Miles: 470
Route: Grand Lake, CO - Jackson Hole, WY
After a restful night in our hunting lodge of a hotel, Sarah and I got up early to go to the gym before a full day of driving to Jackson Hole. Unfortunately, like pretty much everything in the very small town of Grand Lake, CO, the gym did not open before 9am. So we got an even earlier start than we expected!
Our first stop on Monday morning was Grand Lake’s namesake: since it was getting dark when we got in on Sunday we wanted to actually see the lake before leaving town. We were glad we took the time for this brief detour - the lake was very quiet and calm, a great way to kick off a long day of driving.
Sarah’s take-away from this picture: “Look at those boat garages!”
We spent the rest of the day driving to Jackson Hole. The scenery was beautiful - my favorite drive by far! - but the weather was unpredictable. We drove through three different thunderstorms with heavy rain, but after we passed through each we were greeted with sunny skies and beautiful open plains.
We passed over the Continental Divide a couple times but it was never as well marked as it was here.
The first third and last third of the drive yesterday were on roads like this - a welcome change from the monotonous interstate through Kansas.
Hard to complain about driving through countryside like this.
We were almost to Jackson but we had to stop at a pull-off to take in this view.
Despite the beautiful scenery on the drive, we were ready to get out of the car by the time we arrived at 5:30pm. We booked a room through AirBNB and our host, Teri, was waiting to greet us at her house. She gave us some good recommendations and we headed to downtown Jackson to explore. It’s a very charming, small mountain town that has a bunch of local restaurants, bars, shops, etc. We grabbed a local beer at the Snake River Brewery then walked over to MacPhails for a burger - the prefect end to the day.
This morning we started the day with coffee and a pastry at Persephone then grabbed a few sandwiches for lunch later at Jackson Whole, which is modeled exactly after Whole Foods (so much so that I’m half convinced there is an official affiliation...).
With our lunches packed we drove about half an hour outside Jackson to Teton Village, where the Jackson Hole Tram is based. This massive tram can take 600 visitors (and skiers during the season) an hour to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. Our plan was to do the tram in the morning then explore Grand Teton National Park in the afternoon, but the top of the mountain was still covered in clouds when we arrived at 10am - so we decided to switch up the plan.
On the road to Grand Teton National Park.
Fall is in full swing in Jackson!
When we arrived at the Grand Teton National Park entrance we were told we couldn’t drive more than four miles into the park on our road because a large section is closed due to a roaming Grizzly Bear that “doesn’t like crowds.” Didn’t matter to us since the trail we wanted to hike was still accessible, but it put us a little on edge about running into this Grizzly or some of his relatives. Fortunately we had no bear sightings on our hike - just beautiful views.
Trail up to Phelps Lake.
Phelps Lake overlook. Definitely worth the uphill hike!
After eating lunch at the overlook, we walked over to Death Canyon. All of the canyon walls were formed with jagged rock like this - easy to see how it got its name.
Another view of the lake on our way back.
Looking down the other side of the mountain. No lake view, but still gorgeous!
With the clouds clear, we drove back to the Tram and took a ride to the "Top of the World." The views from the top were breathtaking - very glad we waited for the clouds to clear!
Grand Teton National Park.
Cheesin' at the Top of the World.
Looking back toward Jackson.
After taking the tram down we headed back to Snake River Brewing for dinner - Sarah did some research and found out that in addition to making award-winning beer, they also make award-winning chili. We had a hearty dinner then came home to Teri’s house to get some rest. Tomorrow we’re getting up super early to get in as much time at Yellowstone as possible. Fingers crossed for good weather!