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Published: April 5th 2008
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The big summer trip has arrived! Back in the winter, I proposed a trip to Yellowstone National Park. My friends Christy and Robbie were interested and we agreed to camp the entire time. Now, it should be noted that I haven’t gone camping since I was in high school, and I don’t even want to mention how long ago that was! Given how large Yellowstone is and our desire to also visit the Grand Tetons to the south, we agreed to make it a six day trip. When I had gone camping as a kid, I was never out for more than one night. Needless to say, this was going to be an adventure!
Our first day was a travel day, so after the eight hour drive to Yellowstone we set up camp in Canyon Village and did a little bit of sightseeing. Our camp was at Canyon Village near the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. On our first night, we visited the famous Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. To get a closer view of the falls, we headed down the steep metal staircase branching off of Uncle Tom’s Trail. While this part of the trail does provide extraordinary
views of the falls, the trip is not for those who may suffer from vertigo… like me. While perfectly stable, the stairs are a lattice-work design and can be seen through. As a result, I had to ignore the feeling of floating near the sheer canyon walls. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is really quite beautiful at sunset, as the fading light seems to bring out the vibrant color along the canyon’s walls. We spent the next four days hiking and visiting tourist attractions throughout the park (see individual entries). Christy and Robbie were particularly good at picking out nice lunch spots. My favorite spot was along Mary Bay on the northern shore of Yellowstone Lake. After the first night of getting re-acquainted with sleeping in a tent, the camping ended up being a lot of fun. Of course, having two seasoned campers with me made things a lot easier.
In the afternoon of our fifth day out, we headed south to find our camp site at Flagg Ranch, situated along the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway between Yellowstone and Grand Teton. This stop represented our only real snag during the trip. While Flagg Ranch may be
fine for lodging, its camp sites leave something to be desired. When we arrived, we found that we had been put in a tiny spot next to a dumpster. Realizing that the entire camp was a dump, we decided to head south to Grand Teton to see if we could find a better location. Although it didn’t have the same level of facilities, Lizard Creek (just inside the park’s northern border) was a much nicer location. After jumping through some hoops at Flagg Ranch, I was able to get a refund and we set up camp at Lizard Creek. This campground is located along the northern shores of the massive Jackson Lake and offers some great views of the Tetons to the south. Our site was no more than fifty feet from the water. The valley floor in Grand Teton is about one thousand feet lower than Yellowstone, and the weather was quite a bit warmer.
After the long hike on our one full day in Grand Teton (see Cascade Canyon), we decided to head into Jackson for dinner. Christy and Robbie are great cooks, but after five straight nights of camp food, a little taste of civilization was
nice. We found a brewery in town and sampled some of the local beers. I was surprised to find a stout that I really enjoyed (I usually tend to go more for ambers or nut browns). After a little bit of souvenir shopping, we dragged our tired asses back to Lizard Creek for our final night of camping.
On our final day in Grand Teton, we decided that we had given our legs enough exercise, so we headed to Jenny Lake to try some canoeing. This was another first for me. I wasn’t really prepared for how much of an upper body workout canoeing can be! We rowed along the eastern shores of the lake and stopped at a secluded gravel beach to the north. While Christy and Robbie played in the lake, I took more pictures of the Grand Tetons to the west. Due to a surprising number of spiders on the beach (I’m not a fan of arachnids) I opted to stay in the boat. Our timing turned out to be pretty good as an afternoon thunderstorm started to roll in over the mountains. In fact, we arrived at the East Dock just as the operators started
calling people back in because of lightning. After making a stop for lunch and another quick stop in Jackson, we set out for home.
On the whole, I had a great time on this trip. I tried some things that I had never done before and logged about 40 miles of hiking. If I were to head back up that way, I would probably want to spend more time exploring Grand Teton and some of the less touristy spots in Yellowstone.
Directions: From Denver, take I-25 north to the I-80 junction, just south of Cheyenne Wyoming. Follow I-80 for about 150 miles to the town of Rawlins. From Rawlins, follow HWY 287 to the northwest for about another 300 miles to the entrance of Grand Teton National Park. In Grand Teton, take HWY 191/89 north into Yellowstone. Because we wanted to stop in Jackson on the way home, we took HWY 191/89 south from Grand Teton. Leaving Jackson, follow 189 south Hoback Junction and follow 191/189 east and south to Rock Springs. At Rock Springs, take I-80 east for 250 miles to the I-25 junction. This alternative route is a bit more scenic, but it is slower and
less direct.
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