Grand Teton National Park

The weather forecast for the last day of our trip did not look promising. It showed it would be cold and cloudy with potential for thunderstorms. It looked like the weather would get worse as the day went on. So we decided to once again get up early to see if we could squeeze in a few good hours before it stormed. This planning greatly contributed to making it a great day. When we headed out to the car we found it was cold, but clear. We had a few nice hours before the weather took a turn.

Since we were going to drop off the rental car when we were done with the days activities we drove two cars and left one at the airport. This made sense because the airport is right at Grand Teton National Park. Also the Jackson airport has 5 hours of free parking so we wouldn't even end up paying for the car that was parked there. Renting the Ford Expedition was such a good decision. It was a fantastic vehicle for a trip with so much driving time. Our experience got Kristin and Dan thinking about buying a Ford SUV. 

Today we planned to visit Jenny Lake. After we left the airport we drove over the parking lot. We walked over to the boat dock and purchased passage across the lake. They had a spectacular deal, if we would have had cash, but seeing as we live in the digital age, none of us had cash. They were still able to give us a good family rate. We were the only people on the boat at this early hour. As you can see from the pictures they were set up for social distancing. We had a driver and guide with us on the boat. The guide wasn't that chatty, but he did manage to answer our questions. It took about 15 minutes to cross the lake. 

They dropped us at the trail head to the hidden falls hike. This is a nice forested hike in the shadow of the Mount Teewinot. We followed the trail until we reached the waterfall. It is a stunning waterfall. It is big and roaring. We stood there in awe for some time. 

When we were done at the waterfall we continued the hike up to inspiration point. Inspiration point was a nice viewpoint above the lake. While we were there we watched as a storm quickly blew in. It went from clear to rainy in a matter of minutes. We hiked back down to the boat dock in the rain. Fortunately, it was a light rain. We took a short boat ride back across the lake. 

We decided it was time to call the trip. We drove back to the airport and dropped of the rental car. We then all piled into Dan and Kristin's car and drove back to Jackson. Dan and Kristin were anxious to get back to Holly so they hit the road. Alison and I stayed in Jackson long enough to eat breakfast before hitting the road.

The drive home was fairly uneventful. We did hit a summer blizzard driving through the Bridger National Forest and another one just outside of Evanston. The weather didn't slow us down and we made it home in around 4.5 hours. 

We very much enjoyed this trip. If it wasn't for covid-19, we would not have gone on this trip this year. Our desire to getaway and the fairly limited options made this trip make sense. Things were different. Some of the differences were good. It will be hard to visit Yellowstone or Jackson in the future knowing it will likely be much busier than it was this weekend. Some things were a little more inconvenient - wearing a mask and social distancing, but they were the right thing to do. Honestly, the modifications/restrictions did not bother us at all. We were happy to get away for the weekend.