Master Plan Adventures: The Tetons!

Greetings!

When last we posted, we left Yellowstone National Park to head south to the Grand Teton National Park. Our campsite for the first 5 nights was at Colter Bay Village, which was a 90-minute drive from our campsite in Yellowstone. There is about 7 miles between the south exit of Yellowstone and the north entrance to the Tetons. Colter Bay Village is part of the Grand Teton Lodge Company, who I worked for in the 80's for 3 summers - 1985, 1986, and 1988. More on that below. It was great to be back in the Tetons and we loved this campground and campsite. It was in the woods just a quick walk to Jackson Lake. Here are a few photos of our campsite:

Paul also captured another beautiful overnight timelapse video of the stars at this campsite - check it out:

As mentioned above, we were just a short walk to Jackson Lake and we thoroughly enjoyed the sunset on the beach for a few nights. Here was our first night:

There was also a National Park Visitor Center right near our campsite as well, so we took advantage of a ranger program that took us on a short hike along the lake's edge on our first morning. Our ranger was Sylvie and she was terrific! America's national parks are true gems and the rangers are the heart and soul of these beautiful places.

After our morning hike, we headed to Jackson Lake Lodge for lunch. Jackson Lake Lodge is about a 15-minute drive from Colter Bay and this is where I worked for 3 summers in the 80's. I hadn't set foot inside the building since 1988 and it was so great to be back, as those 3 summers were truly a gift. So many aspects of the lodge looked exactly the same and there have also been some awesome updates. One of them was a casual bar/restaurant that overlooks the Tetons where we had a delicious lunch. Paul also posed with his buddy the Bear in the upper lobby. The setting overlooks the Tetons and is glorious!

We then headed to Signal Mountain summit - also close by - and the views of the valley (aka Jackson Hole) were glorious.

The following day we spent most of it in Jackson - a fun town - where we did lots of errands - post office, truck maintenance, grocery shopping, etc. Paul took this awesome time lapse video of the Tetons as we rode south to Jackson.

When we got back, we enjoyed another amazing sunset - this time we were in a different area close to the Colter Bay Marina.

The next day we took a beautiful bike ride between Jenny Lake and Moose Village - about 18 miles. Since I worked in the park in the mid-80's, they added bike paths, which is fantastic and we pedaled along the Tetons and the weather was perfect. Near the end, we were definitely feeling the altitude!

In Moose, there is a beautiful Chapel of Transfiguration which was built in 1925. It is a small log cabin church and the window behind the alter looks out over the Tetons - a very magical place.

The next day, we took a float trip along the Snake River (through the Grand Teton Lodge Company). Our guide Gabriel was excellent as we saw a few bald eagles, deer, and ducks along the way. It was a beautiful way to spend the afternoon. You'll notice that there is a bit more haze in the air during this trip as a wildfire about 2 hours south of us was causing a hazy smog across the valley. Although we didn't see any beaver, there was evidence of their chopping down some wood which you'll see in the last photo.

We left Colter Bay on Friday morning and the haze and smog got worse in the valley - we took a few photos along the way. We were very grateful to have clearer skies earlier in the week.

The weather was mild so earlier in the week, we decided to stay in the area so we headed south and then over to Idaho to stay in Victor once again (a 90-minute drive). Victor is a small town right over the Teton Pass (about 30-minutes from Jackson) and we had stayed here 4 nights in June before we got to Bend. The smoky haze wasn't as bad over there, but you could still see it. It was great to be back at the Teton Valley Resort which also has cabins in addition to the campground.

The next day we decided to explore about an hour north of us - Upper and Lower Mesa Falls. Funny enough, this is an area we were thinking of seeing when we were in Island Park a few weeks prior, but decided to go to Yellowstone instead. We went to Upper Mesa Falls first and it has a beautiful boardwalk that takes you right along the falls, in addition to a 2-mile (round trip) nature trail, which takes you along the river to the Lower falls.