Day 9: Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole

We tried so hard to get up and go early but once again it didn't happen. We left around 10:15 to get to the Grand Teton National Park. In order to get there from our RV park, we actually had to drive through Yellowstone again. While still driving though Yellowstone, we happened upon a majestic elk just sitting between two trees.

Grand Teton National Park is connected to Yellowstone but the area was designated as its own National Park in 1929. John D. Rockefeller purchased 35,000 acres of the land in Jackson Hole in 1926 and eventually donated it the US government to be incorporated into Grand Teton National Park in 1949.

The park is only 480 square miles. The mountain range was carved by glaciers, as are most of the lakes in the park. It only takes about an hour to two hours to drive the whole 42 mile loop, but I would bet against anyone doing it that fast because there is so much to see.

People have been coming to this area for 11,000 years starting with nomadic Paleo-Indians. The mountain range was named the Grand Tetons in the early 1800s by French-Canadian beaver fur trappers and basically means "Big Breasts" or "Big Teats" in French because of the appearance of the mountain range.

One of the fur trappers who came through the area was a man name Davey Jackson and the area was named after him in 1829. I didn't realize until we came here that Jackson Hole is not a city. Jackson Hole is the entire valley which includes cities such as Jackson, Wilson, and the Teton Village ski area.

In the 1920s, the Grand Tetons and the Jackson Hole area became a popular tourist destination for people hoping for a dude ranch experience. It's easy to see why this area became a dude ranch hub because it's so picturesque. We go to a dude ranch every year for spring break (except this past year) in Tucson, Arizona. However, Tucson is way to hot in the summer to be enjoyable horseback riding weather. I would love to go to Jackson Hole for a summer dude ranch experience because the summer weather we experienced here was perfect.

We started to get hungry so we looked for a spot to eat. We found a little parking lot that had some picnic benches and a beautiful view of the Grand Tetons and Jackson Lake, the biggest lake in the Grand Tetons. We saw some people in the water so we found a ladder made out of old tree branches to help us get down to the little beach. The boys started wading in the water and were shocked to find that the water wasn't that cold. It was about as cold as Lake Michigan in July. Yellowstone Lake is about 41 degrees, so this was at least 80 degrees. Ellie and the boys starting wading and then they just decided that they might as well get their shorts wet. I told them to take off their shirts and let them swim for a while. They had so much fun and I just enjoyed watching them swim and looking at the view of the Grand Tetons.

After some time changing clothes and washing the sand off, we made our way to Jenny Lake. Jenny Lake is much smaller that Jackson Lake but it has a hiking trail that takes you around the whole lake that we would love to have taken if we had had more time. There is also ferry that takes you from the visitor center area to the mountains where you can hike to a waterfall and something called Inspiration Point. If I ever go back to the Grand Tetons (which I truly hope to), I will definitely do that.

We got in the RV to drive to our next RV park. We were all feeling pretty good because it was 5 pm and we thought we would get there about 6 pm and be able to relax a bit before dinner. Google Maps told us to take a road called Moose Wilson Road and that it would take us 38 minutes. I had received an email from the RV park that told of us a road that we could not take if we had an RV, but we were sure that it was not Moose Wilson Road. Things started out strong on Moose Wilson Road until my mom spotted a big sign that said no RVs could take that road. She told my dad, who hadn't seen the sign and for some reason didn't quite believe her. I also had not seen the sign and I assured them that the email said nothing about not taking Moose Wilson Road. About two miles into our 13 mile trip on Moose Wilson Road things started to get a bit scary. The road was getting rather narrow and every time another car came by, we hardly had room to pass. Then a few RVs came our way and we had about of inch of space on either side. Then people started to honk and yell at us. A woman rolled down her window and told us that RVs couldn't be on this road, to which we answered, "We just saw other RVs and this is what Google Maps told us to do." We went a little farther and realized that we needed to turn around. We found a little spot where my dad thought he could make the turn, but before he could even turn about 3 cars sped around us as if they were in a very big hurry. We almost got hit by one of the cars that was trying to get around us. A nice lady pulled over and asked us if we needed helped and told us the way we needed to go.

We ended up taking the main road that passes through the town of Jackson. The town is adorable, but it was crowded with people. Shockingly, almost everyone had a mask on. We would have loved to stop in the town to walk around, but we really wanted to get to our RV park and there were so many people we thought it was best not to stop.

We finally got to the Fireside Inn in Wilson, which has both cabins and parking for RVs. The cabins were so cute and I wish we could have stayed in them. The RV park was pretty basic, but it had clean showers and electricity. It did not have a hook up for sewage, which was pretty annoying.

The woman at the front desk told us about some places we could eat dinner. We decided to drive to find a restaurant in Teton Village, which is the major ski resort in Jackson Hole. Teton Village was very busy and after trying three restaurants that all said we needed reservations we had no choice but to leave. We drove back to eat at an Italian restaurant called Calico right by our RV park. Unfortunately they also told us that we needed reservations. The maitre d' told me that pretty much every restaurant in the Jackson Hole area was only taking people who had reservations. It's too bad the woman at the RV park didn't know that because had we looked two hours earlier when we had arrived, we might have been able to get a reservation. He told us we could order carry out, so I went back to the RV to see what everyone wanted. We opened the menu on our phones and when we started to order it said it was no longer taking online orders. Apparently those ended at 8:15 and it was 8:16. I ran back to the restaurant and asked if I could still order takeout and four people told me no. Fortunately, the maitre d' saw me and told them that I had already asked about ordering and that I could still do it. We ordered and drove back to the Fireside to park and my dad and I had to walk back to the restaurant to pick up our food about 30 minutes later. We were in the middle of moose territory, but we did not see any when we walked the path home with our food. We ended up with some fantastic lasagna (even though it was $25 for not that much lasagna), pizza margherita and pasta. We were all very satisfied with our meals.