Part 2 — The Trip!
Dates of Travel: June 29, 2022 — July 6, 2022
If you haven’t already: Check out Part -1 here.
June 29, 2022
We arrived in Jackson Hole, Wy around 10 am and picked up our rental car from Hertz. Note that Hertz rental car pick-up is not at the airport — Hertz has buses waiting at the airport to shuttle customers to their location in Jackson Hole which is a minor inconvenience but we knew this at the time of reserving our car. We picked up our rental car and drove straight to Cultivate Cafe for brunch. We had an awesome vegan brunch, reviewed by us here.
We proceeded to drive to the several viewpoints along the main Grand Teton — glacier view turnout, Teton point turnout, Snake River overlook, and the Chapel of the Transfiguration.
We checked in to our AirBnB around 5 pm, and en route there we bought our groceries according to our list in Part -1.
We came back to the park later that night for some night photography shots. Grand Tetons is an area with very minimal light pollution and so we used the opportunity to get some cool Milky Way photos.
June 30, 2022
Since we slept very late the previous night, we had a late start in the morning. We headed straight to the Jenny Lake area to take the shuttle boat to the starting point of the Inspiration Point hike. Parking took a long time, we ultimately parked on the main road — about a mile away from the Jenny Lake visitor center. The queue to take the shuttle was also long and it was close to noon by the time we started our hike.
We had our packed lunch at Inspiration Point. Here, the parents decided to make their way back and we continued further along the trail to the Cascade Canyons area.
The queue for the return boat shuttle was even longer than the one in the morning but eventually, we got in and made it back to the Jenny Lake visitor center around 3:30 pm.
We spent some time in the String Lake area before calling it a day and heading back to our Airbnb. We wanted to catch the sunrise the next morning which meant we had to get in bed early so we could leave by 4 am.
July 1, 2022
We were at Schwabacher’s landing at 5 am for the sunrise. And what we saw was beyond our wildest expectations. A small thunderstorm rolled in and brought with it a gamut of oranges, yellows, blues, and greys in the sky and we saw it all also reflected in the perfectly calm morning water of the creek.
We quickly rushed to the Mormon Row barns hoping to see get some great shots but we obviously overstayed at the Schwabacher’s landing and couldn’t get the same kind of shots we got there. Nevertheless, the backdrop of Tetons with the barn in the foreground made for a great picture.
A couple of weeks before we went on our trip, Yellowstone saw unprecedented flooding leading to the park’s closure and an odd/even vehicle system until 1st July 2023.
Knowing that 1st July was the last day of the odd/even system and that there would be fewer crowds, we decided to head to Yellowstone and see some important attractions such as the Old Faithful and Upper geyser basin, West thumb geyser basin, Biscuit basin, and Morning Glory geyser. While the drive was long, we got an early start and so we were able to comfortably take our time to see all these amazing geysers. We also had our packed lunch and got ourselves ice creams in the Old Faithful Inn area. We arrived around 10 am at the Old Faithful area and were able to comfortably find parking, however, it got pretty crowded as the afternoon went on — despite this being only 50% of the crowds due to the odd/even system. Our day was long and involved a lot of driving — from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone and back the same day. But getting a super early start as well as having smaller crowds made this decision worth it. But, we wouldn’t generally advise people to do this drive. We came back to our Airbnb in Victor,ID that night.
July 1, 2022
We had a slow-ish start to our morning — we checked out of our Airbnb and drove to the Rockefeller Preserve area for the 7-mile-long Phelps lake loop trail. We started the hike around 11 am and finished around 3 pm with several breaks in between. We also saw a couple of bears along the trail — one was about 10 feet away from us, and another at a considerable distance. Our initial plan for our long hike was the Surprise, Amphitheatre and Delta Lakes hike, however the Phelps lake loop was more appropriate for us considering the fact that our parents were with us, and they haven’t done strenuous hikes before.
We then went to Healthy Being Cafe and Juicery and grabbed our dinner to go. We loved the food, and you can find our review of the place here.
We made our way to Island Park, ID, and spent the next 3 nights there.
July 2, 2022
We had a leisurely morning at our cabin and made our way to the Grand Prismatic Spring area around 11 am. Parking lots were full, and we had to park about a mile away from the actual entrance to the boardwalk trail. While the main attraction in the area is the Prismatic Spring, the Excelsior Geyser is equally amazing in its varying shades of blue intermixed with the continuous steam coming out of it.
This was once upon a time a secret, but this is now a well-known fact that the best view of the Grand Prismatic Spring is from the fairy falls trail. The parking lot is big and there’s a constant out-flux and in-flux of cars, making it easy to find parking. The best colors of the prismatic spring can be seen when the sun is upon it. The colors are muted when there is no sun. So plan to go see the prismatic spring on a sunny day if you are there for the vibrant colors.
We spent a lot of time in the Prismatic Spring area and chose to go back to West Yellowstone around 4 pm for some souvenir shopping and ice creams. We later grilled some burgers and veggies that evening. While chilling at our cabin, we found this mama moose and her baby up close when she came around exploring.
July 3, 2022
We had an early-ish start today since we wanted to be at the Artists Point area in time for a spectacular sight. For a few minutes in mid-summer every year, the angle of the sun is just right to see this spectacular rainbow at the foot of the falls. We arrived just in time for this beauty! This is something you should absolutely not miss if you are in the area. We spent some more time looking at the upper falls, and the different views of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Afterward, we made our way to the Mammoth Hot Springs Area. We walked on several of the boardwalk trails and looked at some incredible features and terraces formed by Calcium Carbonate deposits.
July 4, 2022
We visited the Norris Geyser basin in the morning and spent about 3 hours in the area. We arrived here early around 8:30 am and had no problems finding parking. As we were leaving the area around noon, the parking lot was full, and the overflow lot is about 0.5 miles away. Norris geyser basin has several small geysers and is perhaps the stenchiest part of Yellowstone with strong sulfur smells. It is also the hottest thermal area in the park. We did the boardwalks in both the porcelain basin and the back basin.
We had a packed picnic lunch at a picnic/campground nearby and made our way to Drigg, ID for our last night. Once we reached Driggs, ID, we made our way to Jackson Hole for our last evening of the trip. We took the evening Gondola Rides to go up to Bridger Mountain. We enjoyed some appetizers while listening to live music. The views from the mountaintop were absolutely spectacular. We concluded our stay with dinner in Jackson Hole at the Fig.
Next morning, we got breakfast at a coffee shop before heading to the Hertz car rental to drop off the car and head over to the airport for our flight back to the Twin Cities.
Final Thoughts:
We had a fantastic 1 week in the area exploring several trails in a relaxed and leisurely manner, with plenty of wildlife sightings such as bears, moose, bison, and deer.
Do check out Part 1 of the trip for all details on logistics and our total budget for the trip.
BabuSoge 
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