Grand Teton National Park

Ok so it’s almost the end of the year, so I will crank out the last of my blog posts from our National Parks roadtrip a few months back…FINALLY. The last few weeks have been a little crazy, as we welcomed a new puppy PANDA into our home!! He’s been pretty angelic and easy to train, but since he’s still a puppy we do have to take him outside pretty frequently for bathroom breaks and keep him entertained. But now he’s settling into a rhythm, and I am feeling great now that I’m HALFWAY through my pregnancy (and by great, I mean mostly myself…I don’t really know where people say that pregnancy glow comes from, or how the second trimester is the babymoon period. I guess it’s all comparative to the other terrible trimesters).

Unfortunately given COVID we won’t be taking the babymoon I’d planned…I have almost 1.5 months off for winter break from school and this would’ve been the perfect time to take that extended trip to South America or Southeast Asia. Hopefully by next summer people will be vaccinated and we can take the BABY somewhere for an extended period of time, as my last extended break off from work ever after I graduate in May! But I literally can’t picture how my life is going to be starting when I get back to work. That’s a thought exercise for another time.

Anyway so the Grand Tetons were our last major national parks stop before heading off to Utah in on our roadtrip. I’m really glad we made it back in August, when I’d ~just~ found out I was pregnant and didn’t feel any symptoms. The Tetons were my favorite out of the three national parks, because of the LIGHT and the amazing hikes and lakes. Jackson, WY is probably a cute town, but it felt overcrowded in the midst of the pandemic – and during normal times I think it would be too fancy for me, since it’s a ski town.

The highlight from this park was the Delta Lake hike. Even though it’s “off-trail”, it’s a popular enough hike that we felt like it was manageable. Only the last 0.5 miles or so was rough, as we literally scrambled up rocks to get to the perfectly blue alpine lake. We also stopped by Amphitheater Lake, for a round trip of 13 miles.

Our other favorite hikes/walks in the park included String Lake and Taggart Lake (a great bathing beach), taking pictures by Oxbow Bend (we saw a moose and her moose baby!), and Mormon Row.

One hike I’d recommend NOT doing is Phelps lake. It’s very easy and the lake is pretty, but the hike to the lake is super boring and long. We waited for an hour to get parking, and I don’t think it was worth it.

It felt easier to drive from one place to the other in the Tetons – we could get from the most northern part of the park (where we stayed in a cabin one day) to Jackson WY within 45 minutes. Because there are multiple routes throughout the park, we never ran into traffic unless it was to get parking for a lake beach.