Day 44 & 45 - Grand Tetons

We woke up early to leave SLC en route to Grand Teton National Park.  We decided to take a slightly longer route and drive through Park City, Utah, since we had heard it was a cool town.
We did a quick drive through of the town, which was quite nice, but decided not to spend a lot of time there since we were starting to get anxious about finding a camping spot at Grand Teton.  The drive from Utah to Wyoming was beautiful and kept winding over the Idaho/Wyoming border.  It definitely represented "Wide Open Spaces".

We arrived in the town of Jackson (or Jackson Hole) Wyoming in the late afternoon.  We were hoping to find a cheap hotel to spend the night before heading into the park the next day.  After several unsuccessful phone calls to various hotels in the area, we begrudgingly reserved a campsite at the KOA about 12 miles back outside of town.

We grabbed some lunch on a balcony and enjoyed the view.

 
Our next stop was the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.  This was a combination restaurant, bar and tourist attraction, with most people just coming in to take their picture on the famous saddle bar stools.  We had a few beers and played some pool before driving back to the KOA.  Our expectations were low but were quickly affirmed as we were led to our "campsite" which consisted of about 10 square feet of space with a picnic table.  We pitched the tent, grabbed a shower and called it a night.

The next morning we anxiously drove into the park hoping to get a spot at the coveted Jenny Lake campground.  This site was appealing to me because it was tent-only and a few miles away from Jenny Lake and plenty of hiking.  The site was appealing to Dan because there was a high probability of bears visiting this campground.   We arrived at the perfect time and secured an amazing site.  The only bad part was that we knew we were only going to be staying one night and already had the desire to stay longer.

 We started the day by taking a hike around Jenny Lake, leading up to a waterfall and eventually to Inspiration Point.  It was raining off and on, but was absolutely spectacular and the views were amazing.

Jenny Lake

 

Waterfall where just the day before, Grizzlies had been spotted

Next up, we rented a canoe and paddled around Jenny Lake.  As we set out to paddle across the lake, we realized that it was much larger of a lake than it looks.  But we made it.

Dan taking in the scenery

Squirrelly had the best seat

After canoeing, it was nearing dusk, so we went for a drive in search of wildlife.  We saw an elk and got some good mountain views.

Wildlife viewing of the day

The Tetons

We drove back to camp for dinner and a fire before heading to bed.  We settled in for a restful, bear-free sleep.  Next up tomorrow is Yellowstone!

-Lauren