was only a family of elk. It wasn’t hard to spot the Buffalo, though, since there were so many of them along the road, including cute little baby ones!
Before heading back to the RV, we stopped at Jackson Lake Lodge and hiked the short trail up to the top of Lunch Tree Hill to try to spot more wildlife. Unfortunately, if they were out there, they stayed hidden.
DAY 2
We woke up early on the second full day, to try to get to Jenny Lake Visitor Center before the parking lot completely filled. Randy couldn’t resist making a couple of stops along the way, since the angle of the sun on the mountains was way prettier than the previous evening and the lake was super still which made for an awesome reflection. We got to the Visitor Center around 8:30am and cars were already parking along the road. We made a quick loop around the parking lot, just in case, but decided to come back later in hopes of it being less crowded. Meanwhile, we drove up to Signal Mountain for some impressive views. It was still too early to bother going back to Jenny Lake, so we went to Leeks Pizzeria on Colter Bay for an early lunch. Then afterwards, we set our chairs out next to the bay behind the restaurant and relaxed for a couple of hours.
We drove back to Jenny Lake around 2:30pm and drove past a LOT of cars still parked along the road, but there were also cars leaving along the way. We only had to wait a few minutes for a spot to free up in the Visitor Center parking lot — yay! (If we had not been able to get a spot easily at this point, our Plan C was to bring our bikes back the next day and park further away and use the bike trail, instead of hiking an extra mile or two from the road.) Since, at this time, most people were finishing the popular Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point Hike, there was no line to get onto the shuttle boat that cut two miles off of the hike that was on the other side of Jenny Lake. We were able to quickly pay, get two of the last few seats on the shuttle, and push off within just a few minutes. Nice! There were still plenty of people on the trail, but even though it was busy, it did not feel congested. It was an enjoyable hike to see Hidden Falls. The .5 miles past the falls to get up to Inspiration Point was a lot steeper and required a few quick breaks to rest my legs, but it was definitely worth the effort! Our shuttle guy told us that it was worth hiking another .5 miles past that point, too, so we followed his recommendation. I think he oversold that section, but we hiked to a spot where we saw a bit more of the river, then turned around and headed back down the trail.
As we were walking back, we caught up to a group of people pointing over at something on the other side of the river, so we stopped and looked over, too. There was a bear wandering around on the hillside, pretty close to a section of the trail that people were walking along. Fortunately, the bear eventually disappeared in the opposite direction, instead of getting closer to those people. (Perhaps because the people on our side of the river were hollering “BEAR!” over to them, to get their attention.) A bit of excitement near the end of our hike!
We were pleasantly surprised to make it onto the first shuttle that arrived within just a few minutes of us getting in the short line for the return trip. (They had warned us when we bought the round-trip ticket that it could be about a 30 minute wait to get back across.) Since we ate pizza instead of our sandwiches for lunch, we stopped at Cattleman’s Bridge (which no longer has a bridge) for a picnic dinner. It was quick stop, since mosquitoes started biting. But we were ready to head back to the RV anyways — it had been a long, yet enjoyable day!
DAY 3
We went back to Colter Bay on the third day and rented a tandem kayak for a couple of hours on the water. In hindsight, we probably would have enjoyed getting two singles instead of the tandem, since it was hard for us to keep the longer one going straight for some reason. We’ve not had that problem before, so I blame the boat, haha! We also stopped at the nearby swim beach for a while, to take in the gorgeous Tetons one last time before heading back to the RV for our last night in a National Park area on this trip. After tonight, we will be stopping to visit friends and family on our way back to TN, instead of sight seeing.
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