Having boon-docked just outside the south entrance to Yellowstone, we woke up early and made the fairly short drive down into Teton National Park. Driving south with Jackson Lake on our right, we got the most beautiful view of the Teton range in the distance. The sun was coming up onto the mountains so we just parked the 4runner in a designated viewing area and pulled out our Coleman stove to make some coffee and oatmeal. It was certainly our most beautiful breakfast view of the trip.

Our plans for the Tetons only included one day in the actual park and let me tell you, it was not enough. Our one day was very hiking-heavy, but we really only stayed in the foothills without making our way very far up any of the mountains – something Matt really would like to have done. Jenny Lake is a very popular area in the park and for good reason. It offers several diverse trails with the Teton range as the backdrop. Matt and I chose to do the entire Jenny Lake Trail that is a 8 mile loop around the lake. There are multiple trails that weave in and out of the Jenny Lake Trail and we decided to venture out on a few of them as well including Hidden Falls Trail and Inspiration Point Trail.

The temperature when we took off in the morning was a cool 40-something degrees, but as we got our heart rates up we had to shed our flannels. Deciding to be out hiking most of the day meant that we both carried day-packs with lunch, snacks, and lots of water. Our first stop was a short one to view Hidden Falls and then we made our way up, up, up to Inspiration Point where we took a break and had some lunch. Being destination spots both Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point were on the busier side, but once we made our way around what I am going to call the back side of the lake, there were significantly less people. One exciting discovery that happened while we were walking along the backside of Jenny Lake were a group of otters swimming alongside us as we hiked. Matt and I had a list of wildlife we had hoped to encounter while on this trip and to be honest otters were not on it. It was definitely a fun surprise and we went on to have two more otter sightings before our trip was over.

A large chunk of the Jenny Lake Trail is in direct sunlight and we definitely wanted to jump into the lake when we were finished hiking for the day, but a much bigger desire for dinner and showers sent us instead to nearby Jackson Hole. Once in town, we replenished some of our groceries and checked into a motel for the night. We had hoped to find a camp sight nearby, but there was absolutely nothing available and our need for showers and laundry was too great to spend another night boon-docking. Had we not been in the middle of a pandemic, I would have liked to explore Jackson Hole more – it looked like a very hip place to be. I did not however enjoy the traffic. Maybe I am spoiled having lived my entire life in towns/cities where the roads were intricately planned out before they were built, but the roads in Jackson Hole were not built to bear the heavy traffic that the town gets.

For our second day in the Teton area, Matt and I hiked Snow King Mountain. This mountain located in Jackson Hole, is home to a ski resort and an adventure park. There are several trails leading up to the top of it and I hear that if you go on a weekend you can pay a small fee to take the ski lift back down the mountain. Unfortunately the lift was not running on the Thursday that we were there so we had to retrace our steps back down the way we came. The mountain was very steep, but view at the top overlooks the Teton Mountain Range and it was beautiful. The trail was not very crowded and the few hikers we did see appeared to be locals. We even got to play with a cute dog named Boo while we ate our lunch at the top – making us miss our own dog that we left back home.

Before leaving the Teton area to head to our next trip destination, we made a quick stop in Teton Village. It was not exactly what we had expected. The village was very touristy and upscale and we felt out of place. We poked our heads in a couple shops, but left not long after we arrived to make our way to Pinedale, WY.