Jackson+ Grand Teton + Yellowstone
May 11, 2017
Yellowstone National Park, United States
Jackson is a town inside of Jackson Hole Valley in Teton County. However most people referred to the town itself as Jackson Hole. If you haven't been, I highly recommend making the effort to see this quaint /chaotic mountain town, depending on the time of the year. We had the pleasure of visiting during the off season (spring) where tourism is at a low and the wildlife is vibrant. So I considered it as a quaint town at this time because everyone walking the trails and the side walks of the town are locals. However if you plan on visiting during the peak season, I imagine that your experience would be filled with long lines and traffic. So in my opinion we were in the right place at the right time!
During our stay in Jackson, we spent the morning hiking the Elk Refuge. The trailhead of this hike is located on the outskirts of town and contours right along the Grand Teton National Park. The reason we choose this trail was that it was unfortunately one of the only dog friendly trails in the area. But with the options being so limited we weren't upset because the scenery was open to the surrounding lakes and mountain ranges. Once the dogs had their exercise for the first half of the day, we buzzed 20 minutes north into Grand Teton National Park. The two lane road to get into the park consisted of herds of Elk that casually grazed on the freshly uncovered terrain. Upon our arrival at the visitor center, we were actually a little disappointed because the entire iconic mountain range was covered with fluffy white clouds. But we were optimistic about the rest of the day in hopes that the visibility would improve.
Touring the 50+ miles of the national park was done with three different forms of transportation;
1. RV (The majority of the park was covered with cruising in the RV and stopping at the pull offs in order to gander at the majestic mountains. )
2. Foot (On a couple of occasions we let the dogs out to play and stretch out our legs a little)
3. Long Boarding (I couldn't help myself, so I cruised around lake Jenny as Britney drove behind me to serve as a barrier)
As expected, the weather cleared up and a large percentage of the mountain range was visible. This made for some wonderful site seeing and excellent photo opportunities. After getting our fill of the scenic park we slowly made our way out. Although we were stopped by a pack of Bison that insisted on taking their sweet time crossing the road, no complaints. We marveled over their beauty and enjoyed coexisting within 25' of these beasts before getting situated back in Jackson.
Once we got back into town we cruised up and down main street in search for the right place to eat. Landing on a little local Mexican joint called Hatch. This place served up elk quesadillas and kurobuta pork tenderloin which paired nicely with with margaritas and tequila. Can't go wrong. It was surely a place that did not disappoint.
With our next point of interest being Yellowstone, we were only 55 miles away. However the connection road between Grand Teton and Yellowstone was still covered with snow. So we had to drive around the park which took almost four hours. Bummer. But it was a drive that was perfect for the windows to be down, the tunes to be way up and some serious rubber necking.
YELLOWSTONE
As of right now, sitting in a coffee shop in Banff, Canada, I would say that the best way to describe Yellowstone can be done through the photos that we captured. It was truly an experience that we will never forget and the best way to appreciate it would be to go and experience for yourself.
Next stop, Glacier National Park.
Back to Colorado + A 1700 Mile Detour
Colorado Springs, CO, USA
If you follow along with our social media at all then you might know already that we had to come back to Colorado. We got a call while we were in Virginia telling us that if we headed back home we would have some options regarding our broken van. At that point we were pretty fed up with all of the issues we had run into and Blake was on the verge of pushing it off a cliff.
We were conflicted because we were so close to Washington D.C. and it was one of the places we were most excited about. I have a friend that I have only seen once or twice since high school and I was really looking forward to visiting with her and getting some insider tips about what to do and see in DC. Oh well though, such is life... we packed up and started the VERY long trek back to Colorado. The GPS said that we had about a 26 hour drive in front of us, but a snow storm on the Virginia Turnpike and the need for a few little naps and dog stops pushed it to more like 36 hours. We finally got to my parents house around 7am two days later. We decided that it would be best to show up at TransWest to get the van looked at on Monday so we had a few days to clean out the vehicle (what a nightmare) and just chill out. The dogs had both had a whole host of problems at the time so being back in Colorado was really good their skin and probably their little minds. Huckleberry gets a little bit of special treatment from my dad and so he has zero complaints about being at their house. His super dog hearing earns him several pieces of candy each night - I know it's not the best for them but #YOLO. I will say, I think one of my favorite things about being back in Colorado is driving my car! It's so nice to zip around in something that only takes up one parking spot.
Monday came and went without great news unfortunately. We had hopes of trading for something that hopefully wouldn't break constantly, but no luck, so instead we left the van with them expecting to hear something in a week or so. We made the best of our little break by spending as much time as we could with family and friends. We happened to be there over Easter weekend so we were lucky that we got to spend a holiday with everyone. We went to an Easter Party at Blake's brothers house and had brunch with the family the next day followed by an Easter dinner at my parents house. We got to do a few little hikes while we were home including the Manitou Incline and Garden of the Gods. If you haven't ever done the Incline in Manitou and you feel up for a little physical challenge its so cool. It's definitely tough but worth it when you look back down and see the view of the whole city and Garden of the Gods. It's pretty awesome. We also got to see our friends Ben and Allie that came to visit us in Florida and our friends Jessica and Justin that we hadn't seen since we left! We have had so much fun on this trip so far but the little hiccups have taken a tiny toll on us, and this break was really rejuvenating.
Once we got the van back - almost three weeks later! - we packed up and planned a few more weeks of travel. We were pretty bummed that we missed so much of the East Coast but decided that our time would be better spent staying on the west coast doing the parks we were excited for on this side of the country. We tried to take off towards Wyoming to hit Yellowstone but were derailed by a few more snow storms so we posted up in Fort Collins for a few days. Its a good thing we love it there so much! We had a really great few days and got to see one of our friends while we were there which made it even better. We did some hiking and running and then spent the evenings eating our favorite pizza and drinking our favorite beer! I know I've said it before but New Belgium is such a great place to go if you're ever in Fort Collins. It's just so fun and such an awesome environment. Blake even played some games at the bar and won a six pack! Which we probably didn't need on top of the other beers we had already purchased... It was a fun close to our unexpected time in Colorado and we are so excited to be back on the road for a while longer!
See you in Jackson, Wyoming!
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