Jackson Area/Grand Tetons
After leaving Yellowstone National Park, we headed due south to the Jackson Hole area and Grand Teton National Park. We ended up staying in Victor, a very nice small town just across the border into Idaho and only a few miles outside of Jackson. Fun Fact about Idaho - it is a completely made up name.
The Teton Valley area was truly beautiful everywhere we looked, and we just loved it. Our airbnb condo was in a large, mostly new construction community that was pretty and had wonderful walking paths.
One of the homes, off in the distance. Lots of beautiful flowers in the comunity. The view from our balcony. A great place to have coffee in the morning. Duckies enjoying the pond. You can’t see it, but part of the golf course is across the pond. Double rainbow (view from balcony)! Really weird flower. Another view from one of the paths. Nearby hiking trail. View from one of the nearby mountains. You can see the tetons from almost everywhere. Driving up one of the mountains, we had to share the road. Just cows this time. The creek by one of the trails.
Getting to Grand Teton National Park from our place only took about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on which part of the park we were visiting. One highligh - Craig finally got to see moose live and in person - we had looked for them all over Yellowstone, to no avail. One hour into our first Grand Teton National Park adventure, there they were, just hanging out at the Moose Ponds. Who could have guessed? Here are some teaser photos from the park - see more in the gallery.
Moose, hanging out at Moose Ponds. Rest of family was hiding behind trees. Lots of bear warnings, “we” were happy not to see any. They had a bear spray vending machine! Grand Tetons. The visitor center was really cool. I liked this “frame” for photos. And there were funny flags all over celebrating 250th. I really liked this quote - it was so true. The tetons rose majestically with no warning. Another view, not as well known. There’s a glacier in the middle of the middle grouping.
We were excited about celebrating the 250th Independence Day in a small town - we suspected that there would be a lot of festivities to enjoy, and we were right. The celebration in the Teton Valley area was a full weekend of events, starting Friday morning, July 3rd.
We started with a pretty road trip around the area, enjoyed a classic car show, and ended the day at the Teton Village ski area. Then we enjoyed…Surprise fireworks! The community we were staying in had quite a good display, which we could see from our balcony - score!
Early July 4th, we went to Main Street in Victor for their annual parade, which we had heard was quite the experience (it was). One of the local restaurants also hosts an annual pignic (not a type-o, pulled pork and brisket are the highlight - this was their 31st annual event) with live music. We ended up not celebrating again on Sunday (we were celebrated out), but there was more music if anyone wanted! See the gallery for more patriotic fun photos, especially of the parade!
As I mentioned in the Yellowstone post, spring comes very late to this part of the US and the weather can be…unpredictable. Below are two photos of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park. The first, the day we left Yellowstone (June 14) and the second almost a month later when we were saying goodbye to the park (July 12). Notice a difference????
We also really enjoyed being this close to Jackson - it’s such a cute town, had some great restaurants (brunch anyone?), and some nightlife. Coincidentally, Billy Bob Thornton and his band The Boxmasters were playing at the Million Dollar Cowboy Club, which is this kitschy venue where you can be very close to the band (or sit at the bar on saddles!). I hear that they also have a really great steakhouse downstairs, but we couldn’t get a reservation (LOL) so we opted for dinner at Gun Barrel Steak & Game, where they have a good reputation for interesting game (it was very good!).
Fran Moran & the Nervous Wrecks opened. Loved the swizzle stick. Bison Ribs. Elk Loin - yum!!
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