I was nervous about this trip for a various reasons. Worry one was regarding the camping in a tent surrounded by bears, wolves, and nature. Worry two was the cold and sleeping in a tent with no heat, just us and our little sleeping bags. Worry three was flying cross country with our 15 month old, Bryce. Fortunately, everything turned out just fine and we survived and had an enjoyable, beautiful vacation.
Grand Teton Area
We flew into Salt Lake City and drove through the nite to the Grand Teton area. We stayed the night at Gros Ventros campground. We arrived there after midnight, quickly set up our tent and went to sleep. Yes, it was cold and uncomfortable sleeping since we just threw our little pads and sleeping bags down and crawled inside. However, at 6am when we woke up and unzipped our tent we were greeted with an amazing sight. There were two large male moose grazing on the sage grass just a short distance away. Bryce, who loves cows, immediately started mooing. What a great start to our trip. (Note: Mike had woken up hours earlier and driven to Mormon Drive, a short distance away, to get sunrise pictures with the famous barn.)
We then headed over to Mormon Drive because Mike had seen bison around there. Another perfect timing for us, the bison were crossing the streets and were lined up down both sides. There were hundreds of them and it was amazing. We drove slow and had our windows down since it was perfect clear weather with great skies for pictures.
We had breakfast in Jackson at the Bunnery, we had read rave reveiews about this place and we waited in a long line over 30 minute for our meal. What a waste of our vacation time! We got poor service and had to wait for our server to even greet us, even longer for our beverages and even longer for our food. Finally, she brings our son his pancakes and informs my husband that they are out of pepper gravy for his cowboy egg plate, and then she asked if he would like to substitute hollandaise sauce with his eggs. I have no clue if she was just a bad server or if the whole place is full of this type of crazy.
We then went to Jenny Lake and hiked around the lake and up to the falls. Mike felt adventurous so he took all our gear and headed up to Inspiration Point while I headed to the boat dock. Yes, I took the lazy way back and rode the ferry. In my defense, I had just hiked over 4 miles with a 15 month old baby. This hike was very nice and gives excellent views, so worth the time and energy! We spent that night at the Jenny Lake campground and they do not have running water in their rest rooms so I used the ones at the general store near the ferry.
We woke up and headed to Cooke city, but not before stopping for breakfast. We stopped at Dornan's Chuck Wagon. The food was amazing, the hot chocolate delightful and the view was incredible. We wish we would have found this place our first day in Grand Teton. We would have loved to have dinner here.
Cooke City/Northern YellowStone
We did stop at Old Faithful area and do a hike there on our way. It was crowded and the buffalo were on the boardwalk. The buffalo on the boardwalks weren't scary, but the people getting up close and personal was enough to make me uncomfortable.
In Cooke City we stayed in a little cabin that we rented for four nights. This cabin was basically a shed with two space heaters and a little bathroom with hot water. After camping out in our tent in 20 degree weather it felt like heaven. It was a futon that we all three slept on and we loved it. We jokingly called this place our “5 star hotel”.
In Cooke city they aren’t many food options. We ate at the Miner’s Saloon one night for dinner and ordered the large pizza. The pizza was great and there was plenty of it. We took the leftovers back to our cabin and reheated the next day for lunch. We also ordered sandwiches for the road one day from the deli, the Cooke city club was definitely one of the best lunches we had while in Yellowstone. We also had a late night meal at the Soda Butte Lodge Ore House Saloon. We walked in and the place was packed, not an open table for us. Luckily, a kind couple offered to let us squeeze in at their table. They were great and loved to hear about our day and talk with our son. Thank goodness, it was 8:30pm and our little guy was HUNGRY! Our last night in Cooke City we ate at the Log Cabin Café, the food was great but it was freezing inside that place. Some random guy kept walking in and out and leaving the door open.
During the days while we stayed in Cooke City we would drive into Yellowstone and look for wildlife taking a few small hikes with Bryce, but nothing strenuous since he wasn’t crazy about the packback. Lamar Valley was amazing! We walked to a hill across the street and sat and watch 2 wolves hunting one stranded elk for two days! We don’t know if they ever got the kill or not since we had to move onto Mammoth Hot Springs.
Mammoth Hot Springs
Mammoth Hot Springs was full of Elk, they just walk around between cars and sit in the grassy areas. We were there during the start of rut, which was neat to hear them bugling. The one day there was a small herd of female elk with one large male bull elk. A smaller male came into view and the ranger instructed us to all get into our cars. (The rangers are very good at engaging in conversation and keeping people at bay from the animals.) The larger male bugled and stood up, almost immediately the small one took off running, so neat to see this natural selection process.
We ate many meals inside Yellowstone at their cafes and grill restaurants. The options were pretty much all the same no matter where you were in the park. It was extremely pricey, but it was at least decent food, the fries were actually pretty good.
We camped one night in Mammoth Hot Springs and there was an elk outside our tent bugeling all night. I was able to sleep through most of it, but if honestly sounded like he was 10 yards away from us. We did a hike around the beaver pond in Mammoth Hot Springs, the hiked had some great views, but much to our disappointment, no wildlife besides a few ducks.
West Yellowstone
We then traveled out of the park and stayed at the Holiday Inn at West Yellowstone. This place felt like heaven to me after tenting and the little cabin. We ate lunch at the Wild West Pizzeria, the service was great. We then had dinner at the BearTooth Barbecue on Main Street. The portions here were huge.
We went back to our hotel where Mike and Bryce had a swim; we all had some amazing showers. We went for an evening walk and had some homemade ice cream at one of the stands. The waffle cone was amazing! A great ending to our fun trip!
