National Parks Pt 1: the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier

Now we were reaching the part of the trip I was most excited for, during this stretch we traveled through five national parks (including two Canadian ones). When we set out on the trip I though that Yellowstone and the Grand Teton’s would be my favorite parks and I was almost right! I loved the Grand Teton’s although we ended up spending more time there than expected. In planning this trip I had picked out some short hikes in the parks. Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately, after all, it meant we got to see more of the park) the waterfall hike I picked ended up being much longer than expected. The trail information I had read online listed it as an easy 1 mile in an out, what I missed, however, was that the trailhead started four miles in. So our easy 1-mile waterfall turned into a five-mile hike (whoops). Though the waterfall itself ended up being underwhelming, at least according to Freddy, at that point my stomach was strongly protesting what I had eaten for lunch so I skipped the last 1/2 mile uphill, the hike there took us along the edge of Jenny Lake which offered great views of the park. Although Fred was a little annoyed at the time I think our accidental detour was worth it to be able to see more of the park away from the cars and paved trails. It started to rain during our last five minutes on the trail and as we were leaving we got to see rain falling on the mountains (pictured below) which was stunning. However, our longer hike meant that we didn’t get to Yellowstone until the sun was setting. We initially stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin but were chased away by some overly friendly Elk. From there we decided to cut our losses and head to Old Faithful who didn’t disappoint. Between the lodge and the geyser itself were several large Buffalo peacefully grazing. Old Faithful herself didn’t disappoint and shortly after 9pm went off, right on schedule. The next morning we headed to Glacier National Park. This park wasn’t initially on our list of places to visit but since it was on the way we added it at the last minute, and boy am I glad we did! Glacier ended up being one of my favorite parks (tied with Grand Teton) and its definitely on my list to go back to and spend some serious time there. After Glacier, we headed north to Canada, through the smallest border crossing I’ve ever seen towards our next two National Parks.