National Park Road Trip: Grand Teton National Park (Part 9)

Before diving into Grand Teton National Park, I wanted to briefly recap some thoughts on the Yellowstone portion of the trip. Planning for the trip, we had no idea what to fully expect when visiting Yellowstone. Having had booked overnight accommodations so far in advance and being locked into them since most places were sold out well in advance, we needed to fit everything in within a limited time frame.

My initial trepidation was we were not going to get to fully experience the full breadth of Yellowstone within two days. Were we going to regret not spending more time in the park?

In the end we spent about a day and a half within Yellowstone. By getting a very early start in the morning and using the Gypsy Yellowstone app, looking back, we felt we really did get to experience everything the park had to offer. Could there have been more time hiking and exploring? Certainly. However, we felt we crammed a lot into our time with Yellowstone, which probably felt the most hustled of all the parks we visited on this trip since there were so many sites to see.

We were very happy doing the upper loop in one day, and then the lower loop on the second day.

Looking onward to Grand Teton National Park, with no really plans on what to do or see, we felt this would be our time to relax and casually experience the park before heading home…or so we thought.

Grand Teton National Park

Using the Gypsy app, we casually were routing to our accommodations at the Colter Bay Village. The app is a fantastic tool for experiencing the parks. During our experience using the app, only one time did the guide recommend we stop for a meal, and that was at Leek’s Marina and Pizzeria just north of Colter Bay.

The cute little marina was home to a great view of the Grand Teton mountain range, Jackson Lake, and a fantastic array of fresh made pizza. We highly, highly recommend the buffalo cheese bread!

When booking accommodations in the Grand Tetons, we booked the tent cabins at the Colter Bay Village resort because they were a reasonable $76 per night. Our initial plan was to try and “rough” it as much as we could on the trip, so getting a minimalist tent cabin with pull-down bunks seemed like a decent option. However, by this portion in the trip, we had gotten pretty fortunate to stay in some really nice cabins, and the idea of sleeping on a thin mattress over a concrete floor did not meet our families needs.

We checked into the resort and while we could have made it work, it was not ideal. The tent cabin was likely ideal for those young campers who were out hiking all day and happy to have a place to crash for the night. It just was not ideal for our family, as all I could think about was one of our kids rolling out of their bed onto the concrete.

So we immediately went to see if we had other options. Shockingly, we were able to get two nights in a cabin down the road at the Jackson Lake Lodge. I figured there would be no way to get another room given things book so far in advance and this was the weekend before the fourth of July. So we quickly switched our reservation to a Classic 2 Queen Cottage, which was perfect!

The only problem we had to contend with was the sticker shock, which at that point was what it was. The room was over $300/night, by far the largest cash outlay we had ever paid for accommodations.

In the end, the accommodations at the Jackson Lake Lodge were probably one of my personal favorites the entire trip. The cottages surround the lodge and are a short walk to the great outdoor pool area, which our family used on both nights of our stay.

The lodge also offered various dining options, which we really enjoyed the Pioneer Grill, which in its diner setting, offered a more casual, and family friendly variety of menu options. We considered trying their Pool BBQ, but it was a tad too pricey to be worth it.

After a good nights rest, we set off the next morning to start exploring the Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton National Park

Shortly after getting on the road the next morning, my wife decided to put the bug in my ear of what would change the direction of the entire trip. Her casual dropping of “it is only 14 hours to drive to Los Angeles” and get to see Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, immediately changed my focus, and I knew if we were even slightly serious, we were going to have to jump on canceling future overnight accommodations and rebooking new ones. Plus, the whole idea of 14+ hours in the vehicle further west when we were supposed to be headed towards home.

Our first stop of the day was on top of Signal Mountain to get some good panoramic views of the Grand Teton valley. So there I was trying desperately to get a cell phone signal (despite standing next to a tower on the mountain) to call our campground for the next night to see what our options were for cancelling. We got very fortunate that they worked with us and allowed us to cancel without a fee despite being last minute. All other accommodations for the remainder of the trip were still outside of the cancellation deadline, so we could easily do those within their apps.

So now, to plan for the next portion of the trip…this was supposed to be a relaxed day in the Grand Tetons, wasn’t it?

Without much of a cell signal, we had to find another location to find our options near Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. So we ventured further down the road and eventually made our way to Jenny Lake Lodge, which gave me the wifi I needed to make some calls and get everything else booked.

Were we really doing this? Were we really going to push our travels out all the way to the west coast? My wife had already figured out what one day park hopper tickets would cost for Disneyland plus the added cost of MaxPass to help get us on everything we wanted. Ouch!

We will dive more into that portion of the trip in detail in subsequent trip reports, but long story short, when we visit the area we prefer to stay at the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel. It offers a great location and accommodations adjacent to the park, and an easy drive down the street to Disneyland. So they were able to get us 3 nights in the hotel, including one night in their Snoopy Suite as a surprise for our boys. This was also quite surprising given it was the week of fourth of July, but it worked out in our favor in the end.

So now with the future of our trip traced out, we were on to enjoy our day in the Grand Tetons.

The mountain range was stunning, and we casually drove throughout the region, enjoying various views. The highlight for all of us was we eventually made our way back to Colter Bay to do some laundry and enjoy a day relaxing on the Jackson Lake beach on the west end of the property.

While the beach consisted of stones and not sand, it provided terrific and relaxing views of the mountains and the waters were calm and fantastic for the boys to enjoy. We ended up spending several hours here which was well worth it to relax after such a great trip and with so much new ahead.

After a fantastic day in the Grand Tetons, we opted to grab a nice dinner at The Ranch House Restaurant at Colter Bay Village, which I was delighted to get the vegetarian Curry Cauliflower Toss.

Tomorrow we get up bright and early for the longest continuous car ride for our family in one day.

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National Park Road Trip: Grand Teton National Park (Part 9)

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park

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