Define Fettle Travels: Grand Tetons & Yellowstone National Parks
A recap of our travels to Wyoming to visit Grand Tetons & Yellowstone National Parks including where we stayed, our favorite hikes, packing lists & more!
Some day I might get around to posting these travel recaps in a timely manner, but then again… you never really do know;) I’m not posting these because I’m partnered with the National Park system (thought that would be dopppeeeee) and I’m definitely not getting any trips/flights/stays paid for so without those fancy logistics, I’m also free of deadlines and any accountability outside of myself which can be both good and bad.
Good in the fact that I can take my sweet ass time, bad in the fact that sometimes my sweet ass time is a few weeks, others a few months and others (I hope I never get to this point but I’m getting close on that damn Bali Recap)... a few years.
Thankfully these destinations aren’t going anywhere anytime soon so that means that even though I’m late on some of these posts, they will still be more than relevant for you as you look to plan your next adventure!
If you remember, back in my post about my post on Channel Islands, Kings Canyon & Sequoia I mentioned that Austin & I have a goal to hit all 61 National Parks within the United States. We were at 11 before this trip so now with these 2 most recent ones, we’ve jumped up to 13 of 61 for our US National Park Tour and we hope to cross off a few more in 2020!
According to the experts, the best time to travel into the Tetons/Yellowstone is between mid-May and late September. This is largely due to the fact that throughout the winter months, a majority of the roads, visitor centers and activities are shut down. For this reason (and for strategic planning around work holidays) we scheduled our trip to occur over the extended Labor Day Weekend & I honestly can’t recommend this time of year more! The temperatures ranged between low 30s at night and low 80s during the day, which I absolutely loved, the wildlife is fairly active at this time & most of the summertime crowds have dispersed. Obviously, the fact that it was LDW means that there were probably some extra bodies throughout the parks compared to other September weekends but contrary to things I’d heard from others who had visited the parks (specifically Yellowstone) I didn’t think the crowds were bad at all.
Our plan was that we would fly out of Minneapolis mid-day on Friday, land in Jackson Hole late that night and drive the 90 minutes to our stay. However, as luck would have it -- we experienced our first canceled flight and thus overnight airport stay when our quick layover in Dallas went seriously wrong. Due to weather (apparently) the airline canceled our flight at 11p after delaying multiple times and initially told us that we wouldn’t be able to get a flight to Jackson Hole until Monday morning.. UMM HELLO THAT’S MY ENTIRE LABOR DAY WEEKEND SHOT! We decided to hang in the airport (aka endure one of the worst nights of my life) and get on the standby list for the 7a flight and after all hope was about gone, we were able to get on the flight and arrived in Jackson Hole just 12 hours later than we’d originally expected.
PRO TIP: If you don’t already, always keep warm clothes and/or a blanket, under garments and basic toiletries in your carry on. The airport was both freezing cold and dirty beyond belief.
DESTINATIONS:
Jackson Hole:
The second we walked off our airplane onto the wide open tarmac with the gorgeous Tetons in the background, I was obsessed and nothing changed throughout our entire trip.
The airport in Jackson Hole is tiny (I think it maybe had 4 gates in total) but was so unique in the fact that it incorporated nature/the outdoors exquisitely because that is such a huge part of the lifestyle out there. After walking off the plane to the most gorgeous views, we entered the airport through an antler arch and were greeted by many different species of live owls & hawks accompanied by their caretakers (not hanging out solo) who shared all the knowledge they could about this beautiful creatures. Live wildlife in the airport? I was hooked.
Once we gathered our things from the carousel, we hopped in a van that took us the 20 minutes into the city of Jackson Hole so we could pick up our rental car. We then headed to a few local grocery stores to grab a small cooler and food for the weekend since we were camping/making all our own meals. At this point we were nothing short of hangry so we found the CUTEST place to grab lunch at before heading out into the parks! Healthy Being Juicery, an organic cafe in Jackson Hole, was absolutely adorable and had some really amazing food options as well. We got the sunshine superfood acai bowl, the avocado toast and the beet berry breakfast bar but I honestly wanted one of everything on the menu. Probably the best part of the entire place was that they had a front/side yard that was beautifully shaded and offered community blankets so you could grab your food and head straight outside for a picnic -- 10/10 recommend hitting this place up next time you’re near.
Grand Tetons National Park:
Once we had food, we were ready to get our first taste of Grand Teton National Park and headed towards Taggart Lake for a short, late afternoon hike. This loop hike was en route to the place we were staying and came out at a distance of only 3 miles round trip with direct access to a gorgeous lake and the tetons as the backdrop. With not much elevation change, we got there pretty quickly which gave us plenty of time to take it all in and snap some great photos all as the sun was just about to begin setting… throughout golden hour. Once back to our car, we started the hour/hour & a half drive towards our campsite, stopping many times along the way both to stare at the sunset over the insane mountain range and to enjoy some wildlife crossing our path.
Once we arrived at Headwaters Lodge & Cabins, it was well past dark and freezing cold! We rented a camper cabin (essentially a small “cabin” without electricity with a door, bunk bed, dresser and small table) for super cheap -- highly recommend -- so once checked in, we quickly unpacked our things, set up beds, cooked dinner, showered and hit the hay because we both slept like shit the night before (remember our airport adventure…?).
I’m going to stop right here to say that although we didn’t bring our own tent, we did need to bring a lot of our own equipment from home in order to make this camper cabin living work and just in case you’re interested in planning your own adventure in the Tetons/Yellowstone, here’s a list of what we brought to help you out.
PACKING LIST FOR GRAND TETON/YELLOWSTONE NAT’L PARK CAMPING & DAY HIKING:
Sleeping bags
Pillows
Gas stove
Cooking utensils, reusable containers, silverware, dishes
French press (duh)
Flashlights/headlamps
Day hike packs
Towels
Bug spray/sunscreen
Hats
Hiking shoes/sandals
Binoculars (don’t forget this critical wildlife watching item like we did)
PURCHASED THERE:
Cooler
Gas
Soap/Dish Scrubber
Yellowstone National Park:
Ooookkkaaayyyyy -- on to day #2! We slept in a bit this morning to ensure we were well rested for the remainder of our trip, made breakfast at the camper cabin, got ourselves ready, packed our lunches (sammies, chips, carrots, apples and some beef jerky for a snack) and started the drive into Yellowstone National Park. Headwaters Lodge & Cabins was directly south of the south entrance to Yellowstone so it only took us a few minutes to actually get into the park once we pulled out of our driveway.
Our first stop was literally us pulling off alongside the road for some good photo ops at Lewis River Canyon & again, I was AMAZED at the view. The crazy thing is, this was only the beginning. It’s no secret that I’m a serious sucker for all things nature/wildlife because I swear that the entire time we were on this trip, I could not wipe the smile from my face -- IT WAS THAT GOOD.
Next up, we drove to West Thumb Geyser Basin, which houses mudpots, boiling springs and geysers all discharging into the chilly Yellowstone Lake. I personally had never seen mudpots, geysers or anything close to them before so this was a mid blowing experience. To hear the park rangers sharing history about the supervolcano that Yellowstone sits atop and then physically watch as the heat emerged from beneath the surface of the earth --- WOW. On top of that, let’s talk about the amazing colors of both of the abyss & black pools. If you’re going for photography, early would be great to eliminate extra bodies in your shots however midday/sun directly overhead is going to capture the most insane coloring from those pools.
PRO TIP: If I have one word of advice for traveling to any National Park, it’s this. Immerse yourself in the park; Learn the history, learn the wildlife, learn the seasonality. Get up for sunrises and stay up late to catch the stars. Do this and you’ll leave every park with far more knowledge than you even know.
Next up was Old Faithful. I wasn’t super excited about this however we were driving right by it on and I did feel like it was a necessary/iconic stop in the park so we decided to stop and see if it lived up to the hype. We weren’t tracking eruption times (generally erupts somewhere between every 60-110 minutes) but we lucked out & only ended up waiting around 35 minutes to see the eruption. The crowds were pretty thick here and the shade is not super prevalent, so keep both of those things in mind should you choose to visit. It was cool to experience, but this was by no means my favorite part of the park.
After our stop at Old Faithful, we drove just down the road to Grand Prismatic. We first stopped at the overlook and hiked the .6 miles to catch the most insane views of the largest hot spring in the US (3rd largest in the world) which lies inside the Midway Geyser Basin. Because of the bacteria living within the hot spring, the coloring is a gorgeous turquoise/blue that will literally take your breath away. Along the hike back to the parking lot, we spotted multiple bison cooling off and grabbing a drink from the famous Firehole River. This would have been a perfect time to have binoculars with us!
By this point in the day, the sun was getting pretty low in the sky so we quickly drove down the road to the boardwalk over the Grand Prismatic Spring for our final stroll of the day. Once you’re on the boardwalk, you will immediately start to feel the heat from the water rising up to greet you and see the steam moving stealthily over the spring. You are able to get within inches of the extremely hot water so be very careful if you are traveling with the young or elderly as there are no railings along the boardwalk. Being able to examine the spring/bacteria/coloring from such close proximity was amazing -- I really really enjoyed this part!
PRO TIP: leave hats, extra jackets, and anything you don’t have attached to your body in the car because it can get windy and many people lost hats/sunglasses/etc in the spring which is no fun for you and definitely not good for the hot spring.
Once we finished at Grand Prismatic, it was sunset so on our hour/hour and a half drive back to the campground we stopped multiple times to take in more wildlife & snap some sunset shots at different turnouts throughout the park. Upon arriving at camp, it was showers, dinner and an early bedtime because our next day was an early one.
Grand Tetons National Park:
Day 3 began well before sunrise meaning that we were up, packed and en route to our big hike of the trip before 5:30a. It roughly took us 75minutes to get from Headwaters Lodge & Cabins to the Jenny Lake Trailhead, but that did include a quick stop for some sunrise pics.
Once we arrived at the Jenny Lake Trailhead, we ate a quick breakfast of oats/bananas/nut butter and then waited a few minutes for the visitor center to open up so we could snap a picture of the full route map. Once done, we opted to take the shuttle boat across the glacial, Jenny Lake, which is the 2nd deepest lake in the Grand Tetons and 1 of 2 lakes in the park that allow motorized boats. This shuttle cut roughly 4 miles (round trip) off of the total 16.5 mile round trip in & out hike to Lake Solitude that we were embarking on that day.
Once across the lake, you’ll hop on the Cascade Canyon trail and endure a bit of high-traffic for the first mile as the trail to Hidden Falls & Inspiration Point are some of the most popular viewpoints in the park. I started out in leggings, long sleeves, a light jacket & a hat and by Inspiration Point, I had already dropped into leggings, a ball cap and a tank top -- things get heated quickly.
After Inspiration Point, the traffic significantly dies down and the real beauty begins (in my opinion). You’ll continue on this Cascade Canyon Trail which offers unobstructed views of Cascade Canyon Creek, beautifully still ponds, lush forests and all with the luminous Tetons as the backdrop. By the time we hit the Fork of Cascade Canyon Trail, roughly around mile 5, it was time to switch into shorts & a tank. It’s a good thing I made this choice because the last 2.5 miles of the hike turned to limited shade and very rugged, rocky conditions. Though physically pretty draining, this part of the hike was my absolute favorite -- I kept looking out around me thinking “is this real life?” coupled with “I hope I don’t get eaten by a bear.”
Haha in reality, wildlife sightings on this trail are incredibly common because of how deep you are into the mountain range but thankfully no bears bothered us. We did see moose on 2 different occasions (AMAZING) and mostly just many other species of birds, rodents, etc. Immediately upon arriving at Lake Solitude, another glacial lake overlooking the Cathedral Group, I was layering back up because it was COLD & so so windy! We were definitely tired by this point so took a seat and enjoyed our lunch (cold sandwiches, apples, carrots, guac, chips - good, old school sack lunch) with the most gorgeous view. Between lunch, snapping pics and testing our toes in the water, we probably rested the entirety of an hour before packing back up and starting our descent.
At this point, soreness had started to creep into both of our legs & feet so while we took a solid 3 hours to ascent the hike, we shaved an entire hour off of our descent and were literally running at times because we just wanted to be done. Slightly painful, physically/mentally challenging at times & still easily slid into my #2 favorite hike of all time (Havasu Falls tops the list). I honestly can’t recommend this hike enough to you.
After we hopped a ride back across Jenny Lake, we made the drive back to our campground and spent a bit of time stretching/napping before making dinner. After dinner, we drove south a bit to Colter Bay Village because it had direct access to Jackson Lake. We hung out on the beach with a blanket (again, it’s very cold at night) and a few Jenny Lake Lagers from Snake River Brewing as we celebrated a successful hike and the last night of our trip.
Our fourth & final day began with another early rise to catch the sunrise. We drove south of our campground 20-30 minutes to the Willow Flats Overlook as this offers not only an amazing view of the Tetons as the suns rays start to hit the peaks, but also some great wildlife action in the early mornings. We sipped our coffee & snapped some photos with other early risers (mostly retired folk who were also on the lookout for wildlife) and a few park rangers who stopped alongside us and shared that the valley before us was in the midst of a very active season for elk, wolves and bear. We were able to spot a heard of elk, however we definitely could have benefitted from binoculars to get us a much better view.
After sunrise, we headed back to the campground to shower, enjoy breakfast and pack up our stuff so we could head back towards Jackson Hole. On our way back to town, we made it a point to stop at Schwabacher Landing for some photo ops. This calm stream offers the opportunity for some great mirror effect pics and the Tetons loom in the backdrop - so cool! This was the perfect place to wrap up our Teton/Yellowstone adventures. Once back in Jackson Hole, we grabbed lunch at Hatch (the tacos and margs were fabulous), did a bit of local shopping, returned our rental and headed to the airport for our flight home.
The reality is that this trip ended up being short to start with (Friday night-Tuesday night) and even shorter due to flight cancelations (Saturday-Tuesday) however it oddly didn’t feel like it was a short trip and never once did I feel rushed or that we “ran out of time.” Would I have liked to stay longer? Well yea, if I could afford to live in Jackson Hole I would absolutely do it, but the truth is this was a great length for this trip IMO.
That said, if you haven’t been to these parks before… GO! Like open your computer, grab your credit card & book your trip now -- because this was absolutely one of my favorite National Park Trips to date and the fact that you have the opportunity to experience 2 parks in one trip is just icing on the cake.
Between the two, Grand Tetons is the for sure winner in my book so I’d suggest spending the majority of your time adventuring/exploring around the Tetons & then at least a day or two in Yellowstone. Both parks are lush, breathtakingly beautiful and FULL of wildlife living their best damn life in their natural habitat -- so whatever route you take, I have no doubts that you will enjoy the hell out of it.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… “As with most National Parks, the opportunity they afford you to be one with nature and be fully present with both yourself & those you’re traveling with is something that just can’t be put into words. Experiences over everything people, experiences over everything.”
KEY THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT YELLOWSTONE/THE TETONS:
Cell service is very limited so pre-plan your hikes and purchase/use the maps given to you at the park entrances
It’s not a bad idea to rent bear spray from the airport -- we didn’t do this and didn’t want to pay the $90 for spray from the campground however I do wish that we’d had it especially on our long hike (even though we didn’t end up seeing any bears)
Pack layers. The weather goes from one extreme to the other not only in a day but based on your elevation so always keep multiple options with you.
Beware of altitude sickness. I’ve never had altitude sickness before and I’ve been at some pretty high elevations but I had a headache 90% of this trip -- keep hydrated, nourish your body and don’t push too hard if you’re not feeling well.
If you have questions about anything, I am more than happy to help so please reach out at britany@definefettle.com. I would love to hear from you and help in any way possible.
Happy Travels!
Looking for more travel recommendations?
Checkout our experience in Arches & Canyonlands National Parks, Havasu Falls & The Grand Canyon & more throughout the blog!
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