Family Driving Vacation-Day 15: Grand Teton National Park, WY

I admit, I’m writing this post almost a week after this day happened, but the hike we went on today was memorable!  This morning we decided that we were going to check out the Jenny Lake area which we had heard was very pretty.  It’s located in the center of the park and wasn’t too far from our hotel (even though we were doing lots of driving anyways).  It was Saturday, but fortunately not too crowded.  I’ve been surprised how few children we’ve seen on this trip, although today there were more than we’ve seen anywhere else.  I wonder if it’s because school is back in session, or if most families aren’t crazy like we are taking a 1 and 2 year old on such an adventure.  I hope that Theo will remember a little of it when he’s bigger, and that’s one of the main reasons I blog in general is to save up the funny and adventurous stories of our family. 

We got to Jenny Lake around noon, and rushed to the shuttle boat.  Turns out there is a boat every 15 minutes or so to take you across the lake.  You have to buy tickets on the visitor center side of the lake for either a one way ticket or a round trip ticket and the boats stop running at 4pm.  We decided to go for the one way ticket because I knew Mason really wanted to hike back, and we thought we could buy tickets back on the other side of the lake if needed (this didn’t seem to be true, but I was pretty sure I could pull the “poor me, I have two babies who aren’t walking back” if I needed to). 

The boat was full of passengers and you could tell that every 15 minutes or so a new wave arrived because you’d see groups of people passing us. The main highlights we wanted to see on this hike were the Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point.  So, we head up to the falls, and we got their really fast.  I told Mason that I was convinced that these maps were totally wonky because some days .4 miles seems like forever, but today it felt so fast.  That was until I realized we were at trick falls, and we still had a long way to go to get to the real Hidden Falls.  It was a fairly steep and congested trail, but the boys did okay. 

 When we got the actual falls, they were quite pretty and there was a shaded area where we stopped to rest.  We had been warned by a few people on the way up that the trail got steeper and tricky and to be careful hiking with the boys.  We could see Inspiration Point way high up from the Falls, as decided that it was best for me to stop with the boys, feed them, let them stretch their legs, and we sent Mason up to Inspiration Point.  He did it in half an hour and then joined us for lunch.  He agreed it was best the way we decided to split up, but didn’t find it all that inspiring.  ;) 

At this point it was around 1:45pm and so we decided that we would head back via the trail that was a smooth trail that would go along Jenny Lake and take us back to the visitor center.  Somehow we missed the turn off to get to the lower trail and we ended up on a trail along the lake, but it was also up the side of the Mountain!!!  I was NOT thrilled.  While we were hiking at this point I was feeling pretty yucky.  I think it was a combination of heat, and not having enough water, and being tired.  When we reached the top, I was feeling pretty wobbly and sick and this was the first time that Theo complained that his legs were hurting him so I felt pretty bad for him.  This all pretty much came out on Mason.  I tried to restrain my not nice comments, but I’m pretty sure the eye rolls could have knocked him off the mountain. 

We FINALLY headed down the mountain side and I was feeling slightly better after stopping again to drink some water and try to regain my head space.  The altitude may have had something to do with it as well.  Mason really wanted to check out Moose pond where a moose and calf were spotted the day before, and I was afraid with our detour we’d missed it, but we didn’t.  Unfortunately, there were no moose to be found today.  Theo and I were walking pretty slowly at this point, we took another quick break and Mason and Woodrow hiked closer to the lake while Theo and I headed back to the visitor center.  The overall hike took us 4 hours, and was pretty long, but I don’t remember the exact mileage.    

I think we all still had secret expectations to see a bear, so we went over by the Moose-Wilson road and there were several Rangers and a park ambulance parked there, so we thought there might be a bear nearby.  We talked to the rangers, and they said the bear had been seen today, but the road would be closed for at least 72 hours after a bear sighting. So, we cut our losses and decided to hear into Jackson Hole for dinner.  We went to a place called Bubba’s BBQ.  It definitely seemed like the local restaurant and it was really tasty.  I wish I had felt better because I didn’t feel great.  I was tired, hot, and had a migraine.  We grabbed some DQ on the way back to our hotel as well, but I didn’t even touch it.  I just wanted to get home, shower, and go to sleep, and that’s pretty much what I did. 

Mason took Theo down to the water near our hotel while I bathed Woodrow and myself and then we laid down.  We all tucked in early and hoped to feel better on Sunday.