Yellowstone Trip - Day 3 (Grand Teton / Yellowstone)



We tried our hardest to be out the door by 7:00 every morning that we went through one of the parks. Every review that I read said to get as early of a start as possible to avoid crowds. To be out the door by 7 was a pretty big feat for us - all 9 of us up, fed, ready to go as well as hotel room cleaned/checked out and van packed. Considering most of us are late nighters, this was a big deal! But it was worth it!

 

Heading out of Jackson, we made a quick stop at the Jackson antlers for a photo op.

 

Our first stop in the park was Chapel of the Transfiguration. We walked inside the chapel and enjoyed the peace and tranquility within.

As we were heading back to our vehicles, Matt presented a gift to his dad. Here is what Matt wrote on Facebook regarding this gift.

 

We ordered Dad's glasses from EnChroma, to help correct his colorblindness...
 

The glasses arrived a few weeks ago, but I wanted to wait until now to gift them to Dad. We've had this family vacation planned for a long time - meeting Mom & Dad "halfway" to enjoy some of the country's most beautiful National Parks.

At our first stop in Grand Teton, I gave Dad his new glasses.
 

His type of colorblindness is not always helped by the glasses - his is more of a yellow/green, and the glasses mostly help those with red/blue colorblindness. EnChroma has a money back guarantee if they don't work. So, I decided to throw it out there to GoFundMe.
 

So many of you contributed and helped out...we got the cost covered. Through many back and forths between EnChroma, myself, and Mom, regarding Dad's prescription - we finally got everything squared away.
 

I was SO nervous that they wouldn't work. I set myself up for disappointment before we set off on this trip. I prayed they would work...AND THEY DID!!!
 

Dad noticed a difference right away!! He pointed out colors he hadn't noticed before, and the different shades of colors...I love his reaction at looking down at his own shirt. If you watch videos on YouTube, that happens often, a person looks down and realizes what they're wearing with a reaction like my Dad had.

It was a wonderful moment to share as a family. Amazingly enough, with 4 cameras between us, there are no pictures of this moment!  Just video.

 

We pulled over on a side road when we saw that the moon was hanging over the mountain range. A perfect spot to snap some pictures.

We came up on this cluster of Dead Squirrels - as always, a kid favorite on our vacations.

Back on the road - next stop Jenny Lake.

As we left the Jenny Lake area, we came across a group of bike riders. We chuckled as we passed each rider because they each had a name tag on the back of their bike. After a few bikers, we started shouting encouragements from within the van (windows closed) "Ride Hard, Dawn!" "Enjoy the ride, Joe" "Watch out for bears, Cindy!". Of course, we'd make a stop and then pass them all over again!

After stopping for a restroom/snack break we were back on the road, heading north towards Jackson Lake Lodge. We came across a van on the side of the road and started to look around to see what they were looking at. We hit gold!!! A mama bear and her two cubs - 100 yards off the road.

As the road started to crowd with onlookers, Mama bear towered on her hind legs a few times. She was aware of the crowd and made herself known. It was pretty amazing to watch.

We said goodbye to the bears and moved along. Next stop - Jackson Lake Lodge. We loved walking up the stairs and seeing the mountains through the huge windows. Wow!

The kids & I went in to the gift shop while Matt went with his family, out to the back patio area.

Our last planned stop for Grand Teton was Jackson Lake. We stopped at the marina area and started to walk along the lakeshore.

We walked back to our vehicles and ate our picnic lunch beside the marina. We had hoped to find a spot where we could wade in to the water and snap a few pictures of the family in the lake. No luck around the marina though - so we kept looking for a pull off with a beach entrance. We found a great spot!

We found Ken doing this throughout the day - just staring at the ground. He was amazed by the different colors of rocks and flowers, etc. He said that everything used to be gray - all shades of gray. Connie said that he kept sliding the glasses down to see things without the glasses and then again with the glasses.

As we drove north, out of Grand Teton, we found remnants of a previous forest fire. Such a stark reminder of what fires can do.

We waved goodbye to Grand Teton - We could've easily spent another day there! Onward and upward, right?! We left the Tetons behind and headed into Yellowstone. We saw our first line of cars when we came up to the Yellowstone entrance. We actually had time to get out and take pictures!  Unfortunately, this line was a sign of things to come.

Maddie & I walked to the rivers edge (looking over the bluff). We then waited in line to get our picture in front of the Yellowstone sign (at least 15 people ahead of us!). After snapping these pictures, we got back in the van - which hadn't moved too many spaces!

Lewis Falls was our first stop in Yellowstone - it is a beautiful roadside stop with trails and a waterfall. Matt, Connie & the kids took off on one of the trails leading to the water. John headed to the other side of the water - closer to the falls - while Ken & I enjoyed the view (and breeze!) from the bridge.

John - trying his hand at balancing/walking out on the fallen tree limbs. Hoping for a better vantage point of the falls.

Coming back up the trail, Matt said it was extremely steep and slippery (very loose gravel). Here is Will (with Maddie) climbing with the assistance of pine trees.  Unfortunately this meant that their hands were very sticky for a while!

The bridge where Ken & I camped out for this stop. It was VERY windy!!

We pulled in to the West Thumb Geyser Basin (circled the lot a time or two, waiting for a parking space to open) and then walked out to the Basin. Yellowstone has done a wonderful job of building boardwalks around the geysers - allowing visitors to get as close as possible, while still protecting the tourists and the environment. The vibrant colors of the geysers/springs with Yellowstone Lake just beyond made for a beautiful setting - add the 65° weather with blue skies and billowy clouds, you couldn't ask for a better day!

While the geysers/hot springs are extremely dangerous, we did find this picture/sign rather comical!

Leaving West Thumb we headed north, skirting around Yellowstone Lake and ending our day at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Below, you can see more evidence of forest fire. It was nice to see some regrowth.

We came across a few groups of tourists on the side of the road looking at something in the distance. Every time we stopped to look, we found buffalo (no moose or bear, sadly). We never saw a big herd while in Yellowstone, but plenty of solitary buffalo.

 

Here is John, patiently waiting for the perfect picture of the buffalo.

This guy has a passenger on his back!

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was probably my favorite stop in Yellowstone - the powerful waterfall, meandering river and steep canyon walls were a sight to behold. If we were to do this portion of the day again, I would've opted to also stop at the upper falls to see them up close.  These pictures are from the Artist Point vantage of the Lower Falls.

After loading back up in to the vehicles, we made our way out to the main road and quickly realized that we wouldn't be going anywhere soon. Traffic was at a standstill. We didn't know if there was an accident or animals up the road, causing a back up. I got out of the van (as we sat) and took pictures of the Yellowstone River and enjoyed the beauty while we waited.

So thankful for Matt as he drove pretty much all 4800 miles of this trip!  Here he is, patiently waiting for me to take the picture while holding up a line of traffic in the process.  Just kidding about the line - we were all sitting, waiting for the line to move on the main road. Notice Ken & Connie's car behind us.

After sitting for a few more minutes and not moving at all, John got out of their car to go investigate...and take some pictures while investigating.  Soon after he moved up the line a bit, the line started moving.  He heard that there was a bear up the road, but it was long gone by the time we got there (not even sure where "there" was!).

We had a good hour of driving to get out of the park and to our hotel in West Yellowstone. We were exhausted and ready for a good dinner. Matt, Alex & I all were sunburned pretty bad on our faces/neck/etc. With it being so comfortable temp-wise, it was easy to forget about sunburns...until it was too late!

We arrived in West Yellowstone, found our hotel and ordered some pizza (Matt & Connie were able to spend some quality time together while they ordered the pizza and waited for it to be made).

An end to a long, wonderful day!  It's amazing to look back at the pictures and realize all that we packed in to one day. We ate our pizza and hit the beds hard - getting a really good night of sleep!