On the road to Yellowstone, we felt as though the sights we had already seen were a bit more exciting that what was in front of us. The East entrance to Yellowstone had lots of dead trees and bare forests that were unsettling to look at, especially since our expectations of the first EVER National Park were pretty high, simply due to the hype surrounding it. We continued to drive to the inner loop, seeing the hot springs, Yellowstone Lake, the Grand Prismatic springs, and of course had to stop at Ol’ Faithful (though we really didn’t want to…) We pretty much laughed at how unexciting it all was, and maybe it was because it was the offseason, but we were underwhelmed. (Not to say we didn’t find some beautiful spots as well!)
Knowing that Grand Teton National Park was just South of us and would be a short drive away, we decided to head there for the night to camp at Jenny Lake, a tent-only campground that was one of few to be open this early in the spring. When we drove into the park, we were already much more awestruck than the few hours we spent in Yellowstone. The sharp peaks of the Tetons were just amazing to look at, and Jackson Lake as well as Jenny Lake at the foot of them elicited a sense of peace that we unknowingly were searching for.
That night, we cooked a dehydrated meal quickly because we were running out of time before the sun set, then we walked to Jenny Lake to watch it go down. We then took pictures with the LED hoop, and they turned out beautifully. It is really neat watching a dream you had come to fruition. It got chilly at night, but we slept well.
In the morning, we saw a moose in the neighbor’s campsite – literally feet away from all of us just eatin’ and stuff. We wanted to pack up and check out a campsite that was recommended to us, called Gros Ventre (pronounced Grow Vaunt) but as we pulled up to it, we realized just how great Jenny Lake campground really was. It was much more beautiful and secluded, so we ended up there again for a night.
For lunch, we drove into Jackson Hole, a little mountain town we had heard good things about, and decided to try the Snake River Brewery for beers and food.
It was good and the town was forsure a really cool place, but we were eager to get back to the mountains. After a little hammock nap, we walked around the lake and stayed out until sundown. We set up our tent and watched Dances with Wolves on my laptop (we have been wanting to see it since we drove through South Dakota and got a taste of the frontier!) Obviously, it’s a long movie so we stopped halfway and went to bed as the rain began to fall on the tent outside.
