Grand Teton

In July of 2022, my husband and I took a trip out to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park (details on that trip here). For the Grand Teton portion of the trip we stayed in a little cabin at Snake River Cabins & RV Village. This little cabin was perfect, it was only 20 minute drive from the park! It had a bed, mini fridge, picnic table out front, and showers/bathrooms just a short walk away.

Since we went to the park at one of the busiest times of the year we made sure to get our days started early to try to beat the rush of folks to hikes. The weather overall was great, not too hot and not too cool. One item to note is that we didn’t really have cell service in the park, only had it in the town of Jackson and a little bit at the cabin. Overall, we really enjoyed our trip and definitely want to come back to this park!

Day One

• Sights: Town of Jackson

We arrived in the town of Jackson just after lunch after a drive up from Boise. We stopped by Snake River Brewing, a must stop for craft beer fans, for some beer and lunch. Afterwards we wandered around the town, stopped in Teton Gravity Research and took pictures at the iconic town square with antler arches.

Day Two

• Sights: Inspiration Point, Hidden Waterfall, Cascade Canyon
• Miles Hiked: 6 miles

We woke up early, made a quick breakfast at the cabin and packed our lunch for the day. Our goal was to hike in the Jenny Lake area. When we arrived at the lake around 9:30am it was already pretty packed in the parking lot and on the street, but we did luck out in finding a spot just down the road. From there we grabbed our backpacks and headed to the lake.

The hikes we wanted to do were on the other side of the lake so we had two options: take a boat across or hike around the lake. The boat costs $18 round trip per person and runs every 15 minutes. We chose to take the boat so that we could have fresh legs once on the other side to do more exploring in the canyon.

Our first hike on the other side was 2.2 miles up to Inspiration Point.

Then we continued 1.3 miles toward Hidden Waterfall. There were quite a few people on the trail but once you get farther along it spreads out a bit. After Hidden Waterfall we kept going in Cascade Canyon. Here you can just keep going and going farther into the canyon. We opted to do a few more miles into the canyon then stopped next to a river to eat our packed lunches.

After our little lunch we made our way back down to the boat ramp which was really crowded by early afternoon. We ended up waiting about 45 minutes to get on a boat. The wait wasn't all bad, we heard people talking about how they had just seen a bear on their way up to Inspiration Point (happy we had our bear spray with us just in case). Most of the waiting was in the shade and on the dock there were jugs with fresh drinking water for you to fill up your water bottles with. We had debated just hiking back around the lake rather than wait but boy were we happy we waited. While on the boat back we saw a moose just at the edge of the lake. It was a huge majestic creature. That was the cherry on the top of an already amazing day!

Day Three

• Sights: Mormon Row, Snake River Overlook, Oxbow Bend Snake River, Colter Bay, Jackson Hole Ski Resort
• Miles Hiked: 4 miles

We headed back into the park and on our way we stopped at Mormon Row Historic District, which gives you gorgeous views of the Tetons while learning a little bit about the history of the area. You can wander around outside old barns and houses that were build by Mormons when they settled near the Grand Tetons.

Next we stopped at Snake River Overlook and Oxbow Bend Snake River. Both of these were really pretty and let you slow down and enjoy all that is in the park.

After taking some time to soak it all in we headed to our next stop, Colter Bay. The water levels in the bay were pretty low so we decided to go on a hike in the forest. We wandered around for a bit then turned back and found the perfect lunch spot next to the water. It was much quieter at Colter Bay and we only saw a few other people hiking. While we sat and had lunch, in an area all to ourselves, we saw a huge bird what we thought was a falcon land by the water and walk around. We watched it for a bit and then it took off and flew away. A few minutes later we saw a bald eagle soar just above where we were sitting a few times. The wingspan on those birds was truly amazing. Getting to observe these wild birds in their natural habitat was a perfect cap to the end of the day in the park.

That evening we planned a little treat to take the gondola up at Jackson Hole Ski Resort and have dinner. There are two options open in summer at the top of the ski resort: a fancy restaurant and a more casual patio bar. We opted for the casual patio, had drinks and dinner just before sunset (tip: it gets pretty cool up there in the evening, make sure to bring a jacket).

Day Four

We packed up, said goodbye to our little cabin, and drove north toward Yellowstone. Check out this post here with details on that trip.