Now we start the part of our trip that was the primary reason we planned this. Our friends, Bill & Deb had mentioned last year that they wanted to explore the National Parks. We have learned through Bill that every day is an amazing gift and we wanted to share this trip with them. Bill has dealt with cancer since his 30s, but 5 years ago had pancreatic cancer and had a whipple procedure where they take almost everything out of your gut. Not many people survive this surgery, but our friends wouldn’t let that stop them. They bought a RV and wanted to explore the USA. Last year we did two smaller trips, and we all decided to go for it this year and try this trip. Bill has his challenges but you wouldn’t know it to look at him.
For this part of our adventure we stayed at Fireside Buffalo Valley RV park. We were about 5 miles east of the Southern entrance to Teton National Park. Not one of the best parks we have stayed at on this trip, but close to all the sights we wanted to see. I have to say that in the past we have only passed through The Tetons on the way from Yellowstone and never really visited this area. Silly us – this place in amazing. These mountains are so spectacular and different from other mountain ranges. They have no foothills – they just explode from the plateau. Learning about the geology of this area was very cool. Even though it’s almost summer, it’s still pretty cold here, which actually made traveling around very nice.
We took some of the back roads close to the mountains. I didn’t realize how close we could get to the mountains. We saw some moose foraging along the shoreline of a lake. A first for me to actually see a moose. There were many lakes in the area. Jenny Lake was one of our favorite – nice lodge (only $725 per night but you do get dinner). Some great bike riding roads. Jackson Lake is the largest and there were lots of lodges, marinas and camping areas there (of which we couldn’t get in – you have to sign up for these sites early!!!).
We did end up going back to Jackson. Seems like the closest full grocery store was there, but also a Harley dealer (apparel only, no bikes). We walked a bit but not my kind of shopping. Of course we found a good place to have lunch. We did visit Teton Village – they have a tram ride to top of mountain, but we decided against it. Tons of outdoor activity shops, eateries and hotels. Probably a fun place to stay for skiing.
In the Valley floor there is an area called Mormon’s Row. It still has many of the homes and out buildings the the Mormon settlers lived in. This area is known to have 6 to 8 feet of snow in the winter. Definitely tougher people than me.
We basically drove all over the Tetons. It was very beautiful, lots more to do than I initially realized, and worth staying here rather than passing through to Yellowstone. I am so glad we stopped here.
