Goodbye Montana, Hello Wyoming

Grand Teton National Park

Sunday June 26

We left our Aunt Vicky and Uncle Hank’s house in Montana and drove five hours to see the Grand Tetons, since we weren’t able to camp at Yellowstone. I remember seeing the mountain range on a trip when I was nine with my Aunt Jeanne, but I definitely appreciate their majesty more as an adult. The Grand Teton (the largest in the mountain range) reminded Dave and I a little of the Matterhorn in Switzerland. It was truly awesome the way the rocks jutted up to the sky. They were shaped and formed by tectonic plates and earthquakes. The only downside of this stunning areas was all the amazing mountain bikers and trails we saw. Dave’s heart broke a little not having our bikes with us, but he’s determined to come back again and enjoy that part of the national park too.

On our way

The Grand Teton

Moose sculpture at the visitors center

We got our stamp in our national park passport book and headed to Taggart Trailhead to walk to the lake. Liam was my hiking buddy for the first mile, but he was heavy and thankfully Dave carried him the rest of the way. I read the map wrong (I do not claim to be the navigator in this family) and what I thought was a mile and a half total ended up only being a mile and a half one way. Oops. Annabelle was done walking a mile in so we told stories the rest of the hike. She requested stories that take place in forests and stories with ballerinas, snow monsters, and princesses. It was a good distraction for me too. And I’m grateful she’s not critical of my storytelling abilities. We made it to Taggart Lake with the gorgeous backdrop of the mountains, then hiked back. We were amazed at all the different terrains we saw in that short distance…fields, forests, plains, lakes, streams. Caleb was good at marking our progress with what terrain we were hiking through.

We stopped for dinner in the cute, but touristy downtown of Jackson Hole, WY then drove a few more hours to Cokeville where we stayed the night at Arrowhead Ranch. Dave found this airbnb ranch which was beautiful, but since we were coming in the dark we had a little trouble finding it. Thankfully no neighbors came out yelling when we ended up in the wrong place a few times.