Once the pandemic began to turn from something “over there” to all-consuming “over here” and we had to cancel two international trips with no hope of future cross-border travel in sight, I set my sights on the good ol’ US of A. We laid out the map and began looking at places we’ve wanted to see that were drivable that we always said we’d do “later” and now “later” was here!
As we are obsessed with the mountains, it was obvious to look westward and we set our sights on the Grand Tetons National Park area. We had heard on the news that the national parks were being swarmed by visitors with other travel shut down so we were banking on the fact that Tetons would be a bit less busy than its big brother, Yellowstone.
And so we packed up the car and made the the 21 hour journey to Jackson, WY, rocking out to Johnny & June’s classic “Jackson” as we got closer to our destination. There is something about driving across America after you’ve been confined to your home and community that is much different than non-2020 road trips. An escape from prison feeling, if you will!
I had heard Jackson was touristy but really had no idea until we arrived. We stayed at the fantastic Alpine House https://alpinehouse.com/ which had a perfect location–walking distance from the busy downtown center, yet on a quiet street. Immediately we felt safe and at home when we walked in, as every precaution was taken. Unfortunately, as we were led to our upstairs room, I was reminded that I booked a room without air conditioning, thinking back in June: “we’re in the mountains–how hot can it get?” The answer is 90+. Sorry, Russell. We had to sleep with the windows and patio door open both nights, but we managed. I won’t make that mistake again when booking!
The Alpine House is wonderful. In addition to a stellar gourmet breakfast each morning that we ate on the deck, there are several gorgeous sitting areas on covered porches, decks, patios, and in their flower-filled yard. We spent a nice amount of time sipping adult beverages in that yard while doing some much needed socially-distanced visiting with other guests.
Apparently one of the negatives of being in Jackson in the summer is that you can’t get a reservation at a restaurant until after 9 pm. Luckily we were able to walk over to Snake River Brewery, wait about 30 minutes, and get a table on their patio. We were so thankful to be seated that we almost didn’t mind the fact our table was mostly in the sun, still toasty at 7 pm! That didn’t stop us from having a great meal and some nice microbrews. We started off with a gorgonzola, walnut, cranberry salad. Then Russell had a Waygu steak with chimichurri and corn salsa while I had the trout with vegetables and kim chee. Walking to and from the restaurant through the ultra-crowded main square area made us even happier that we had our lovely garden oasis back at The Alpine House.
The next day, after our lovely breakfast, we headed to the Jenny Lake area where we planned to do our first day of hiking. Now, we have done a lot hiking and spent quite a bit of time in the mountains so we know all about easing in on your first day, but somewhere that good decision-making got thrown out. We ended up hiking a trail around Jenny Lake that, according to our phones and Russell’s GPS, had us doing 11 miles/24,000+ steps, 33 floors at 7,000 ft elevation in 90 degree heat for 7 hours. Good times. Nice, “easy” start! But what a terrific hike! The only area that was congested at all was by Hidden Falls, which has a ferry that takes visitors there. Most other trail areas were lightly trafficked. We passed a couple on one stretch who had just seen a grizzly bear, so that was exciting. However, we did not see it–apparently the bear spray we bought was a repellant as well! One suggestion about hiking around Jenny Lake–we did our hike clockwise, but I would recommend going counterclockwise instead.
After our hike, we made the wise decision to call and order food to go so we wouldn’t have to wait somewhere. We were exhausted as you can imagine and just wanted to eat on the deck at The Alpine House while enjoying some beverages and resting our legs. We ordered from the Italian eatery Glorietta’s https://www.gloriettajackson.com/ just down the street from The Alpine House. Sometimes when we go to a restaurant, my meal looks amazing while Russell’s looks (and tastes) just average. This was just that situation at Glorietta’s. I ordered a Scottish salmon with corn and green bean succotash and cilantro pesto. It was beautiful and tasty. However, Russell ordered a ricotta cavatelli with spicy sausage and was imagining the huge pasta meal he’d be feasting on after a big day of hiking. I laughed out loud when he opened the box and saw the tiny portion we paid $23 for. He was not laughing. I had to hear about that meal for quite a while…actually still hearing about it whenever we make pasta. Poor guy.
The next day after another over the top breakfast (twice-baked eggs with shallots, pancetta, kale, cheese, and tomatoes), we checked out of the wonderful Alpine House and made our way to the Taggard Lake trail in the park. A side note–I did a lot of online reading, including the great site www.alltrails.com and guide book reading to determine which trails we would hike and the advice was very helpful.
On the way out of town, we stopped at Creekside Market and Deli https://creeksidejacksonhole.com/ where we got excellent sandwiches for a post-hike picnic. We then set off on the breath-taking trail at Taggart/Bradley Lake. We hiked counterclockwise, which I recommend, and passed through absolutely gorgeous scenery with not a lot of trail traffic. As we were a little wiped out from the first day of hiking, we got off easy with a 4 hour, 6.5 mile, 37 floor hike. And it was “only” 87 that day!
Following the hike, we drove over to Jenny Lake and scaled down a hill to the shore. There we spread out a blanket and had a lovely lunch of our turkey club sandwiches and beer while we grazed at the majestic Tetons reflected in the lake. Those calm waters were calling us so we took a VERY refreshing swim before packing up and driving south to our next destination: Thayne, WY.
I have taken a lot of impressive drives in my life but the most beautiful stretch of US highway I have seen is between Hoback Junction and Alpine, south of Jackson. Wow. Wow. Wow. If we come back, I would definitely stay in Alpine. Heck, I could LIVE in Alpine. However, we had rented a cabin online in Thayne, thinking that would be safer than staying at a hotel in Alpine, and so we headed on further to Thayne. We pulled into the Cabin Creek Inn https://www.cabincreekinn.com/ and checked into our little cabin. It was quite nice and had a great outdoor pool, which we used a lot with all of the heat. However, the thing about Thayne is that it is really small and the few restaurants they have close all week for the county fair, which was going on while we were there. Thankfully there was a supermarket across the road with a great deli so we got some of our meals there–including fresh sushi. Quite a surprise! Eating deli chicken, Caesar salad, and sushi on our porch swing while visiting with others in the parking lot was not too bad of an evening, but we would try to find “real restaurants” after that.
Feeling the effects of our hikes, the next day we decided to take a drive around “the back” of the Tetons, up through Idaho and loop around down through Yellowstone, Tetons, and back to Thayne. Sitting in the car this long is fine until you try to get out of the car when you stop and you can hardly walk! We were definitely feeling our age today! On our drive, we checked out the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway and the Upper and Lower Falls. We stopped in gorgeous Island Park, ID along the Henry’s Fork River and had a great lunch at Café Sabor on the deck overlooking all of the river activity. I could have sat there all day! However, we still had a long drive back to Thayne, having to drive through the ultra-crowded Yellowstone Park, back through Tetons Park, and another hour beyond, arriving after 8 pm exhausted.
The next day we started our days of hiking in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Our first trail was the Wolf Creek/Dry Fork Trail. It is off of the highway and the trailhead is not well marked, so it takes some effort to find, but it is worth it! We went 4.5 miles and crossed a FREEZING creek twice. It was a beautiful hike through a valley and we only saw five other people. Afterward we went to Sheep Gulch boat landing and then West Table where we hung out and cooled off in the river while watching raft excursions and kayakers pass by. That night we had a wonderful dinner in Alpine at Brenthoven’s at The Nordic Inn. http://www.thenordicinn.net/ Russell had ribeye and I had the cod parmesan while enjoying our patio table in their beautiful garden. The temperature was quite high that day and it was still over 90 degrees during dinner! We definitely did not expect that in the mountains.
For the next day’s hike, we decided to go “gliking”, like “glamping”, but glamorous-hiking so we packed sushi rolls from the Thayne grocery store for our hike lunch. We headed toward Afton and hiked the Swift Creek Trail in the national forest. It was another steamy day, but it was a picturesque drive into the trail with lots of rock formations. The trail had a great deal of ascent/descent going from 5,900 feet to 7,400 feet in a six mile hike. The iPhones said we “climbed” 57 floors.
Post-hike we went into Afton and did a drive-by of their “famous” county fair and got some seafood to go from Rocky Mountain Seafood: blackened halibut and chips which we ate beneath a Mormon church shelter, very thankful for the shade! This is most definitely JCLDS country as there are Mormon churches everywhere, including a huge one in Afton.
The following day, we began our drive home, swinging through Tetons and Yellowstone parks which allowed us to see some elk, mule deer, and bison. Although Yellowstone was extremely busy, the East Entrance had barely any traffic and stunning views in every direction all the way to Cody through the Shoshone National Park, where I DEFINITELY want to spend more time in the future. We drove as far as Mile City, MT, setting us up for an early arrival the next morning in Teddy Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND.
When people think of national parks of the west, the Theodore Roosevelt NP is one that is often overlooked, but if you are looking for wildlife sightings, it is the park for you! Although it lacks the stunning visual beauty of Yellowstone/Tetons, it still has some pretty arid landscapes and rock formations. The real draw is the fact that it has a much better animal to tourist ratio and while you are driving the loop, you will make frequent stops for animal sightings. We saw at least 10 different groups of bison as well as three groups of wild horses, an antelope buck, and tons of prairie dogs. We took three small hiking trails: Wind Canyon, Boicourt, and Buckhill, as well as making a stop on the highway to check out the Painted Canyon. If you have time, TRNP is worth a stop!
And so we continued our drive home, exhausted but feeling grateful to have had the opportunity to visit three national parks, do some hiking, and just GET AWAY during a tough time of being on lockdown. The pandemic has changed the way we approach travel and our destination choices, but one thing is for sure–we have never appreciated travel as much as we did in 2020 and we can’t wait to get back out there!
Trippin' with Señora 