For the Fourth of July weekend, Evan and I took a trip from Salt Lake City to Jackson, Wyoming. The drive was relatively short, so we were able to condense our trip to accommodate both our work schedules and allotted time-off. We began our trip on Friday, June 30th, and made the four to five hour trek to Colter Bay Village, inside Grand Teton National Park. I surprised Evan for his birthday with cabin glamping!
Once we “set-up camp,” we went out to explore Grand Teton National Park. We took the dogs with us to Signal Mountain, and explored the trails around Jenny Lake. We didn’t have enough time to picnic and canoe on Jackson Lake from Colter Bay Marina (dogs are allowed on the lake), but we definitely plan to come back as a couple and do this. To finish out the evening, we spent dinner at Teton Village, and ate at Teton Thai, which was yummmm!
The next day, we traveled to the south entrance of Yellowstone National Park. In Yellowstone, we drove around the main park loop. The loop commenced at West Thumb Geyser Basin to Old Faithful (you can see the eruption every one and a half hours). We, then, drove to Midway Geyser Basin, Norris Geyser Basin, and Upper and Lower Falls. Because dogs are not allowed past the parking lot structures, Evan stayed behind while I power hiked to these various viewpoints. Finally, we ended the loop at Hayden Valley, where we saw lots of bison, and then stopped for snacks at a West Thumb, a point off Yellowstone Lake. After we spent the day driving around the main park loop, we went back to Colter Bay to grab a bite to eat and end the evening reading in bed.
Last, but not least, on our final day in Wyoming, we visited Jackson Hole! We enjoyed breakfast at Persephone Bakery, then walked around Jackson Square. Because we wanted to arrive back in Salt Lake at a decent hour, we didn’t spend as much time in Jackson Hole, so we plan to come back. When we do return, I plan to grab a beer at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and eat at Hatch Taqueria & Tequilas for lunch. Because this was my first time visiting Wyoming, and we vacationed during the summer, I would love to come back during the winter for skiing/snowboarding. We also plan to stay in Jackson Hole next time and get a dog-sitter (we loved having Comet and Alfie with us, but activities can be limited with pups).
Overall, this was such a fun trip! I loved how green and some-what non-populated Wyoming was. I might even goes as far to say Grand Teton and Yellowstone are now my favorite national parks that I have visited! I also loved playing dress-up in my best cowgirl get-up in Jackson Hole. Giddy up!
