4 Days in Jackson, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone
We headed straight to Wyoming after South Dakota and our first stop to break up the drive was Casper. We only stayed for a night and used that time to do some planning in the comfort of our Airbnb.
Day 1: Jackson
While we were in Badlands, I realized that I hadn’t packed a long sleeve, which is what I prefer to sleep in while camping. After driving for a lot of the day, with some extra time before check-in, we went to REI and TJ Maxx to try to find one. I ended up buying one at TJ Maxx and immediately knew I’d be more comfortable.
We spent the rest of this evening wandering out town, grabbing dinner and going in and out of shops. We wanted some ice cream so found a creamery that seemed popular and got some scoops. Keon ordered the huckleberry flavor, which is the local favorite, and it was actually pretty good.
We got in a quick workout at our hotel gym before turning in for the night and prepared for our early start tomorrow.
Day 2: Grand Teton National Park
Today kicks off our longest camping stretch—4 nights in 2 parks—so we had to stock up on groceries, ice, and water. We’d planned our meals during the drive yesterday so the shopping part was pretty quick. We’d heard that we were deep in bear country and that bear spray was highly recommended in these parts so we ended up buying a canister while we were at the store. We’d later confirm that it was the right decision because there are signs everywhere warning you about bears and all the NPS resources we viewed had guidelines for bear safety.
We drove into the park and parked at the Taggart Lake trailhead. We packed up our bags, prepared snacks, filled our water bladders, and headed out on a 6-mile loop hike by Taggart and Bradley Lakes. Our hike had us view Bradley Lake from afar but we were able to access Taggart Lake directly and it was gorgeous. Overall, it was a fairly easy hike and was a great introduction to the Grand Teton park. We fell in love with the park instantly. We didn’t see any bears today but best believe we turned every corner saying “hey, bear” (what we learned is a popular phrase) and made noise often.
After our hike, we stopped by Jenny Lake Visitor Center to look around and buy some firewood. We went to our campsite, cooked dinner, and had another early night.
Day 3: Grand Teton National Park
Today was our big hike day doing the Delta Lake trail. This hike is a popular one but it’s rated on the more strenuous side because it’s an unmarked trail with many witchbacks and multiple fields of boulders that you have to scramble across before reaching the lake. We saw deer pretty early into our hike and were a little nervous about running into a bear. Fortunately, while the trail wasn’t packed, we did run into other hikers every now and then and that was comforting. This hike includes a high-elevation gain so we were going up the entire time. The switchbacks were as rough as they ever are (and never fun), but what became more tough was when we reached the rocks. The picture below shows one of these “fields” where you basically put away your hiking sticks, if you brought any, and get ready to use all hands and feet to balance yourself as you climb across and up. Every now and then you get a small break where you walk on dirt again, which is why I refer to the rocky areas as fields, but next thing you know you’re back on rocky terrain and wondering when it’s going to end. After the rocks, it’s a straight uphill climb to the top of the mountain where there’s a glacial lake: Delta Lake.
Reaching the top was a rewarding experience—just as rewarding as the downward hikers were telling us it’d be as they heard us breathing heavily on our way up. However, not even 2 minutes upon reaching the top, we heard someone say “bear” and turned around to see a black bear cub walking past us on the same rocks we had just crossed to get to where we were. Everyone started backing up as far as they could without getting into the lake (while also pulling out phones and cameras). This cub didn’t seem aggressive and acted like it didn’t even see the dozens of people around. But everyone knew it was a cub and we all started looking around for its mother. A mother bear never came, that we could see, and the cub moved along so we did as well.
We found a spot to picnic and hopped in the water for a nice cold plunge. It was probably somewhere between 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit and felt like a refreshing ice bath, especially after hiking exclusively uphill for 3 hours. We ate the sandwiches we packed and a few granola bars. But mostly, we sat around and took it all in before making our descent. We finished with one final plunge and then dried off and changed so we could make our way back down.
The rest of the hike felt long because we were eager to return to our car. 3 hours later, we were back in the parking lot. It always feels so good to kick off your hiking boots and change into different shoes. We were also exhausted at this point and it felt nice to sit. We took the long way back to our campground so we could stop at a few other scenic points along the way. We saw old barns and homesteads, some viewpoints of Snake River, a bunch of cute horses, and an elk eating on the side of the road.
Day 4: Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone and Grand Teton are right next to each other so we headed to Yellowstone next. We were a little surprised that it still took over an hour and there was a lot of construction that led to more delays. Our first stop was Old Faithful, which honestly was underwhelming and disappointing. A solid 2/10 experience. Parking was not easy to find because there were so many people. We were lucky that the geyser erupted just as we were walking towards it, however it wasn’t as dramatic as we thought it’d be and we didn’t get that good of a view since there were so many people. Some people seemed to have waited a long time for it, getting there earlier than others to snag those front-row seats. We’re glad we didn’t have to wait at all because that would have been a pretty lame experience.
Our next stop, of course, was going to be Grand Prismatic Springs. But when we saw the line of cars to get into the parking lot, we knew that it was a pass. We couldn’t even see the parking lot because it was so backed up cars were waiting on the main road to just turn in. It’s not a sight that we were super eager to see, anyway, so we moved along and went to our campsite. We’d told ourselves before this trip that, in general, we aren’t going to force ourselves to see things “since we’re here”. The time we spend adds up and if we’re not dying to see it, we don’t need to even if it’s popular.
We washed a few clothes and set up camp, which we later regretted because we started hearing thunder and saw rain clouds moving in. So we tossed our sleeping bags and wet clothes back in our truck right as it started raining and we drove around. We came across Norris Geyser Basin and decided to check it out. The rain died down a bit and was only drizzling so we walked around and explored the area. It looks like a hazardous wasteland, probably because it is. There are geysers and hot springs everywhere and all you can smell walking along the boardwalk is the smell of sulphur (basically smelled like rotten eggs). It was not pleasant and were weren’t super impressed by the sights either.
We drove around some more to go to a few gift shops and treat ourselves to some ice cream. I also got a bit of service around here so we spent some time in the car figuring out what else we can do for the rest of today and tomorrow. It didn’t seem like much and we were open to heading out of the park a night early, but we told ourselves we’d sleep it off and see how we felt in the morning.
The next morning (which you can read more about in the next post) we felt the same. So, we packed up camp and headed to Bozeman for the day.