"Map of our travels" Top 5 Page for this destination Grand Teton National Park Favorite Tip by Bwana_Brown

Favorite thing: Our very brief travels in Grand Teton National Park began after our first day and a half exploring Yellowstone NP to the north. Due to our late attempt at booking accommodations in the peak of the summer tourist season, the only lodging we could get inside either National Park was two nights at Jackson Lake Lodge, shown near the top-right in this map. It had a beautiful location with views across Jackson Lake to the Teton Range mountains running north-south on the far shore.

Fondest memory: We spent our one full day in Grand Teton exploring to the south, starting at the Mount Moran Turnout where we observed amazing geological formations on the mountain peaks. Not much further south from there is the very popular Jenny Lake area, where we stopped for a bit of hiking before retreating to the cool waters of the lake itself. From there our drive continued south along the foothills of the Teton Range mountains until we reached the pretty little town of Jackson just outside the southern boundary of Grand Teton.

It was nice to wander around town for a while in the beautiful early August sunshine and even stop for a cold drink but, because we only had one day at our disposal, we soon had to begin our trip north to Jackson Lake Lodge for our second night.

However, on the way north we chose to take the easternmost roads along the Gros Ventre River, where we ran into impressive Bison herds as well as a detour east to the location of the deadly Gros Ventre Slide of 1925 when the side of a mountain gave way after heavy rains. This was a really scenic part of Grand Teton as the distance from the mountain peaks to the west really made them stand out. During this part of our trip, we also came across two abandoned log cabins - one with no official history and the other a bonifide tourist stop.

It was late afternoon be the time we returned to Jackson Lake Lodge from our counter-clockwise route, so that evening we closed out this portion of our trip with a great meal in the Lodge's fine dining Mural Room. The next day was spent in final explorations of Yellowstone NP before we had to make a very long drive home the day afterward.