Grand Teton

We left Layton, UT on a rainy Friday morning, May 27 at 9:30 with Acey’s mileage at 85,252.5, Thor’s at 103,297. As we headed north, we drove thru the southeast corner of Idaho, and stopped for fuel in Malad about 11am.

We drove on in the rain – the sky and landscape were so pretty!

We finally found a pull-off by Tin Cup Creek, near Soda Springs and stopped to make lunch at just before 2:00PM

And shortly thereafter, we crossed into Wyoming.

We drove along the Snake River and saw some white-water rafters, but missed getting a photo of them!

We arrived at Fireside Resort in Wilson, Wyoming at 3:15. This is by far the most expensive RV Park we have stayed at; likely due to the location in Jackson Hole. The roads are gravel, and the sites are small; we do have full hookups – but the water pressure is REALLY low! Acey needs a bath – maybe at the next stop!

The rear disc brake on Linda’s bike has not been right for quite some time, so even with it being Memorial Day, she called around and found a bike shop that was open till 7pm; they thought they should be able to do a tune up and fix the problem, possibly by tomorrow! So, Jim wiped the bike down a bit – the roads threw plenty of dirt and debris all over Acey, Thor and the bikes as we drove in the rain. We went into Jackson and dropped the bike off at Hoback Sports. Afterwards, we stopped at Snake River Brewing for a pint.

Tuesday morning, we had a few phone calls to make, but after that we packed up a lunch, and finally headed out to Grand Teton National Park about 11:00. And it was raining. And cloudy. We started off at the Craig Thomas Visitor Center and saw a moose!

Actually, we did see a moose near the visitor center – in the woods – not a good photo op. We went on and saw The Episcopal Chapel of the Transfiguration.

The rustic chapel was built in 1925. Before it was built, worshippers had to travel over rough roads to the town of Jackson, 15 miles away. (A long way in 1920s) Services are held on Sundays during the summer. (More info from Wikipedia here.)

Inside, the pews were rustic.

A very simple meeting place for worship -the organ up front was covered.

The window behind the altar would give quite a view of the mountains on a clear day!

We stopped at a turnout to look at the mountains and the Teton Glacier – or tried to anyway!

We drove down to see Jenny Lake and find out about the shuttle that goes across. Many of the buildings here were built in the 1920s and 1930s and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The shuttle runs about every 15 minutes until 4pm, so we’ll try it another day.

We drove up Teton Park Road and drove down the Jenny Lake Road. We stopped at the Cathedral Group Turnout – this sign showed us what we would see if we could see on this rainy and cloudy day!

We proceeded down the road and could see Jenny Lake again.

As we got back on the Teton Park Road, we saw some wildlife!

It continued to rain, and we headed back to the RV Park.

As we headed back, Hoback’s called and Linda’s bike was ready – we stopped in and after a test ride, decided that it might be best if they put new brake pads on, so we left it there. On Wednesday morning, the repair was done, so we picked up the bike and went back to Grand Teton National Park. It was a clearer day, but cold! We saw more wildlife…

We stopped again at the Glacier View turnout and had a better view of the Teton range than yesterday.

And we could see the Teton Glacier

…and the “cathedral group”

We went down Jenny Lake Road to the String Lake Trailhead to walk along String Lake to Leigh Lake — beautiful mountain lakes.

We saw a paddleboarder – hope he doesn’t fall into the 42° water!

We thought, “are those icebergs”?

Nope – just white rocks!

Here’s one of the kayakers we saw

There were rocky rapids where Leigh Lake connected to String Lake

We crossed over the bridge

and found a BIG rock! How did that get there?

We found Leigh Lake!

and a patch of snow

A beautiful day to walk along the lake!

We got back to the parking lot and ate our lunch in the car – too chilly to eat outside! Continuing down Teton Park Road, we stopped to look at Mount Moran.

And another viewpoint

As we were leaving the parking area, this coyote came by.

And down the road, another critter!

We drove the road up to the summit of Signal Mountain. Just like cities, there are apparently mountains with the same name. Elevation here — 7,727 feet.

Linda found a survey marker

Jim noticed the cell tower at the summit – right behind the vault toilets (hard to miss…)

We drove back down the mountain and went to visit Jackson Lake, by the Signal Mountain Lodge. We were told the water temperature is 46° and the water level is at 29% – they will be adding 5 feet to send water on down to Idaho. You can see the low water level!

We stopped to see the Chapel of the Sacred Heart. This Catholic church is open for services June – September. The chapel was built in 1937 and was recently restored. You can read more about it here.

The church was locked up tight, but we could see in the windows. The screens didn’t help the photos any…

Our next stop was the dam.

We first looked downstream from the dam

and then we checked out the reservoir side of the dam – Jackson Lake

We walked across the dam

We stopped at another turnout

A Snake River overlook

We saw rafters heading down the Snake River!

One last turnout to take a look at the mountains. We had a great day!

Thursday, we returned to the park about 9am and it looked like the best day yet, and our last day to explore. Blue skies and just a 10% chance of rain.

We drove to the Glacier View turnout

We headed over to Jenny Lake to take the shuttle boat across the lake.

Once we were across the lake, we took the trail up to see Hidden Falls.

The upper falls were indeed hidden!

Then we continued up to Inspiration Point

Still need to go up a bit higher!

And we made it!

We got photos of each other!

A couple of chipmunks were hoping for a snack. We were told not to feed them…

As we headed back down, we took a look down from where we came up!

We went a different route by Hidden Falls as we were coming down.

Looking back up, we could see people up where we had been!

We took the shuttle back and had to say goodbye to Jenny Lake and Mount St John.

We were (sort of) glad that we only saw this bear during our time at Grand Teton National Park!

Friday, we head out to Dillon, Montana for 2 nights, Missoula for 2 nights – getting closer to meeting up with the caravan to Alaska on June 17!

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15 thoughts on “Grand Teton”

  1. Linda – great info and pictures. You did so many of the same things we did (except for the bike). We have only taken ours off the rack once – hoping now that we are headed to warmer and dryer weather, we will be able to use them.

    1. Thanks Elaine! It was great meeting you and Steve on our hike up to Inspiration Point! Hope you have safe travels, and we’ll meet up again in Tampa when we get back to Florida in the winter!

    1. You are right about that! But we still keep taking photos to share our adventures… We were glad to be blessed with a beautiful clear day after 2 days of rainy cloudy weather!

    1. It was spectacular! Our National Parks are quite a treasure – really glad we have the opportunity to see some of them. Thanks for following along Bob!

  2. The hike up Inspiration Point looked to be quite a climb. What a spectacularly beautiful area! What joy, LJ

    1. It reminded me of our hike up to the top of Multnomah Falls last summer – but we had some rocky spots to traverse here – not too difficult and it was worth the effort! It was such a gorgeous day too!

      1. They redid the trail a few years ago…. Redid the whole visitor area actually: it took several years and $ millions . The trail still has some “exposure” but it’s vastly better than it was before !!

  3. Jackson hole is my favorite vacation spot of all time, Right up there with Banff!. You captured many beautiful pictures of the mountains and how they just jut up out of flatness. The Jackson visitor Center is also world class with a stuffed herd of elk, and about every other animal in Wyoming. I think Jackson is the stuffed animal capital of the world , followed by Bass pro shops all over, lol safe travels!🤠

    1. Thanks Randy! We were so glad to have a clear day to see the beauty of the area – it’s no wonder it’s such a popular tourist destination! We will have to check out the Jackson Visitor Center and the Wildlife Museum another time I guess…
      Our caravan to Alaska has a stop in Jasper for 2 nights – Our family went there on a trek across Canada in the late 60’s or early 70’s and that was a memorable stop; we took a tram ride up the mountain and had “Pie in the Sky” – we also visited the Columbia ice fields in a huge snowmobile and saw several mill holes in the ice – it was July, and we were wearing shorts! Really looking forward to our upcoming trip thru Canada and into Alaska!

  4. What a great trip !!! Your pictures are just beautiful. Floyd has picked out a few for me to use in art class. Loved the waterfalls, could pull up a chair and spend a day just watching them. God is Great !! Be Safe !!

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