We arrived at the small Jackson Hole airport and stepped foot off the plane to walk into the terminal. We were already in love with the mountains directly behind us and the cool brisk air. We rented our car, ate a tasty lunch at The Bunnery and then we headed over to the the Four Seasons Jackson Hole in Teton Village.
When we arrived to our room-champagne, strawberries dipped in chocolate, and a hand-written letter from the manager congratulating us on our 10yr anniversary...so wonderful.
The view from our room
We checked out the pool. They also have 3 hot tubs and they are the real deal-they actually get hot!
More food! Elk steak at The Million Dollar Cowboy
Day TWO-
We left our hotel at about 6:45am to go whitewater rafting on our way we noticed a dozen cars pulled over on the side of the highway. I'm sure the locals get tired of all the tourists pulling over on the highway to look at animals. We saw this enormous moose! It was such a great way to start the day.
Me and mr moose-
Here we are getting ready for our whitewater rafting trip with Barker Ewing River Trips. Our trip consisted of an 8mi scenic float trip down the snake river, to a private camp for breakfast, and then 8mi of class 3 rapids on snake river. The scenic trip was very enjoyable. Our guide "Alex", (Keith thinks I thought he was good looking;) was super knowledgeable about the area and river. He was ALOT of fun and made sure to point out every animal species in sight. For breakfast we had wild rice pancakes, maple sausage, scrambled eggs, and fresh fruit. Have you had rice pancakes before? They were incredible! So good, they actually sell it in their store.
Before our trip with a very nervous smile-
On the scenic portion of our trip-
Now on to the fun stuff (try not to notice the guide behind me ;)
After our rafting trip we headed over to Phelps Lake in Grand Teton National Park, which is only a short 15min drive from our resort to do some hiking. This is the most beautiful natural lake! We did about a 2-3mi hike around the lake. Our main goal was to hit the jumping rock that sits on the north side of Phelps Lake. It's about a 30ft drop into lake with freezing water even in July. When we arrived there was a woman about 40ish wanting to jump off SO badly, but she just couldn't do it. She had her husband and kids there egging her on to jump and she wanted to show them she could, but she could NOT do it. This went on for A LONG TIME. Isn't there one of these at every cliff by a lake? So finally after Keith had already jumped once he said "Do you want to jump together?" She finally said okay and then she says "Will you hold my hand?" I was cracking up at this point.
Later than evening after a long day we headed over to Osteria in Teton Village. We split the most delicous and unique pizza. Afterwards we had some moos ice cream. They are very proud of their local ice cream because you see it everywhere. After about the fifth time someone mentioned it we felt the need to mention Blue Bell. ;)
Day THREE-
On this day we made the trek out to Yellowstone. It was about 1 1/2-2hrs north from Jackson Hole. There are several scenic overlooks to stop at along the way. Here is a picture of the tetons.
Lots of bison (or is it buffalo?:) in the wild
I'm glad we did Yellowstone and I think it's something everyone should see, but Keith and I both agree that Grand Tetons far outweighed Yellowstone. The geysers are definitely fascinating and I'm sure it is the mecca for any scientist, but we were just overcome by the beauty of the Tetons quite a bit more.
SO many people line up around and wait for the water to start coming out. It happens about once an hour.
Two wild bison made their way right beside the geyser. The park rangers got a little alarmed, starting yelling at them, and they ran off quickly.
For lunch we just ate at a little cafe at Yellowstone and then made our way back to the resort. For dinner we ate in the town square at Cafe Genevieve. We had some drinks and appetizers for happy hour and then the most delicious chocolate bread pudding. Everything was WAY overpriced here so we tried to cut costs where we could. This was probably one of our favorite meals. They are known for their "pig candy" which is sweet and spicy bacon. It was interesting to say the least!
Day FOUR-
This was the day we planned to do Jenny Lake, which is another natural lake at Grand Teton National Park.On our drive out to Jenny Lake we once again came upon a dozen or so cars pulled over, cameras and binoculars out. This is what we came upon-
This is called a "great gray owl." It is the largest owl in North America. It was amazing to see and you should have seen the crowds he pulled in. There was one guy there that said he had been chasing that owl for the last TEN years. It was enormous! Definitely a highlight of our trip.
What most visitors do is take the boat ride across the lake and then hike up to Inspiration Point. We decided to be adventurous and we went further onto Cascade Canyon. It was a 9 mile hike and we are so glad we did it. We couldn't move a muscle immediately following, but again we are so glad we did this.
The famous victory shot! We were thinking we did it! Little did we know the hard part was yet to come.
Heading on towards cascade canyon-
Some animals we saw along the way-
Marmot-
Keith feeding a chipmunk some of his apple-
Of course he would pick up a snake?!
After a long hike we headed to The Bird for a nice BIG burger. The food was great, however I think they lied to us when we called to see if their beef was grass fed.
Keith enjoying his yummy "pink" burger. This was definitely not on our vegan diet!
Such a wonderful time! We knew we wanted to go a little bigger this year because with adding #3 we know it will be awhile before we can do something like this again. Nana and Pops were so sweet to watch the kiddos for us. I know the kids were so worn out because they actually slept until 7am the morning after we got home!
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