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

August 5, 2019InACents Leave a comment

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.

National Park Road Trip: Yellowstone Day 2 (Part 8)

August 5, 2019InACents Leave a comment

After our family’s first full day in Yellowstone, and only seeing the northern half of sites, I was quite surprised just how much there was to see and do. I am also very thankful that my wife opted to download the Gypsy Yellowstone app, as it proved to be an invaluable tool in making sure we saw the most important sites within the park.

Going into the park with little expectations, it was quite exhausting with so many sites to see. It is also quite astonishing how many different landscapes there are to see within Yellowstone. One area will be dense forest, and then the next area you go are boiling mud pots, or barren geyser basins. I could only imagine what earlier pioneers thought upon discovering the beauty of Yellowstone.

Artists’ Paintpots

Probably one of my personal favorite spots within Yellowstone was the Artists’ Paintpots. We got a really early start and arrived at this site at 6:45 in the morning. We were the only ones in the parking lot, at least for a couple moments, and started to make the 1-mile hike back to the site.

Being so early made for some cool scenes with the fog in the partially burned lodgepole forest.

Watching the various boiling pods of water and bubbling mud so close was fascinating!

We ended up spending roughly an hour hiking the trail and enjoying the various scenes, especially since for the most part we had the trail to ourselves.

Following Artists Paintpots, we continued on the journey south and made a quick stop at Gibbon Falls to see the cascading water.

Fountain Paint Pots

At the recommendation of the Gypsy app, we decided to do the short hike and explore the various formations at the Fountain Paint Pots site. The boardwalk gets you up close to various sites, some with boiling water, others gushing steam.

The Clepsydra Geyser was erupting rather violently, but the steam coming out of the formation made for it being rather difficult to actually see anything.

Also near the Fountain Paint Pots was a little road that tended to be well worth investigating, that took us to White Dome Geyser and Pink Cone Geyser.

We happen to be driving through just before 9:00 am and were one of very few cars on the trail. We also got extremely lucky to see Pink Cone Geyser going off for an extended period of time. Apparently this only erupts approximately every 16 hours or so, and you can pull up practically besides the geyser, which was fascinating to watch.

Grand Prismatic

One of the areas we were excited to see was the Grand Prismatic spring in Yellowstone for its beautiful color arrangement.

The short hike from the parking lots takes guests past Excelsior Geyser Crater, which used to be very active but has remained relatively dormant for quite a while.

The boardwalk than takes guests near the Grand Prismatic spring.

While pretty cool to see, you do not really get a good perspective of the colors being at ground level. If the wind blows the steam in the right direction, you might get a glimpse of the colors of the rainbow. However, overall the views were pretty unimpressive.

They really should consider building a higher up platform to really get a good angle looking down into the spring. We hear there might be a trail in the hills behind the spring, but we did not have time to fully explore more.

Old Faithful Geyser

By this point in the day, it was a little past 10:00 am when we arrived at the Old Faithful Geyser site. This massive facility was packed full of vehicles and probably one of the busiest sites we saw the entire time in Yellowstone.

The kids quickly accomplished their Jr Ranger badges and by a couple minutes past 11:00 am, the Old Faithful geyser started to go off in a very quick and small display of power.

So we explored the Old Faithful Inn, had a quick bite to eat, and sat on the deck waiting until the next eruption at 12:49 pm. Fortunately this show was way better than the prior and we could move on with our adventure.

Old Faithful was our last official stop in Yellowstone as we then made our way to Grand Teton National Park.

However, we made one last unexpected stop at the Continental Divide sign, which while nothing spectacular to most, was pretty cool to say we were there.

National Park Road Trip: Yellowstone Day 1 (Part 7)

July 19, 2019InACents Leave a comment

A year of planning. Advanced reservations months ahead of the trip. The day had finally come when we were heading into the big daddy and where the National Park Service first got its start, Yellowstone National Park.

To say we were excited was an understatement. For a family that normally gets excited for a new ride to open at an amusement park, this was a whole different experience. A more relaxed pace and way of seeing parks.

We got up and were on the road for Yellowstone by 6:00 am to get ahead of any potential crowds. This proved to be one of the best tips of the trip, and since we were still accustomed to EST, it was not difficult to be up then.

Another irreplaceable tip is to download the Gypsy app and purchase the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park guides.

For much of the time within the National Parks, and a lot of places out west in general, cell phone coverage is spotty at best. This is why it is critical to pick up paper maps of each of the parks you visit. We had also done tons of map research ahead of the trip, knowing the general direction we were traveling. However, the Gypsy app makes for a fantastic guided tour of the parks!

The app knows where you are on the map using GPS, and even the direction of travel, and then offers customized narration of the journey. Not only does the app provide tons of great historical background on the parks, but also tells you whether stops were worth your time to see or not.

We had planned one whole day for the Yellowstone upper loop, and then another whole day for the lower loop. We were then based at the Canyon Lodge. More details on the Canyon Lodge below.

Mud Volcano & Dragons Mouth Spring

Our first stop of the day in Yellowstone National Park, thanks to the Gypsy app, was Mud Volcano and Dragons Mouth Spring.

The sulfur smell in the air. The boiling ground. This was our family’s first glimpse of natures incredible geological formations at work, live in front of us. Sure we have been to Hawaii and seen active volcano, but this was different. We were up close to these amazing formations. Upon closer thought, we were standing on top one of the earth’s most active volcanic sites on the planet, and even though the threat of it becoming a much more problematic eruption were slim, it very much was a dose of reality.

Dragons Mouth Spring was fascinating to sit and watch, as the underground cavern echoed with exploding water from deep within, causing steam to billow out. It was amazing!

Continuing on Grand Loop Road, our next stop was the Upper and Lower Falls of Yellowstone.

Upper and Lower Falls of Yellowstone

When most people see photos of Yellowstone, they likely see the iconic upper and lower waterfalls, including Artist Point.

There were some great pull-offs with great viewing of the falls that were easy walks for families. This was likely one of those instances where we were very fortunate be out ahead of the crowds, as even though there were people there at roughly 9:00 am, it still was easily manageable to get a good view and some photos.

Norris Geyser Basin

Even though we may have done some research ahead of the trip of the general direction and area of travel while in Yellowstone, we ultimately reserved our stops for the recommended highlights using the Gypsy Yellowstone guide.

Our second major stop he recommended was at the Norris Geyser Basin.

This short and easy hike was absolutely worth the time up to see Emerald Spring and Steamboat Geyser. During our visit, we happen to be within the window of when Steamboat Geyser erupts, so lots of people had been camping out on the boardwalk all night in anticipation. We waited around a little while, but ultimately did not see it blow.

By 10:00 am, this site was pretty bustling and our first real encounter with crowds, though nothing unmanageable.

The kids did not want to hike down into the basin, so we enjoyed it from afar with a full schedule of sites still ahead.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Following the Norris Geyser Basin, we headed north to the Mammoth Hot Springs site, spending about an hour exploring the top and bottom of the structures, and a brief stop into the town of Mammoth.

Following Mammoth, we briefly drove into Montana to see the Roosevelt Arch. At this point in the trip, including our home state of Ohio, we had been to 8 states.

Lamar Valley

One of the areas we hoped we would have enough time to explore was the Lamar Valley, but we were not sure if we would have enough time. Fortunately, since we got a really early start, we had plenty of time to head out before checking into our Lodge.

The Lamar Valley was quite impressive with wildlife.

While there were quite a few buffalo, at one point one was blocking our access to the road, so we had to wait and then slowly drive around it. He grunted in digust.

Canyon Lodge, Yellowstone National Park

When planning on visiting Yellowstone, one of the biggest decisions one needs to make well in advance of the trip is where they want to stay. Those with hard-sided campers have it somewhat easy as they can set up shop at campgrounds within the park, albeit at a premium. For us, we had to make the decision to pay a really high premium and stay at a National Park Lodge or to make the long drive back out of the park, potentially late at night, and possibly deal with traffic.

We ultimately sucked it up and went with the Canyon Lodge and their Western Cabin for one night since it was one of the cheaper options at just shy of $300. This is likely one of the most expensive nights stays we have ever had anywhere in the world, and yet did not earn any reward points, and the facility offers minimal amenities. No pool. No television. No air conditioning.

We were lucky to get two queen beds, and fortunately, it gets cold enough at night (was down to 40° F on our visit) to offer comfortable sleeping arrangements with the windows cracked open.

As a general rule, we found everything to cost about double what it does back home. Gas. Food. Accommodations. Everything.

At the Canyon Lodge, they do have a grocery store, which was really helpful to stock up on supplies to fill our cooler for the day with lunch items, but again realize, it costs about double what you would expect back home.

We also opted to have dinner at the Canyon Lodge Eatery, which I was very delighted to find a vegan friendly BEYOND MEAT™ plant-based Swiss Steak.

After a very long day, it was time to get some rest, as tomorrow promised another full day touring the southern Yellowstone area, including Old Faithful, and then heading out towards the Grand Tetons National Park.

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

Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park

National Park Road Trip: Yellowstone Day 2 (Part 8)

Artists’ Paintpots

Fountain Paint Pots

Grand Prismatic

Old Faithful Geyser

National Park Road Trip: Yellowstone Day 1 (Part 7)

Mud Volcano & Dragons Mouth Spring

Upper and Lower Falls of Yellowstone

Norris Geyser Basin

Mammoth Hot Springs

Lamar Valley

Canyon Lodge, Yellowstone National Park