We stayed at a campground in Swan Valley, ID a bit further than we would have liked, but this one was quaint and had availability, so we took it! It took us an hour and 20 minutes to get to the Grand Tetons. We had to drive through Jackson Hole and it was so busy I had to take a drive by picture of the antler arch.
This entire area of the country is beautiful and I can see why it attracts so many visitors each year. I would not recommend coming in July, it is just so busy you can't hardly do anything.
After we got through the gate to Grand Tetons we headed to Jenny lake do do a hike called Hidden Falls. There was no parking, so we parked on the street, that left us with about a mile walk to the boat dock. We decided to take the boat to start the trail so it cut off 4 miles of the hike around the lake. We bought our tickets and stood in line for what should have been 10 minutes. However, something happened on the other side of the lake and they didn't want us knowing. They blamed it on the fuel tank being bad, but I have my doubts because they stopped all of their boat traffic, and how convenient that all the boats have the same fuel tank issue at the same time? Anyway, we got a refund, and walked back to the truck. I'm glad that we were on the side with the truck because I didn't have diapers or snacks for Jackson! So, I learned a very important lesson that day...always pack snacks even if you don't think you'll need them!
The park was beautiful and we did get to see a bunch of beauty. And of course we saw Jackson Lake and Jackson Dam. This is a park that I would definitely come back to, but maybe in April/May or even September/October, when it's cooler and not mating season. From what we've heard, the animals are very temperamental this time of year. Thankfully, we didn't see any animals, but in a way I wish we had because they are so beautiful.
And we went to Yellowstone the same day because if you keep driving through the Tetons, you get there through a road that is hardly used. We had no wait to get into Yellowstone and the West Entrance was a 3 hour line! I'm so glad we did it this way, but it was a super long day!
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