After lots of outdoor exploring in Utah we drove 8 hours to Jackson, Wyoming where my fantastic Aunt, Uncle and cousins live. In 2009 and 2012 I stayed in this same area and went skiing with my aunt and uncle - now they live here and I was back for a summer visit.
My aunt Mandy and uncle Rob are quite possibly the most hospitable people I have ever met in my whole life and welcomed us with open arms. The very afternoon we arrived they took us to a ranch party - it was alfresco dining in a paddock on a ranch and all the food was, obviously, farm fresh and incredible! I wish I had taken some photos!
Exploring Wilson / Jackson
Mandy and Rob technically live in a small town called Wilson, which has the best bagel shop in the world, but the more well known (and nearby) town is Jackson Hole.
After a sleep in and some morning gardening (gotta earn our keep) we went on a quick afternoon bike ride. All the roads throughout Wilson have amazing bike paths, so we took this opportunity to get some (more) fresh air and explore the local area.
We did also spend a drizzly day exploring the slightly bigger town of Jackson.
There is absolutely no shortage of wild west paraphernalia - leather cowboy boots are everywhere!
Another favourite item is the Stetson and the use of elk antlers to decorate doorways - I have never seen so many houses with elk antlers over their front door!
The town square of Jackson Hole has four arches made entirely of elk antlers.
So very western but still pretty cool!
Later that Sunday, Mandy and Rob also took us to a free concert at Jackson Hole Resort - it was pretty cool for a free show (they happen every Sunday). We had some amazing local cheeses and meats and listened to some pretty decent free music - this kind of inside scoop is the great thing about staying with the locals.
Driving around the Tetons
Since the weather forecast still was not doing us any favours, Mandy suggested we go for a drive around Teton National Park and recommended some good places to sight see, view wildlife and even to eat.
Mandy and Rob had been telling us wildlife stories since we had arrived - we had heard all about bear encounters, moose in their backyard, elk, deer, beaver and chipmunks... we were pretty keen on spotting a bear or moose (from the safety of our rental car of course!).
The wildlife spotting was pretty much a complete failure.
However, the views of the Teton Mountains along the roads we were driving were pretty spectacular.
Behind me, to the left, is the Grand Teton among the Teton Mountain range.
At Mandy's recommendation we stopped at Jackson Lodge for lunch.
They have a lovely balcony area, from which you can see Jackson Lake and the Teton Mountains.
My attempts to capture the view - you can kind of see the mountain range to the right.
Embracing the American food theme with my first burger of our trip!
On our way home we stopped by Teton Village and went to a bar called the Mangy Moose - I have been here quite a few times for drinks after skiing (several years ago) but it was quite cool to sit on the balcony in the afternoon sun.
Granite Hot Springs
Thanks to another local recommendation, we ventured south of Jackson to a small area called Granite and visited the Granite Hot Springs. These, as the name suggests, are natural hot springs that are open both summer and winter (only accessible by skiing, snowmobile or sled dogs!)
We drove for about an hour, the last half an hour of which was on unsealed and fairly isolated roads, in order to find the hot springs.
After parking the car it was a short walk to the actual hot springs and there was lots of beautiful scenery along the way. The lakes / rivers in Wyoming are absolutely stunning!
The best thing about the hot springs is actually how isolated they are - this is a photo take from just outside of the actual hot springs, as you can see it's pretty tranquil!
A pretty unflattering photo of me, but nonetheless I am soaking in hot spring!
Mandy had warned us that they weren't as hot as usual, all the water comes from the mountains and since the previous winter had involved heavier than average snowfall, a lot of the water flowing into the springs was still excess snow melt.
It actually wasn't as cold as I had expected, it was still warm but I think it usually would be really hot. The coldest part was actually not being in the water - it was getting out of the water and being exposed to the fresh mountain air!
The water was still beautiful and clear!
In the above photos you can kind of see how the water is trickling down the side of the mountains and into the hot spring. The water that first enters the hot spring is the hottest water so most of the people visiting were gathered around this area!
The Gondola Hike
After Granite Hot Springs, we arrived back in Wilson, had a quick luck and then ventured back to Teton Village to do a local hike. This hike was up one of the mountains that I had skied down in the previous two winters that I was here!
Jackson Hole Resort has many different ski lifts that operate in the winter but only some of them still operate in the summer. On this hike, we started at the base of the mountain (in Teton Village) and hiked to the top of one of the lifts - the Gondola.
The trail itself is called the Wildflower Trail and it zig zags back and fourth across the mountain, at a constant ascent, until you are at the top of the Gondola lift.
This first photo is a bit of a joke - I am holding bear spray! Jackson and the surrounding areas are in bear country - which means that bears roam around these national parks during the summer months. Hikers are supposed to carry bear spray, which is only supposed to be discharged in an emergency and if a bear is charging towards you - scary right!
The chances of encountering a bear are fairly slim - if this happens you are supposed to remain calm and back away, most of the time the bear isn't interested in people and will most likely continue to to it's own thing. The chances of being attacked by a bear are even more slim - however, the idea of bears being present still scared us so I had that bear spray ready to go.
As it turned out, we never encountered any bears so it was a non-issue (something I am absolutely glad about).
Michael hiking the Wildflower trail - this narrow trail zig zags across the mountain.
Above left: The Gondola lift - we later got this back down the mountain.
Above right: the wildflowers - it's pretty obvious where this trail gets its name from.
About half way up the views started to get pretty amazing - it was weird for me as the last time I was in this same location it was covered in snow! We even walked along / past some of my favourite ski runs from my last visit.
This is about half way up - a random swing!
Close to the top and the altitude was getting pretty tough!
Views from the top of the Gondola!
Everything looked so different in summer!
The hike took us just over two hours in total and the last half an hour or so was really hard! Mandy did warn us that hiking at altitude was an added challenge and she wasn't wrong! Fortunately there was some good food and drinks waiting for us at the top :-)
When I was last here in 2012, I had a photo taken in this exact same spot but it was covered in snow - I have included that photo below for comparison! It looks so different.
Top of the Gondola, winter 2012 - also an amazing view but completely different scenery!
The Rodeo
Another local recommendation - the Jackson Rodeo! So very western!
We booked tickets online ($5 off!) but while waiting in line to pick up our tickets we missed the American national anthem (that's right, it plays for the rodeo!). Fortunately, everybody and everything seemed to stand still and with his hand on his heart, then man behind us in line kindly, and very patriotically, sang along for us!
Seating was a bit of a free for all - this is the rodeo area and to the right you can see where the bulls / horses were released from.
This shot is taken of a bareback rider - which is exactly what it sounds like.
They have to stay on the horse for at least 8 seconds and then the judges also give them a score for their performance - I have no idea how this scoring system works!
Another picture of the bareback riding - they were the craziest of all the cowboys.
There was also mini bull riders (for U18s), bull riders, horses with saddles, barrel racing and event (I can't remember the name) where the cowboys had to lassoo the calves that were running away from them.
The rodeo is actually shockingly entertaining!
Everyone was pretty quick to get up and leave when it was all over but it was a pretty good night of entertaining - even if it was super cowboy-centric!
Yellowstone National Park
Towards the end of the week we headed off for one of our bigger day trips from Jackson: Yellowstone National Park.
Now, I am not exaggerating when I say that this park is absolutely enormous! It took us about 2 hours to arrive at the park and once you are there, there is a 'smaller' loop of the park that you can drive - this alone takes 2-3 hours, which only accounts for driving time!
By this point I had gotten half decent at driving on the 'wrong' side of the road - only a few lapses of concentration where I tried to drive on the left (strangely enough, this always seemed to happen in car parks - at least there was minimal speed involved).
First stop - some waterfalls that I absolutely cannot remember the name of (even after some Google attempts and consulting with Michael).
Second stop: the West Thumb Geyser Basin.
This is where is starts to get a little more interesting - Yellowstone National Park is famous for it's geysers. These are like hot springs that erupt steam / hot water intermittedly. Oh, and also they are extremely dangerous! Some of them are up to 93 degrees Celsius and others are acidic. While looking at the geysers you must stay on the marked boardwalks as the ground is quite temperamental and it's obviously not safe to get any closer (if anyone is interested in seeing what happens if you do get too close a quick Google search will answer this).
They are really pretty though!
Above: Blackpool Geyser
The geysers in this area were on the edge of the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake - I know the geysers are the main attraction but I also though the lake was pretty beautiful.
Some more geysers at the West Thumb Geyser Basin.
These were definitely some of the prettiest (and least smelly) geysers we saw while exploring Yellowstone National Park.
From here we drove to Old Faithful - the most famous of all of the Yellowstone geysers.
Well - this was an ordeal!
Old Faithful is well known for erupting, pretty much like clockwork, every 90 minutes (hence the name). Whenever one of these eruptions happen, literally hundreds of people gather to watch it go off - the car park was absolutely packed, it was insane!
So, of course we arrived just as Old Faithful had finished erupting and then had to wait another 90 minutes for the next eruption - could not have timed it worse!
Me in front of Old Faithful prior to eruption - it kinda just steams constantly.
After a long time of waiting around, finally we got to see the eruption!
I was actually suprised at how quiet it was - I thought it would be noisy but it kinda just started hissing and then steam began to pour out.
The next geyser was probably my favourite: Grand Prismatic Spring.
This is the largest geyser in Yellowstone and (fun fact) third largest worldwide!
I loved the vibrant blue colour of this spring and the sheer enormity of it was incredible.
We only viewed this geyser from a viewing platform that was a short hike from the car park. You could also park closer and walk right beside it but accessing it among all the other tourist cars, rvs and buses seemed nightmarish.
Final stop: Norris Geyser Basin.
I know it seems like we didn't actually get to seem much, and it definitely felt that way at the time, but we did sooo much driving!
The Norris Geyser Basin area was a little more end-of-the-world in style, compared to the other geyers we had seen. This area is also the hottest thermal area in the whole of Yellowstone.
Norris Geyser Basin area.
Above: Steam Boat Geyser - the tallest currently active geyser in the world.
Unlike Old Faithful, it's eruptions are really unpredictable - it's eruptions can reach up to 90 meters, although this has not happened recently and does not happen often.
By the time we had explored these areas in the park (it didn't seem like much) it was getting late and we had a three hour drive from where we were in the park! This is such a big park, we could have easily spent a few more days here!
We got to watch the sun set over Yellowstone Lake while we drove out of Yellowstone.
Jenny Lake
A final, and possibly my favourite, local recommendation was Jenny Lake.
Jenny Lake is located in Grand Teton National Park and is a locally known place for hiking and watersports.
We set off for a 2.5 mile hike around the lake and towards a lookout point and some waterfalls.
The path was really beautiful but once again we were in bear country (and equipped with bear spray) and spent the first half hour deeply paranoid about bear encounters. Luckily this hike was reasonable popular and seeing plenty of other hikers helped us feel more at ease.
Stunning views of the lake while we hiked.
I could not believe how gorgeous this lake was!
This short section of the trail required us to traverse a reasonable steep ledge, but after hiking at Zion this felt pretty easy for me (maybe I am getting better with heights!?).
Incredible view of the lake even before we reached the lookout point.
Inspiration Point.
For such an unknown and mostly local area this has some of the most stunning views that we have seen so far on this trip!
Hard to take a bad photo when the scenery is this good!
Some more snaps at Inspiration Point.
From here we hiked onto Hidden Falls, some waterfalls located slightly more inland of Jenny Lake.
After spending some time admiring the views at Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point, we made the hike back to our car - this was supposed to be a reasonably leisurely hike but the altitude really does get to you and we both found it moderately tough!
FINALLY - on our way home we spotted some wildlife! A female moose and her calf (you can almost see it on the left but it's mostly hidden by the grass).
Michael enjoying a post-hike beer in Mandy and Rob's back yard.
Now, my fantastic aunt Mandy and uncle Rob deserve a HUGE shout out! They made us feel so welcome in their home and went out of their way to ensure we had a great time while we were here - from Ranch parties, river floats, backyard fire pits, smores, home made dinners and night time drinks - they are incredible people and I could not say thank you enough!
Mandy's home made backyard fire pit - it kicks out way more heat than this photos makes it appear to.
Above: we were treated to two nights of fire pits, smores and star gazing!
I have also enjoyed getting to know my cousins (although I think that they both like Michael more than me) who they have done a fantastic job of raising into polite but really fun kids!
The only regrets I have is that I didn't make the effort to take some photos with my amazing aunt and uncle and my sweet little cousins!
After three weeks of hiking, natural scenery and national parks it is time to switch things off and head for the crazy city of Las Vegas!
Viva Las Vegas ;-)
