Our VIP clients just returned back from Tetons and Yellowstone Park. Here are just some highlights from their family vacation.
Home to an incomparable combination of natural beauty, rugged wilderness, majestic peaks, abundant wildlife and the world’s largest concentration of geysers and thermal features, it’s no wonder Yellowstone was named America’s first national park.
From hiking and horseback riding to fishing and scenic wildlife tours, there are plenty of things to do across its 2 million acres. The iconic spots — Old Faithful, Lower Falls and Yellowstone Lake — may be familiar from paintings and photographs, but seeing them in person is a humbling, enthralling experience you can enjoy year-round.
"Tetons and Jackson, WY
Yes, no issues at all with the pickup once they provided instructions, and it was a convenient place with lots of options / things to do after being dropped off. The tour (Grand Teton 4-hour DAWN Wildlife Safari) was fantastic - only thing I didn’t quite realize was how cold it is in an open vehicle at that early hour. They provided blankets which helped some, but we would have dressed more appropriately had we known. Other impressions - Mountain Modern Motel was good overall - simple without bells and whistles as expected of a motel, most importantly clean and very conveniently located. AC is quite noisy but that’s a minor inconvenience overall. We are glad we picked staying in Jackson over Victor, ID as we were walking distance to many great places in town and a short drive from Grand Teton.
Restaurants: we had dinners at Figs, The Blue Lion, and Whistling Grizzly. All very pleasant. Reservations fill up fast. Activities: Laurence Rockefeller Reserve - hike to / around Phelps Lake was amazing. Getting there early in the day is worthwhile as they only let 50 cars park at one time, so line gets long once these spots fill up. There is a ton to do at Grand Teton Village. We took the gondola up the mountain and hiked up from there - breathtaking views. Many more “challenging” activities such as rock climbing, mountain biking, etc. Jenny Lake was part of the excursion and a fairly brief stop so we didn’t go there separately but it would be worth visiting to spend more time there.
Today we drove to West Yellowstone - hotel is very nice. On the way here from Jackson, we stopped by Mesa Falls in Ashton, ID, and I would say worth a visit. Yellowstone Park
Everything in Yellowstone was great overall. Hotel (Yellowstone West Gate Hotel) was adequate, maybe a little older but clean and quiet, and we really didn’t spend much time there since there was a lot to see / do.
I would say it was borderline too far to walk to dinner etc. but not a big deal as it wasn’t hard to find parking. Oddly enough none of the restaurants in the town took reservations and crowds/ wait times were substantial. Overall very average food and service; Covid “rules” were followed loosely if at all even for our taste (and we are / were fairly relaxed).
Yellowstone itself is nothing short of magnificent. We enjoyed the tours a lot. Guides were knowledgeable and interesting. I am glad we did the tours as we would not be able to cover as much on our own, but I maybe would have added another day of unstructured time there just to explore more ourselves.
Finally, another neat place we enjoyed was the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center - not like a typical zoo and well worth a visit. "
