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July 29th - Aug 2nd, 2024 Jackson, Wyoming and West Yellowstone
The large teat! You got it! The Grand Teton National Park named by early French-Canadian explorers. Quite simply, they thought it looked like a boobie in the mid 1800's, the park itself wasn't named until the early 1900's as we learned though a guide we had during one of our many adventures on this leg of the trip. Decided to make the drive straight in to Jackson, Wyoming from Cheyenne, a 7 hour journey as the crow flies, but some stops along the way took us about 10 hours. My sister, as she does, had her checklist of stuff along the way and god bless her for it - a short detour off of the 287 took us to Independence Rock - more in the link below, but the short of it is that it is a major landmark along the emigrant trail and if you reached this rock by July 4th, you knew you could reach the coast by end of summer and not have to deal with the harsh winters. Very cool piece of history. ✅ What was next was even more history - lunch in Lander with possibly the best pizza in my history! The Lander Bar and Gannett Grill if you are ever in the area. ✅ So much beauty along the way, very scenic drive with a quick stop in Dubois, not to be confused with DuBois in Pennsylvania - a one strip town - home of Butch Cassidy. Welty's General store is a trip in and of itself and the County Store has homemade chocolates that we consumed for the next week! Another shortish drive gets us in to the Teton Mountains and what a view, what a view!. Although it wasn't as clear as we had liked it to be - the fires in Jasper I think had to do with that unfortunately - it was still stunning. A gorgeous drive through the mountains and Elk Ranch Flats and then slow down on the 191. WTF! A long day, we wanted to get to the hotel, that's all. Well, wouldn't you know, the slowdown was for what we call Buffalo or Bison (same same). ✅ Like a shitload of them in the flats and crossing the road. We weren't expecting that kind of welcome into the park, but we'll take it. Mystifying, magical and magnificent. We stopped for a bit and marveled in it. Another few stops along the way, like the famous picture that Ansel Adams took of the tit and the Snake River. ✅ Finally pulling in to the Rustic Inn for 3 nights and 3 days. Jackson was filled with adventure by design, white water rafting on the Snake River, horseback riding at the Mill Iron Ranch, where I met the owner Chancy Wheeldon, a former bareback rodeo champ! ✅ Night time animal safari and music and bars and food and gondola to the top of the Jackson Hole Ski resort. The real gem of this was Jenny Lake. A pristine lake at the base of the mountains that you could either take a short barge across to the hikes and falls or as we are in line we see canoes for rent. As if this couldn't get any better! No brainer of course. The 4 of us grabbed some paddles and headed out across the lake. Stunning and truly one of the best days of my life. A 40 minute paddle one way had me only thinking about how in the moment I was - clear sky, clear lake, clear head. With my bride at the bow, it was perfect. ✅ I'm clearly rambling now and we haven't even gotten to Yellowstone, so I will make this quick as I could write for days on our time there, but the abridged version is that we hit all the major stops in the park, the Grand Prismatic, stunning beyond belief, Old Faithful and The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs, Hayden Valley, Upper and Lower Geyser Basin. I will let the pictures do the work. What was even more fun is where we stayed, we glamped. Under Canvas is a fun, romantic, truly special location to stay for a few nights. Tents with a twist, canvas with comforts, shelters with shelves and awnings with awe. A short drive from the west gate located in the town of West Yellowstone, a must do if you are visiting the area. I was a bit nervous on how sleep would go in the tent from a mattress perspective, although it was so unique of an experience that I didn't think too much about it and let the moon, air and stars do the thinking.
SET UP
Rustic Inn in Jackson. Cute place with great grounds that you can wander in and around that has teepees with fires in them and a creek to swim in. I can see this as a great place in winter too with Jackson Hole ski resort so close. The room itself was indeed rustic and we had a king room, maybe not the place for someone with severe allergies or sensitivities. Not mouldy, but rustic if you catch my drift. Under Canvas in the park brought a whole new perspective to life.
MATTRESS
At the The Rustic Inn, pretty standard Serta Perfect Sleeper - nothing fancy but a solid mattress for hospitality as I have written about many times before. The tent had a Corsicana which was actually 2 x twins put together as it is tough to build the tent around a king size bed! I wish they would have, but as mentioned, I let the scenery and fresh air do the talking here in both places as sleep was not a priority for me. I actually wish I had slept less because there is so much to do and see.
SLEEP
Great, won't complain. This is more about the adventure than the sleep or the mattress.
OVERALL
What an amazing 5 days spent in the outdoors, doing things I love with amazing people that I love. What a part of the world, what a feeling, what a rush! Get here at some point and you won't be disappointed. You don't need to glamp and you don't need anything fancy, a reliable car and an imagination and half decent eye sight to catch all the beauty. ⛰🌄🐎🐴🐃🐻🦌🛶
GREAT RELATED LINKS
Old Faithful erupting within 5 minutes of us arriving! Lucky
That's me in the blue ball cap on the right - Spent enough money on the trip, thought I would save on the photos.
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