Wyoming
Planning this trip was pretty spontaneous and became a reality quickly. My boyfriend and I were just talking one night about how we really wanted to visit Grand Teton National Park and how Yellowstone is so close and we should just book a trip and go visit both. Which lead to looking more into the parks, which lead to looking at plane tickets, which lead to “click” …WE ARE GOING TO WYOMING! This all happened within an hour or so lol To be honest sometimes I think that can be your best bet. Just buy the damn plane tickets and take it from there. Instead of flying directly into Jackson Wyoming we decided to fly into Salt Lake City Utah and then rent a car to drive to Wyoming since it’s cheaper than flying directly into Jackson and it’s always fun to visit more than one state in one trip anyway.
Since we had the whole day and were staying the night at an Airbnb in Salt Lake City we decided to take a drive to Antelope Island State Park which is about a two hour drive but it is definitely worth it because it is SUCH an incredibly beautiful State Park. However, I must mention the fact that the bugs were completely unbearable. We did hear that there would be bugs called “no-see-ums” which are like little gnat type things and that they were hatched for the season, but we honestly were not prepared at all for the amount of them we encountered. Not only were there no-see-ums but there was also an INSANE amount of mosquitos. To try and give you a visual…while we were driving through the park the sound of the mosquitos hitting the windshield sounded like it was raining…so yea, there were a lot of mosquitos. We did get out of the car a few times to take in the views and take some photos because this place was SO darn pretty but it really was so unbearable to be outside of the car since the bugs attacked you almost immediately. So, with that being said, if you’re planning on visiting Antelope island in the Spring I would definitely prepare yourself for an uncomfortable amount of bugs, bring a really potent bug spray and make sure to cover yourself. There were some people out of their cars walking around with shorts and T-shirts and honestly I don’t know how they did it, just watching them made us itch. Kudos to those people for being brave enough to endure the bugs. lol
It takes about 4 hours and 45 minutes to drive from Salt Lake City to Jackson Wyoming, so we decided to break up the drive a bit and make a stop for the night about an hour and 20 minutes away in Afton Wyoming. We had the cutest little Airbnb cabin on a ranch with a mountain view during the day and a breathtaking view of the stars at night. Afton is a pretty small town with a population of about 2,000 people so it was pretty quiet and peaceful, I wouldn’t say there is much to do there and the restaurant selection was lacking a bit, the only places we really saw near where we were staying was a Burger King and a Pizza Hut and since I don’t eat red meat we settled on Pizza Hut. It was definitely a different environment then we are used to back home but it was the perfect place to stop and break up the trip.
On our journey from Afton to Jackson we ventured into Yellowstone National Park and my goodness, let me tell you, this place is a dream. Yellowstone has always been on my bucket list and a place that I dreamed of visiting for a long time. Trust me when I tell you, it did not disappoint. This place is honestly such a surreal experience and feels otherworldly. It’s so hard to sit and write about because it’s just something you have to experience in person and I hope everyone does at some point in their lives. Since we were visiting in late April/early May there were some roads and park entrances that were not opened for the season yet. The day we decided to visit Yellowstone we had to drive up into Montana and enter the park through the West entrance since the South entrance was still closed. Keep in mind that if you want to visit in the Spring (April-May) that there will be roads, some park entrances and areas of the parks that will still be closed for the season until about mid May. Also keep in mind if you are visiting in Spring that there will be snow…lots of snow. The up side of visiting in the Spring is that the crowds are non existent. Granted, there were still people, and tour buses and things like that but it was not what I would consider crowded. I have heard that in the summer it is extremely packed with people and can be somewhat not enjoyable due to lots of traffic driving through the park and such, so I will definitely take some roads closures and snow to avoid crowds but that’s just me.
We made sure visited all of the popular most recommended sites, like Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Grand Prismatic Springs. Old Faithful, which I feel like most people are familiar with, is a cone geyser that erupts every 44-125 minutes and even though is was not my favorite thing that we saw in Yellowstone it is definitely a must see. There’s several long rows of benches for visitors to sit and wait for the famous geyser to spout its stream of water. The water reaches heights of 106 to 185 ft in the air and is pretty impressive to watch. One thing that I thought was interesting is the eruption is pretty quiet, for some reason I thought it would be this thundering loud explosion but it was quite silent. Nevertheless it was pretty cool to see and to be honest one of my favorite things about Yellowstone was its hot springs and how they have the board walks wind around them. The boardwalks allow you to really get up close and walk (safely) through the steam which definitely creates an otherworldly experience, you really feel like you’re on another planet.
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was the last thing we visited before leaving the park for the day and it was quite a visual experience to say the least. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is the first large canyon on the Yellowstone River and has an ENORMOUS waterfall. All I can say is, pictures do not do it justice at all. I saw photos of it before visiting and had no idea how gigantic it actually was until we were standing next to it. This was the last stop on our way through Yellowstone and we almost didn’t do it because it started to snow very hard and visibility was getting pretty bad but I am so glad that we did. We didn’t get to see it as well as we wanted to since it was snowing which decreased visibility but it was still breathtaking and I cannot even imagine what its like on a clear day. Being someone who has visited the actual Grand Canyon in Arizona I can totally understand why they call this the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, it certainly shares that same wow factor and it a total must see.
After leaving beautiful Yellowstone behind we headed to Jackson where we stayed for 5 nights at the Wort Hotel. Jackson was absolutely adorable! I loved everything about it. (except for the fact that is was snowing in May lol) but that is normal in Wyoming. Don’t get me wrong, I love snow. I am from New York and we do get a lot of snow here, but for me there is a time and a place…and by the time May rolls in on Long Island I am completely not in snow mode.
Jackson is super close to Grand Teton National Park and is quite charming. It had all the shops you can imagine and delicious restaurants. I have to say I was really impressed with the restaurants in Jackson, even the breakfast we had at our hotel was delicious. Two restaurants I would highly recommended are Local and Liberty Burger. I’m not ashamed to admit that food is important to us when we travel and we are always scoping out what restaurants are near where we are staying and which has the best reviews. In addition to yummy places to eat there were endless shops with all sorts of things. There were the typical touristy stores but also ones with a more unique vibe that sold really beautiful pieces of home décor, jewelry, tons of unique National Parks decor and paraphernalia ,candles and artwork. My absolute favorite store we found was called MADE, it honestly had the most unique souvenirs and I wanted to buy everything. If you are visiting Jackson, go in there. You’re welcome.
Grand Teton National Park has been on our list for a long time and I really feel so grateful to have been able to visit. For those who are unfamiliar with this park (which surprisingly a lot of people I talk to have not heard of it) it is located in Northwestern Wyoming and is home to the Teton mountain range with its highest peak at 13, 776 feet. Grand Teton National Park is only 10 miles south of Yellowstone National Park which makes it super convenient if you are planning on visiting both parks. As much as I loved Yellowstone…Grand Teton takes the cake. We got the park pass for the week which was $30 because we knew that we would be back for more than one day. (Totally worth it) The first day we were a little discouraged as we were driving towards the park entrance due to the fact that the ever anticipated Grand Tetons were almost completely covered by a thick layer of clouds making them non existent. I am not going to lie, I did feel a little panicked at the thought that they might be like that every day we visited and we wouldn’t be able to see them at all. However, our second day visit was much clearer with a lot less cloud cover which washed away all of our fears of not being about to see the mighty Tetons. Seeing them for the first time really makes your jaw drop, they are so magnificent and jut up from the flat plains creating the most unreal views. It really was unlike anything I have ever seen before and I could not get enough. No matter where we drove through the park you can see them and each view is better than the last, I can’t tell you how many different spots we stopped to take photos. Since there was still a lot of snow on the ground when we visited we weren’t able to do certain trails like Jenny and Jackson Lake (which were still completely frozen and it was the beginning of May) but we were still able to drive around them and take in the views without having the walk the trails. We definitely will be going back in the summer one year so we can take advantage of more trails.
Speaking of walking in trails, when planning our trip to Wyoming to visit these National Parks there was A LOT of warnings about the wildlife. Almost everything you read will tell you to be prepared to encounter wildlife and to stay back. Although we did take the advice seriously, we did not expect to see as much as we did. Almost every single animal that we read about seeing we saw. Bison are EVERYWHERE (and are also considered one of the most dangerous), elk, deer, moose, antelope (pronghorns) and the most anticipated/feared…grizzly bear. We saw bison and elk almost immediately after entering Yellowstone, these are two creatures we absolutely do have on Long Island so it was such an amazing experience to be able to see them in the wild. Our heads were on a swivel for bears while in Yellowstone but to be honest we did not see any. It wasn’t until the next day driving about 10 minutes into Grand Teton we noticed a ton of cars parked on the side of the road, so we immediately knew there was a wildlife siting, not realizing it was a mama grizzly and her two cubs. This was one of the coolest experiences ever! You see so many photos of grizzly’s and you wonder what it would be like to actually see one in the wild and to be able to experience not just one grizzly but a mama and her cubs was incredible. Thankfully we were on the road and pretty far from them but it was definitely thrilling to see. The park rangers are serious about keeping people at a safe distance and were monitoring everyone with their cameras and tripods to stay back. These bears are BIG and even though the excitement of seeing one and wanting to get a good photo overcomes you, you certainly don’t want to get too close or get in their way. Especially after seeing one in person and grasping the scale of how massive they are. Nope. No thank you! The photos we took of the bears below are with a zoom lens so there was no need to get closer.
Mormon Row is a historic district in Teton County and is a must see. Mormon Row is a community of homesteads that were established by settlers from Idaho in the 1890’s. Most of the time when you google photos of Grand Teton National Park, photos of the barns from Mormon Row with the Grand Tetons in the background will show up. It was the image I had in my mind whenever I thought of Grand Teton before visiting and to be honest its still what I always think of. The reason being - ITS SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL. We were nervous the road to get to Mormon Row would still be closed for the season but on May 1st it opened and we were able to drive to my most anticipated barn and take in the most gorgeous views. We were also super excited to be the only two people there which we totally weren’t expecting due to its popularity, but we weren’t complaining. Just another one of the perks of visiting in the off season.
Wyoming surprised me in more ways than I thought, I knew it was going to be beautiful but it really surpassed anything I was expecting. Although I was a little nervous at first due to it being so rugged and out there and not knowing what to expect but it really is such a beautifully wild state. Forever grateful to have been able to experience these places and take it all in. We will most definitely be back.
““ Find refreshment in wild places.””