Grand Teton National Park, WY

The Grand Teton with a Buffalo Herd in front

The Grand Tetons just outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming are truly one of my favorite mountain ranges in the US. No matter what direction you are coming into the area from they are awe inspiring. Although I know they are popular for rock climbing and backpacking among other forms of recreation we were only able to spend a few short days there and so opted for other options.

There is an unlimited amount of things that you can do in the Tetons but I will focus on the things we actually did. We were there during the fall months so we got to see some of the foliage change although at the end of the season so many of the trees had already lost their leaves. Still a beautiful time to go. Jackson Lake is the biggest lake in the park and it is vast and scenic. We were able to spend some time on the East side of the lake, there is a few nice stretches of beach. I am sure the lake is full of boats during the summer season. It was extremely windy the day we were there so we limited our time at the Jackson Lake beaches.

Jenny Lake

Teton Park Road allows you to access several points in the park. We used it to do most of our touring. A hike up Signal Mountain gave us a wonderful view of the valley to the East. I had my husband stop at a lodge near Signal Mountain to let me do a bit of shopping for souvenirs. We did some hiking around String Lake and Jenny Lake. Near String Lake we spotted bear scat! Both String and Jenny Lake have and amazing blue and green reflection. On the South side of Jenny Lake there are some nice walks that are easily accessible if you have very limited time. If you have more time, you can access longer hikes from this same area to a waterfall or other lakes.

The Black Bear we got to see

Grand Teton National Park is home to a variety of wildlife as well and we were really lucky in our sightings. We got to see a moose on our first day in the park. It was right around the dusk hour that we spotted her on a hill feeding on some grass in the park. On our last day in the park we got to see a bear. I've seen bears before but in this specific venture I experienced something that I never had before and that was that the Ranger had us stand fairly close to the bear. So close in fact, that at one point he removed his bear spray because the bear was walking within about 8 feet of the crowd we were in. The bear just went about its business of feeding on berries and we all eventually moved on.