June 29, 2021 – Touring the Grand Teton National Park
On Monday and Tuesday (6/28 – 6/29) we toured Grand Teton National Park. On Monday we drove to numerous scenic overlooks and took in the incredible sites. The first place I wanted to go was Mormon Row to get pictures of the old barns with the mountains in the background. We slowly headed north on US-191, stopping at the scenic overlooks along the way, until we reached the Jackson Lake Lodge. The lodge is not quite as impressive as the lodges in places like Yellowstone and Glacier, but it doesn’t need to be because the view from the lobby overlooking Jackson Lake and the mountains is incredible. We sat down in the lobby and enjoyed the view for a while. On our way out the back, we saw a hiking trail. I felt like my foot was ready to try a short hike, but they had posted a “Bear Frequenting the Area” notice at the trailhead and although my foot does feel a lot better, I’m afraid Beth still might be able to outrun me, so I voted to skip the hike. On the way back we took Teton Park Road which follows the lakes and stays closer to the base of the mountain range. We stopped for lunch at the Catholic Bay Picnic Area overlooking Jackson Lake. After lunch we saw a couple of moose in the creeks along Moose Wilson Road (imagine that) on our trip home.
When we passed the Jenny Lake area on Monday the parking lot was full and cars were parked along Teton Park Road for over half a mile in each direction (very crowded). We decided to get up earlier on Tuesday in hopes of seeing more wildlife along the way and getting a parking spot in the parking lot at Jenny Lake. We did see two moose in about the same spot along Moose Wilson Road (might have been the same two as yesterday), but didn’t get to see any Elk in the spot we were told they’d be early in the morning (apparently the Elk get up earlier than 8AM). We arrived at Jenny Lake in time to get a parking spot (there were probably 20 left). We waited in line about 15 minutes to get on the boat that takes you across Jenny Lake (we chose not to take the 2.5 mile hike around the south end of the lake). We then hiked up the trail to Hidden Falls (1/2 mile with a couple hundred foot gain in elevation). The scenery was beautiful, so we attempted to continue on to Inspiration Point. We reached a point where we felt the view was “inspiring”, but there was no sign saying “Inspiration Point”. We decided to continue on a bit from there, but at one of our stops to suck in oxygen, we could see people at much higher elevations. My foot felt fine going uphill, but we had one down hill section that made me realize the trip back down to the boat dock was not going to be easy so we elected to turn around. We were quite happy with what we had seen. When we returned to the parking lot, it was overflowing and people were stalking us in their vehicles. We told one family to pull over at the next black Tahoe with Florida plates and we’d be there soon. They were very happy to get our spot. We drove to the first picnic area on the way home (Cottonwood Creek Picnic Area) and ate the delicious sandwiches Beth had fixed. On the way back down Moose Wilson Road we saw another moose snacking along the creek.
Grand Tetons – Mormon Row 
Grand Tetons – Snake River Overlook 
Grand Tetons – Oxbow Bend Scenic Overlook 
Grand Tetons – Jackson Lake Lodge 
Grand Tetons – Jackson Lake Lodge 
Grand Tetons – Bear Warning! 
Grand Tetons – Lunch – Catholic Bay Picnic Area 
Grand Tetons – Mount Moran Turnout 
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake 
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake 
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake – Huff’n & Puff’n 
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake 
Grand Tetons – Jenny Lake – from Boat 
Grand Tetons – Moose 
Grand Tetons – Moose
June 27, 2021 – Fireside RV Resort in Jackson Hole
Today we left Highline Trail RV Park and moved to a campground, Fireside Resort, just outside Grand Teton National Park. This campground is slowly being converted to a “tiny house” resort. Due to that, the portion that still remains campground has not only been neglected, but the water and sewer hookups have been migrated and buried under the center of the campsite (i.e., not available to campers). They’ll dig up the plumbing when they place the “tiny houses” on the sites. Therefore, we have power only (navy shower time). It’s funny because we were chatting with several of our neighbors and the Dad’s were freaking out about being here four or five days and having teenagers and having to worry about their gray tanks overflowing. We suggested that the campground showers were a short walk away and they suggested that we didn’t know what it was like to have teenage daughters (they have a point). At $75/night, no pool, and no full hookups, the campground receives mostly negative reviews, but as the realtors say, “it’s all about location”. A number of the sites are very small/tight, but we were quite fortunate to be placed in one of the biggest sites (both length and width). The only tight spot is at the back of our camper (on the driver’s side) and after our neighbors arrived, we felt like the Tahoe was under their awning, so we unhooked it and squeezed it in front of our camper. They were very appreciative.
The drive was very scenic and uneventful (mostly down hill). We topped off our fuel tank at a Marathon station at the intersection of US-191 and US-89 and headed on to the campground. This should give us plenty of fuel to get into Montana where the prices are significantly lower. We are able to access the DISH Western Arc satellites from our roof mounted satellite antenna from this site. After setting up the site we finished watching the last few innings of the Rays unfortunate loss to the Angels and then moved outside for “kitty time”. The campground has decent Wi-Fi. When we arrived we were getting 25Mbps/7Mbps upload/download speeds. By 8:30PM, the speeds had dropped to 5Mbps/1Mbps, which is still acceptable for our needs.
Fireside Resort – Site #44
