Yesterday was a stay in the RV and do budget/bills/etc. kind of day. When Ben was finished with work, he came out and announced he wanted to go see the Grand Tetons.
Ok…great. It’s just a 3.5-4 hour road trip (each way). So, we buckled up and started driving. To get there, you basically drive through Yellowstone, which was packed. I haven’t seen so many people since we’ve been here. I’m glad we saw most of the sights last week! It’s been really helpful to get up early and see things before lunch time, which is when it seems more people come into the park.
It rained on us for part of the drive. We got to see the Continental Divide in two different elevations during our drive, which was a nice learning opportunity.
Once at the Grand Tetons park, we went to Signal Mountain and drove to the top to the overlook. Of course, it started raining again, with thunder and some lightening. We did get some views of the Tetons, but it was cloudy.
After carefully driving back down (strangely enough there were less people going up the mountain in the rain), we saw an adult male elk with large antlers. Around Yellowstone we had only seen young males with smaller antlers. It was pretty cool!
We stopped at the visitor center to try to get a better view of the mountains as it had cleared up a little bit. It was pretty late by this time, so we stopped at their restaurant/cafe for some food. It was all take out, with ordering and pick up outside. Word of advice: bring your own food! The food was ok (not great, not even on the better side of good, but just ok), but I think this was the most expensive meal we’ve had so far. $9 for a hot dog (did come with vegetable side). They were the only option we saw though, so if you don’t bring your own food, you don’t have a lot of options.
The Grand Tetons were pretty and they have some large lakes there as well which would probably be great for boating and fishing. However, I am glad we spent most of our time in Yellowstone. I loved seeing the geysers and hot springs, plus there are so many trails. We didn’t get to check out Tetons’ trails though because it started raining on us again and it was another 4 hour drive back home.
We read in our National Parks book a little about the Tetons. They got their name from French trappers/explorers and were named “trois tetons”, or the three nipples. The boys found this extremely funny.
That’s the spirit. What a great time you seem to be having. And, Nick must be doing better on the bike, because there have been no bloody stories for over a week. I’m so jealous.
Dan B