Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton National Park is my favorite national park I’ve been to so far! This was our third stop on our nine-day road trip and my favorite of them all. Our first mission getting to the park was to find a campsite to stay at. A lot of the free sites are first come first serve, but we needed showers this night so we decided to go with a campsite with showers instead of a free site. After securing our site we headed off to the Colter Bay Visitor Center, where we tried to look into renting kayaks or canoes. Unfortunately, we got there too late and everything was booked until the evening. So we decided to head over to Jenny Lake instead!
Jenny Lake is a super popular spot in Grand Teton National Park, the earlier you can get there the better! Hidden Falls are a must-see at Jenny Lake. There are two ways to get to the falls you can either hike around the lake to the falls or take the shuttle boat straight across the lake and continue by foot to get to the falls. If you don’t have much time I’d recommend taking the shuttle boat. However, we got there fairly early in the day so we decided to hike the whole way. For a majority of the hike you could see out into the lake and overall just had really great views to take in along the route. I would say that most people take the shuttle boat so it wasn’t too busy hiking the trail.
Hidden Falls was absolutely incredible to see and explore! When we got to the falls we decided to hike up them for better views and photos. This is an absolute must-see if you go to Grand Teton. As you are hiking along the Hidden Falls seemingly appear out of nowhere but cannot be missed. The sun was shining as we explored the falls and truly made for the most incredible view. We wanted to snap a few photos so we climbed up the falls a few times to make sure we got the best shots. It was an unforgettable experience and while I may have stepped my shoe into the water it was definitely worth it!
After a few times climbing up the Hidden Falls we decided to head over to Inspiration Point. This is just past the falls if you continue on the trail, we were pretty exhausted after the hike and climbing the falls but still decided to head up to Inspiration Point. If you had to pick between one or the other I would definitely choose the Hidden Falls. The hike up to Inspiration Point is pretty steep and can be a little dangerous in some spots so you’ll want to be prepared. The view is pretty once you get to the top but we didn’t feel it was worth it after seeing how incredible the Hidden Falls were. Looking back now I’d say I would have rather hiked up to Inspiration Point first and then the falls.
On the way back we decided to stop for a dip in Jenny Lake. We were hot and sweaty so it was the perfect way to cool off. We stepped out onto a flat rock in the lake and then floated around in the water, it was freezing cold but so refreshing. After our quick dip, we finished heading back to the starting point. Then we headed back to Colter Bay Visitor Center to hammock and watch the sunset. Unfortunately, a storm rolled in quickly and we weren’t able to see the sunset. Instead, we grabbed dinner at the restaurant at the visitor center and went back to our campsite to sleep for the night.
The next morning we woke up and went back to the Colter Bay Visitor Center. We thought about kayaking that morning but it was cold and the lake was super foggy so we felt like we wouldn’t get the full experience. Instead we went into the grocery store at the visitor center and stocked up on what we thought we’d need to finish our trip. We were at day 5 of our road trip so we knew this would be the only grocery stop we needed to finish our trip. Grand Teton National Park was my favorite place we stopped and one day was not enough time spent there at all. I would highly recommend trying to spend more time there if you can! I can’t wait until the day I can go back and explore more of the park. Next stop is Arches National Park!
