The United States has many National Parks. One of the first ones to be designated as a national park was Yellowstone back in 1872 by President Ulysses Grant. Similarly Grand Teton was designated as a National Park in 1929. In this blog, I will try to provide details on the itinerary we followed during our visit to these 2 amazing national parks. This itinerary is nothing special and I am sure you might find similar or better ones, but if you do happen to stumble upon this blog post please review the itinerary and provide your feedback or comments as you feel appropriate.
Our trip starts in the month of July 2021, with first 4 days in Yellowstone and the last 4 days in Grand Teton . We took a flight landing into Jackson Hole Wyoming. Jackson is one of the richest city in Wyoming and is very happening place. A lot of things to do around, good place for shopping and great restaurants and bars for food and drinks. I loved the city.
Few tips:
- In Yellowstone choose to stay in the park as there is considerable amount of driving involved between places to visit.
- Please carry at lease one good binocular with you for the trip. It will be very helpful!
- For people with food restrictions – Yellowstone can be quite challenging so carry as much food you can carry with you.
- Book your rental car in advance – I forgot to book early on and closer to my trip I was not able to find any rental car. I almost canceled my trip as the available rentals were too expensive. But I was persistent and kept on checking daily and I was lucky enough to get a great rental car for a reasonable price.
- Book your flight flying into Jackson Hole landing at the right time preferably say around 5:00 PM or so. This allows you to go to Jackson hole town and buy any last minute things you might want to buy like fruits, cereal and milk, water etc… and also have enough time then to drive to your lodging place in Yellowstone.
- Avoid driving too late into Yellow stone as there are patches where wild animals might come on to the streets when its dark. Our flight landed in Jackson Hole airport at 7:30 so we did not get a chance to go to Jackson and do any food/water shopping. Although during our stay it did not get dark at least till 9:00 PM at night so we did not encounter night time driving in the dark.
- If a large group is traveling – consider carrying two-way radio’s as cell phone service in Yellowstone is really bad.
- Dinner options at Canyon area were better as compared to other areas. I believe the restaurant Fresh Wok (forgot the name :))
- We chose to stay in Jackson Hole town for Grand Teton part of the visit. Our lodging was in Motel 6 but there are many options for lodging in the city. Motel 6 had the best location, rooms were clean and the hotel was very nice with good mountain views!
- The entry ticket for Yellowstone and Grand Teton is $35 each and that pass is valid for 7 days. We chose to buy the Annual Pass for $80 as it was more economical and we could use this pass in any other national park in the country before the year ends. IMHO its a great deal!
Yellowstone
Our drive from the airport to Yellowstone was 1 hour and 25 mins although time may vary depending on various factors. The road goes through the Grand Teton national park into Yellowstone (we entered through the south entrance as shown in the map below). The drive is picturesque and beautiful, hopefully the video below will show you a glimpse of what I am talking about.
Our stay was in Grant Village. One word of advice – Grant village was a great place to stay, but if you look at the map below in my opinion Canyon area would be a great place for lodging. It will be a center point for you to drive to any place. For e.g. for us to drive from Grant Village to Mammoth Hot Springs took almost 2-3 hours (slow speed, some halts). Anyways after staying there I felt lodging in Canyon village would have been good, nevertheless we were very happy with Grant Village accommodations.
Day 2
It was our first day and by the time we got up had breakfast among other things we were a bit late. We left our hotel around 9:00-9:15 AM. Our first stop was at Old Faithful Inn. This inn is a National Historic Landmark (declared in 1987) famous for its architecture and construction. It also has some amazing geyser eruptions that one can see. As you enter the site, go to the visitor center to get maps and to talk to a ranger who can provide detailed information on things to see and do. The predicted timetable of geyser eruptions is also posted.
There are multiple geysers that erupt in the field in front of the visitor center. Each geyser eruption vary in time (how long) and height (how tall). It can go as long as 100-150 feet. The video below will show how high and long the natural wonder erupts.
The next stop we took after the Old faithful inn was at Biscuit basin from where we did the almost 3 mile hike to Mystic Falls. This was one of my most favorite places in our yellow stone visit. We hiked as close to the falls as possible. In some of the sections we were able to get down to the water and wet our feet and enjoy the cold, crystal clear water. Just being there in the nature with the sound of water fall was amazing. Other things that we did that day was the Midway Geyser Basin and the most famous Grand Prismatic Spring. We did not do the Grand prismatic overlook and Fairy falls on Day 2 (day 1 we consider as our arrival day). We started our day late and we were tired with all the hikes we did and the heat.
Total miles walked on day 1 was anywhere between 6.5-7.8 miles (including hikes and walk to the basins etc.) and so we decided to call it a day. On our way back we found some stream where we could just get down to the water take our shoes off and relax a bit in the cold water. There are many such streams in Yellowstone and its a common occurrence to see people getting down in those streams and water just to enjoy the nature.
Day 3
On this day we planned to start early. We left our hotel by around 7:15-7:30 AM. Our goal was to cover as many view points as possible and by the time the day ended we did cover quite a bit. We took an alternate route today driving via Hayden valley. Hayden valley is a large landscape in Yellowstone where one can see a lot of animals including Bison, Moose, Mule Deer and at times Grizzlies. We were fortunate enough to have enough sightings of Bison’s, Moose and Elk
Our next stop was at Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. You can view the falls from many different viewpoints i.e. Lower and Upper Rim, Artist point trail, Brink of upper falls. The falls are spectacular as you can see from the images and pictures
We also continued our hiking ritual and walked on Pelican Trail hike, Duck Lake and looked at Sulphur Caldron, Mud Volcano and West Thumb Geyser basin viewpoints. The hike to duck lake was excellent (at West Thumb geyser basin). It is approximately 1.8 miles which leads you to a small lake as shown below
Day 4
Today our focus was to cover Mammoth spring area and other viewpoints near and around Mammoth Springs. Mammoth springs is towards the northwest entrance of the park. It is a large complex of hot springs on a travertine hill. Apparently the water that feeds Mammoth springs come from Norris Geyser basin.
Our next stop was at Norris Geyser basin. It is one of the hottest, oldest and most dynamic thermal area of Yellowstone. The video below shows the always active geyser. On the same day we visited this place, it had an eruption of around 300 feet high early in the morning around 6:34 AM. Unfortunately we were not lucky enough to see it, but we heard that story from some other visitors who were with us. It would have been so cool to watch that huge eruption. One tip: if you can do the Norris Geyser basin early in the morning, please do so because the parking situation here gets absolutely crazy in the afternoons. It was like a mad rush when we went there.
The drive for us from Grant Village to Mammoth springs area was too far and between Mammoth springs and Norris Geyser basin – it was almost lunch time. So we drove out of the park to a small town called Gardiner in Montana and ate our lunch at a restaurant there called Wonderland Café. The food was great and the service was also very good. After lunch we came back to the Mammoth springs area and did few quick stops at Roaring mountains, Petrified tree near Roosevelt tower and Wraith falls hike. Hiking was something we kept as a constant in our daily visits. Gave us enough time to be in nature as well as the much needed exercise 😉
Day 5
This was the day we leave Yellowstone, but we had few unfinished stops we wanted to achieve. So we left again early in the morning and did the Grand Prismatic Overlook. It was a good hike in the morning. The grand prismatic area looks amazing from the overlook and if you have a very good camera you can capture some amazing shots of the hot springs from the overlook. I took this picture from my iPhone 11. Because we went early morning there was still fog covering the area (see image 1 in the slide show). So to get a better picture, we did the hike to Fairy falls.
The hike to fairy falls was really great (between 2 and 3 miles). We could go very close up to the waterfall and it was a great experience. Because we did this hike in the morning, the walk was pleasant.
Once we left fairy falls we did quick stops at Lewis lake and Lewis falls and then continued our way to Jackson Hole Wyoming. It was a bye-bye time to Yellowstone.
We checked into the motel (Motel 6) relaxed a bit and ate Dominos Pizza for dinner. The cool part was Dominos Pizza place was right next to the motel so we could just walk and pick up our dinner. We had pre-booked to attend a rodeo show at night (8:00 PM). It was our first time to see a rodeo show, so it was fun. The show was 2 hours and it was amazing to watch the artists perform their acts on Bulls and Horses specifically the young kids.
Day 6
Today started our Grand Teton part of the trip. For the next couple of days during our stay in Jackson, our go to breakfast place was Pearl Street Bagels (on pearl avenue of course). They had the best bagels and coffee we loved it.
We got up a bit late and left around 8:45-9:00 AM. That was a mistake. Our first stop was Jenny Lake. Parking was insane (we reached around 9:30 AM or so). We had to park very far and walk to the Jenny Lake area. Jenny Lake area has an amazing Hike. There are 2 options:
- You can decide to walk the entire rim of Jenny Lake which is approximately 7 miles or
- You can hike for 5 miles and take a boat and come back to the starting point (visitor center).
Few of us took the 5 mile option and few took the 7 mile option. All in all Jenny Lake area was amazing and well worth it. My advice get up early and get to the place for good parking and an excellent hike. Here are some pictures for you
After the 7 mile hike and drive back to the motel, we were extremely hungry, so what is the most favorite things to do when one’s hungry? Go scour for food 🙂 We drove to Pearl Avenue and had dinner at Everest Momo Shack. Their momo’s are good… I tried their “Thali” and it was a disappointment in the name of Thali… others tried Saag Paneer and different dishes and they were OK. The place is expensive but a good option.
Day 7
The morning was relaxed. After a good breakfast from Pearl Street Bagels – we drove to Grand Teton for our 2 hour Horse back riding. The company’s name was Swift Creek Outfitters. One word of advice – if you are a large group (8 or more) make sure you go there early so that you can get the ride quickly or else you will have to wait for a long time. Group of 4 or 6 seem to be fine based on what we saw. The ride takes you through trails, creeks ups and down. It is a FUN ride. Just make sure you wear full sleeve shirt and full pants for the ride. After the ride we head back to the motel for some much needed rest.
In the evening we visited Jackson Hole mountain resort in Teton Village. This place has a lot of activities. We took the gondola to the top of the mountain which offers you amazing panoramic views. There’s a restaurant for you to have dinner and a café if you want to get some drinks and quick bite. It is a great way to spend couple of hours relaxing and enjoying the views. Alternatively you can add this as a whole day activity in your itinerary. We then returned back to Jackson City and had dinner at Pizza Caldera on Broadway. Their pizza is really good. After dinner we call it a day.
Day 8
I had seen a picture of an old barn with Bisons in front of it and majestic mountains behind it. I had loved that picture frame and the landscape. When I searched for the origin of the picture frame, I found out that it was captured at Grand Teton National Park. So when we planned for this trip I had to go visit the barn. And so I did. Our first stop on this day was to go visit Moulton Barn (also called as Mormon barn or T.A. Moulton Barn). Now I had to take a picture for myself and see how it matched the original. So here’s my picture taken on my iPhone.
Once I was happy with my picture, we stopped by Glacier Point to take some pictures and National Museum of Wildlife Art before we got back to the city for some lunch.
For our lunch we stopped by a Tex-Mex restaurant called Merry Piglets. We then did some shopping in local stores for some souvenirs and headed back to the motel. Later in the evening we did a river float trip on Snake River (approximately 2 hours) with a company called National Park Float Trips. It is approximately 10-12 mile float trip on the snake river. It was a fun way to end the day.
Day 9
We head back to Jackson Hole Airport, drop our rental car and wait for our flight back home.
It was an amazing trip – a trip to remember! In the first part of the trip – I had the least amount of screen time and in the entire trip – we did not watch ANY television. That was also the best part of the trip.
I hope you enjoy reading the blog and it inspires you to travel I would consider my blog as a success!
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ADIOS FOR NOW AND THANK YOU FOR READING!
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