Grand Teton Vacation part 2

After doing a bit of research and finding out how busy Yellowstone is this time of the year we decided to just roam around the Grand Teton National Park one day while we were there. For us it was more about the family reunion aspect rather than the National Park aspect. One day roaming the park was enough for us. Grand Teton National Park was spectacularly beautiful. It really was quite a sight.

The park itself was different. There were two main roads traveling parallel to the mountains and every few miles there was a turn off to a parking lot where you get out and walk down to one of the lakes or hiking trails. What was frustrating about this was all the parking lots were filled to the brim. People would end up parking along the road and walking back to the lake. There wasn't anywhere to park in 2/3rds of the parking lots. This was the Teton's, not even Yellowstone. We couldn't imagine how busy Yellowstone would have been. Sean's brother went to Yellowstone and he said it was stop go traffic throughout the park and an hour wait to see the attractions. Several attractions had signs up saying "Come back in a hour". Perhaps August wasn't the time to see these parks. They say May and September is the time to see them.

But what we did see of the Teton's was really beautiful. The first lake was Jenny lake.

Lunch time came and we packed a lunch but, again, couldn't find a parking spot so we just pulled off the road and had a picnic on the side of the road. It was fun! 

There was an old chapel in the park that we decided to see and at the parking area there was a small trail leading down to Jackson lake. That was probably the most fun of the day, seeing this beautiful lake without a soul around. We had the whole beach to ourselves.

We stopped to get some pictures of the park on the way home.

To get back to the cabin we had to go over Teton pass, a 10% grade pass. It was steep to us flat landers and nerve wracking the first go around. By the time we left we'd gone over it four times and it was super easy. We stopped on the summit to get some pictures the first day and a nice gentleman offered to take our picture. He was traveling to each state's tallest peak and this year was Idaho's. It's fun meeting people and hearing their story along the way.

Wesley got a tablet for his birthday and really enjoyed taking pictures and video along the way.