The Grand Tetons & Yellowstone

May 28- June 6, 2021

While catching up with some friends in 2019, we tentatively put Yellowstone on our calendars for August 27-September 1, 2020. Well, we all know how that turned out. Fast forward to 2021, and our friends had decided they were going and asked to see if we were interested. After a year of limited travel, we were more than ready! You basically have to book accommodations a year out to stay in the park, but we were willing to stay outside of the park and do a little extra driving each day to make this happen. This trip was unlike our other ones. The only planning we did was booking flights, hotel rooms, and a car a month or two before our trip. We had put so little planning into this one that we realized after landing in Jackson that we had booked a hotel for three days in the Grand Tetons and only four in Yellowstone. We overlooked needing a place to stay the night we were driving to Yellowstone.

On our first full day in the Grand Tetons, we started with a roughly 10-mile hike through Death Canyon. We encountered several very steep snowy crossings that required careful attention to footing, or else you would be sliding down the mountain. About five miles in, just past the patrol cabin, the path became difficult to navigate due to fallen trees from a wind storm earlier in the year. Several guys, who appeared very prepared for any situation, had attempted hiking through the fallen trees but told us just 100 yards ahead was basically unpassable. We decided if they didn't see it fit to keep going, we would also turn around here. We could have hiked to Phelp's lake from this trail but decided to drive to a flatter, less than 3-mile trailhead that leads to the lake. After putting our feet in the ice-cold water, we headed back to our hotels for a quick dip in the hot tub before grabbing dinner at Noodle Kitchen.

The next day we went to Jenny Lake to hike the Cascade Canyon Trail. We hiked 14 miles making a stop at Inspiration Point, Hidden Falls, and even walked up on several moose crossing the trail. We would have taken the Jenny Lake Shuttle, but it didn't start running until 10 AM, and the return shuttle had a 45-minute wait. (The shuttle runs from 7 AM to 7 PM June 7th- September 6th). We again ended this hike with a stop at the hot tub to decide on dinner and landed on Everest Momo Shack. After dinner, we did a quick sunset tour of Schwabacher's Landing and Mormon Row.

On our last day in the Tetons, we rented e-bikes taking the 40-mile round trip scenic path from Jackson to Jenny Lake. It turns out we didn't need to conserve our batteries as much we thought. On the return trip, we used more assistance and still returned our bikes well over half charged. (For someone who doesn't ride often, 40 miles was a bit painful on the rear!) We then had about a 3-hour drive to our accommodations in West Yellowstone.

Our first morning in Yellowstone, we grabbed a bagged lunch from Ernie's (it wasn't anything spectacular, but a deli sandwich was a change from our daily peanut butter and jelly) and headed into the park a little after 7 AM. Our first stop was to see Old Faithful (one of six predictable geysers, +/- 10 minutes), and then we walked around the Upper Geyser Basin, making it as far as the Morning Glory Pool before heading back. We stopped to eat our lunch outside the Old Faithful grill and then were ready to move on because the once sparsely filled parking lot and the area right around Old Faithful was now full of cars and people. We also passed a long lineup of cars waiting to see Grand Prismatic Springs, so the moral of the story is to go early. By midday, you will run into the crowds.

We drove by the Great Fountain Geyser, which isn't as predictable as Old Faithful. It erupts +/- 2 hours of its predicted time. When we overheard a private tour guide saying that it had likely already erupted for the day, we decided to head on to Mammoth Springs, almost an hour and a half away, in hopes of losing some of the crowds. Along the way, we got behind two bison that were stuck on the roadway for a mile or so until they were able to find some flat ground. After a quick tour of Mammoth Springs and almost an hour-long bison crossing on our way out of the west entrance, we got dinner at Las Palmitas.

On our second day in Yellowstone, we went to the Grand Prismatic Spring first thing. It was steaming so much we couldn't actually see it, which was disappointing, but still made for some cool pictures. We then headed out to hike Avalanche Peak, making a stop at Yellowstone Lake along the way. Avalanche Peak is a 4.5 mile out and back trail that has an elevation gain of 2k ft. The hike turned out to be quite challenging at this time of year because of the thick snow and downed trees. Not far in, we were unsure if we were even following the trail.

We tried to follow any footprints we could find in the snow that was often knee-deep. And if you weren't careful, you could find yourself going further than knee-deep. Half the group had waterproof shoes and clothing while the other half was hiking with soaking wet and cold feet, which understandably almost ended this hike pretty early. We also kept finding ourselves walking over a creek bed which wasn't too comforting since any step could result in us sinking pretty far into the snow or water. In the end, we made it just shy of the false summit having to call it quits due to all the snow. The view at the top is said to be pretty amazing if you can make it all the way. On the return hike, we ended up even more lost than on the way up but eventually found our way back, and we couldn't have been more relieved and ready for lunch!

At the recommendation of a park ranger, we headed to hike Cascade Lake trail after lunch. This hike is an easy 5.8 miles with little to no elevation gain. I'll give the ranger the benefit of the doubt that this could be a good trail, just not this early in the season. Almost the entire trail was marshy and wet, leaving all 4 of us now with wet feet and shoes. (Chad and I had changed out of our boots, thinking we wouldn't need them.) The views were very average, in my opinion, and not worth wet feet. We ended up turning around just short of the lake. Thus the group named this the day of unfinished hikes. Fortunately, we ended the day with a win by making it back to Grand Prismatic Spring and getting to see it from the overlook.

Day three in Yellowstone started slower with breakfast at Campfire Lodge, where the pancakes are the size of a dinner plate. The only thing on our agenda for the day was white water rafting at 3 PM. It was a good thing we didn't have a lot planned because it took us over an hour to get to the park entrance. There was a park ranger at the gate with a sign letting everyone know there was a bison jam ahead, causing the backup. We started heading to the park at 9:30 AM, and after the hold-up, we had to head straight to our white water rafting adventure with the Yellowstone Raft Company. We booked an 8-mile, 2-hour family-friendly raft trip down Yellowstone River. The beginning had quite a few rapids, but the rest of the trip left us ready for a little more adventure. After rafting, we drove part of Lamar Valley at sunset, where we got to see a bear and two cubs, along with elk and more bison. We would have loved to drive all the way through, but we already had a 3-hour drive back to our cabin. Going to Lamar Valley at dawn or dusk is the best time to see wildlife, so this is where staying in the park would have been ideal.

On our last full day, we drove out to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone to see the lower falls and hiked to Sublime Point. We enjoyed lunch lakeside at Yellowstone lake and tried to make it to the Great Fountain Geyser to see it erupt, but most likely missed it again. We decided to leave the park for some downtime at our cabin but ran into the biggest bison jam we had yet to see. A herd was walking down one side of the road, not just across it. It was quite an experience. We were just feet from them as they walked past our car. While we waited, we decided to change our plans to picking up dinner and going back out to Lamar Valley. We grabbed a pizza from Wild West Pizzeria & Saloon and started the drive but likely got stuck in the back of another bison jam and had to bail since we would have already been getting back to our cabin around 11 PM without delays. We turned around and decided to see the Paint Pots and hike Fairy Falls, but it started to rain on the way, so yet again, we bailed. We opted to leave the park and get blueberry bread pudding and ice cream from Madison Crossing, which was an excellent way to end our time in Yellowstone.

Itinerary:

Day 1 - Flight RDU-Atlanta-Jackson Hole

Day 2 - Death Canyon Hike / Phelps Lake Hike / Noodle Kitchen

Day 3 - Cascade Canyon Trail / Everest MoMo Shack / Scwabacher Landing & Mormon Row

Day 4 - Pearl Street Bagels / E Biked from Jackson to Jenny Lake and back / Drive to West Yellowstone / Madison Crossing Lounge

Day 5 - Ernie's / Upper Geyser Basin / Great Fountain Geyser / Mammoth Hot Springs / Las Palmitas

Day 6 - Grand Prismatic Spring / Avalanche Peak / Cascade Trail / Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook / Madison Crossing Lounge

Day 7 - Campfire Lodge / White Water Rafting / Lamar Valley

Day 8 - Ernie's / Grand Canyon of Yellowstone / Lunch by Yellowstone Lake / Great Fountain Geyser / Wild West Pizzeria & Saloon / Attempted to go to Lamar Valley / Madison Crossing Lounge

Day 9 - Ernie's / Drive to Jackson Hole / Pearl Street Bagels / Flight Jackson-Minneapolis-RDU

Food Recommendations:

Noodle Kitchen (Jackson)

Everest MoMo Shack (Jackson)

Madison Crossing Lounge (West Yellowstone)

Ernie's (West Yellowstone)

Accommodations:

Snow King Resort (Jackson)

Yellowstone Lodge (West Yellowstone)

TerraNova Cabins (West Yellowstone)

Things to Note:

-You will need a park pass for the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Passes can be purchased online or at the gate.

-Start early to avoid crowds, especially in Yellowstone. By lunchtime, the Old Faithful parking lot and gift shops were packed.

-Be flexible with your plans in Yellowstone. Every day we had delays due to Bison and traffic. Some delays were short others took hours.

-Find accommodations in the park if you can to cut down on driving time and to have an earlier start to see wildlife and avoid the crowds.

-We went to the grocery store the night we flew in to pick up water, snacks, and sandwich stuff for lunches on the go. Food in the park is usually pricier.

-We used the Female Foodie's West Yellowstone restaurant guide to find places to eat.