The Grand Tetons

One day we decided to take a long weekend and go to Grand Teton National Park just outside of Jackson, WY. It is only a 3 hour drive from Pocatello so we loaded the kids up early one morning and took off on a beautiful drive. Most of the family had never been to the Tetons and the boys had never seen four legged mammals this large before outside of a zoo. Upon driving into the park we saw a moose and over the three days we also saw pronghorn, elk, bison, and a grizzly. Even though the mornings were quite cold the days were perfect and this trip turned out to be a perfect camping trip.


The "Grand" stands at 13,777 feet. Quite a beautiful range.

Driving into the park.

Heading up to our first hike.

Kian was such a trooper in the pack and loved hiking

Finding some cool rocks on the trail.

Time to stop for some water.

Leif journaling on our hike; drawing pictures of things he saw.

A great place to contemplate the meaning of life...or just to have a snack.

A pronghorn

Set up at our campsite

The boys playing...not exactly sure what...at the campsite.

A short stroll form our campsite gave us this view; breath taking.

Roasting those marshmallows.

He is actually eating a bowl of cereal in his bag because it is so cold.

It was too cold to sit around and try to enjoy breakfast so we decided to go for a drive and see if we could find some bison. We had no idea what we would find.

All of a sudden we saw a heard on a ridge not 50 yards from our car. And then...

...they crossed in front.

Later we saw a heard of elk.

When we got back to camp, the local deer was taking a rest behind our tent...

...so we didn't need Leif's jedi skills and protection after all.

Setting out on our next hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point.

We decided to take the boat across Jenny Lake.

Beautiful views on the way.

Kian loved it, too.

Leif was very excited as well.

A little cool on the way over but it was sunny and warming up wonderfully.

Giving a big shaka for a big hike!

Our backpack trooper loving being outdoors again.

Snacks and journaling again; great memories.

Hidden Falls was raging!!!

Now on our way to Inspiration Point. We ended up calling this the "Chipmunk Trail" because we saw so many chipmunks; Leif and Kian were so excited to spot them.

Coming up to the last section

Amanda felt a little exposed here but the brave boys had no problems :)

We did it! And Leif took every step himself.

All in all, it was a total of 2.5 miles round trip and several hundred feet vertical. Not too shabby for a four year-old.

When we got back to camp a grizzly decided to stop at the local watering hole for a drink. We were about 50 yards away, sitting in the car ready to leave if need be.

Eventually a ranger came and scared the bear off and all was well again.


On our last day we went in to Jackson for lunch, grabbed some local chocolates, and then hit the road to head back to good ole "Poky."

It was an outstanding camping trip and we all look forward to exploring more of this beautiful part of our country.

Aloha
Cory, Amanda, Leif, and Kian