Grand Teton National Park

Posted 2 years ago by Mike

We were lucky enough to get a campsite inside Grand Teton National Park. We booked it about a year ago right at the time they opened reservations for the days we needed. Even then it was a mad rush to grab a site because literally the entire campground was booked within minutes. Pretty insane. Our site was in the Colter Bay Village Campground on Jackson Lake. The Village has gas, grocery, laundry, convenience store, showers, lodge, restaurant. All in the middle of the woods. Sweet. However you have to pay a pretty hefty premium for those conveniences out here in such a remote area. $5 for a shower. $6.50 for a gallon of gas. Yikes, but as the saying goes…when in Rome…

First up, we hiked Taggart and Bradley Lakes. Amazing views of the mountains from multiple lookouts along the trail. The trail followed along a crystal clear creek complete with a bridge crossing. Very few people on the trail for the part that went to the further of the two Lakes — Bradley. The shorter stretch from Taggart Lake back to the trailhead had a fairly constant flow of people. Still a wonderful day.

My solo ride within Grand Teton NP was the Grand Loop route. Many of the roads in the NP and the roads to Wilson and Jackson have multi-use bike paths. Not just a bike lane but an off-highway, paved path — this is my kind of place 🙂 The Grand Loop is about 50 miles but I wanted a metric century so I added a climb up to Teton Pass along Old Pass Rd. Even that is paved and only for hikers and riders. But it is super steep — about 10% grade all the way up. Probably the most difficult hill climb I have ever done — just relentless. But the views of the entire Jackson Hole Valley makes it worth it. I’ve done alot of epic bike rides over the years, but I think I can honestly say this tops the list. If you are into cycling, I think this is one ride you must add to your bucket list.

Next, we hiked Jenny Lake. The Jenny Lake area is probably the busiest part of Grand Teton NP. Mostly because of the boat shuttle across the lake to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. We did not take the boat, opting to add the 4 miles round trip to our hike. Since the majority of people take the boat shuttle, this part of the trail was very serene with few people. Once we reached the boat drop-off, the trail became a constant stream of people. It was fine though — the falls and Inspiration Point were very scenic and the point made for a great spot for lunch. By the time we made it back to the visitor center, it was warm, so we grabbed some ice cream bars and a bench on the porch in the shade which made for a great finish to our day.

On our final full day at Grand Teton NP, we rode our bikes from the park to the next town of Jackson, WY. I love traveling by bicycle. The open air, the sense of adventure and exploration, the sense of accomplishment. Very few things in life bring me as much joy. We stopped to take a photo in front of the Grand Teton sign. What is it with people’s obsession with signs? Is it if you don’t get a photo of you with the sign than you really didn’t go there? I don’t know. We usually skip the sign photo but this time we were riding by it so why not? 🙂 Next we stopped at the Jackson Visitor Center — very cool little nature/wildlife museum and art exhibit. We ate lunch at Stillwater Brewing Company — while we don’t usually take photos of signs, we always hit up local breweries 🙂 After a light meal, we saved room for an amazing pastry at Persphone Bakery. And finished off the culinary experience at Moo’s Ice Cream. Found a really cool T-shirt shop called Lee’s. Bought a Jackson shirt because that is about all I could fit in my jersey pocket for the ride back to camp.

Emi’s cycling shoes are at the end of their useful life. During our Jackson ride, the bottom half of the shoes — not just one, but both — nearly fully separated. Luckily, they remained together enough to get us back to Moose where we started. They are about 10 years old so I guess we can’t complain 🙂

That concludes our stay in Grand Teton National Park. A wonderful place. Next stop, is the little park next door, America’s first national park…Yellowstone…stay tuned.