Family Trip To Yellowstone & Grand Teton

The first week of July finally felt like summer! Michael had the week off work and my brother and his family came out to visit us and experience the magic of Yellowstone and the Tetons. This was part of an epic 3-week trip that my sis-in-law planned for them. Our niece graduated high school and our nephew graduated elementary school so this was the perfect time and I know a lot of memories were made!

I completely forgot to get photos of our campsites but we spent 3 nights at Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone, Montana, and 3 nights at Fireside Resort in Jackson, WY, and were within walking distance of where our family stayed.

From Cody, Michael and I entered the east entrance of Yellowstone and were welcomed with a bison jam in Hayden Valley as we made our way toward our RV park. We had some time before everyone arrived so we decided to go up to the north entrance to see the Roosevelt Arch since it was closed during our visit last year.

We had an early 3 am start the next day because we had booked a tour with Yellowstone Wild that promised (there were actually no promises) wolves and bears. The tour was located in the northeast corner of the park in the Lamar Valley and we needed to be there by sunrise.

I have to admit that my hopes were not high, especially for seeing wolves.

But, it was a success!! We continue to be amazed by the guides, photographers, and researchers that track the animals out here and know them by ‘name’. We got to watch part of the Junction Butte pack eat breakfast and play. They were about 1.5 miles away but we still got to watch wild wolves! Below is a video clip of the wolves that the guide took with his phone through a spotting scope.

We also saw sandhill cranes, a black bear, a cinnamon black bear, some mountain goats, and of course bison on the 8hr tour.

The next day we stopped at many of the highlights along the southern loop road – Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.

While chatting with a park ranger in charge of keeping people away from a bison hanging out in the geyser basin, Grand Geyser erupted. This was pretty exciting for Michael since it was the only frequently erupting geyser in this basin that we didn’t get to see last year, which he remembered!

We viewed the canyon from Artist Point and hiked down to the brink of the lower falls.

The next day we moved down to Jackson, WY, and walked around the town and shops and went to the rodeo. The seating was general admission and we arrived as soon as the gates opened and were front and center for all the action. The rodeo was a big hit with everyone.

We also took a 10-mile sunset float on the Snake River with Triangle X Ranch. There are a lot of companies that offer float trips in Jackson Hole, but this one included a yummy dinner and we floated a portion of the river that was inside the Grand Teton NP boundary.

The unanimous highlight of the week was our hike in Grand Teton NP. We rode the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake and hiked to Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point, and through Cascade Canyon.

As we hiked back along Jenny Lake we had a very close encounter with a young bull moose. He was using the trail so we were off the trail and hiding behind a tree. This could have gone very badly but thankfully it didn’t! Major props to our niece who took this video while I was too busy panicking.

We finished off the week with a Chuckwagon dinner show with Bar T5 Ranch in Jackson.

It was truly a wonderful week!!

Next up, we take our house on wheels to the Canadian Rockies!