Team Monty's Expedition: Grand Tetons NP, Wyoming

Since we're short on time until we need to be in Kentucky, we decided to squeeze in the Grand Teton National Park while camping in West Yellowstone instead of making a separate stay down there. We almost didn't go because it was a 3 hour drive to get there, since the south entrance of Yellowstone and the north entrance road to Grand Tetons were still closed for "the season". We're SO glad that we made the long drive and that we didn't miss this park. It is amazingly gorgeous!

To get there, we had to drive through east Idaho... early in the morning we saw this and it made me giggle:

Arnold Seed Potatoes

We finally found Idaho potatoes!

Jackson Hole, Wyoming:

Love, love this town!

Monty and I are coming back someday to ski the slopes of Jackson Hole, WY!!!!!
Those runs look amazing!

Jackson Hole city green

Grand Tetons:

http://www.nps.gov/grte

You know our routine...first stop is always the visitor center for maps and Jr. Ranger booklets.

We've had the most spectacular views out of our windshield the last few weeks!

We were getting hungry, so we picked a spot for a picnic lunch.

Nice spot, eh?

Picnic on the banks of String Lake.

The only other people there was a couple... and the husband is a photographer. He took this photo of us. He actually sat down in the sand to get the angle right!

We played along the banks for a little while, but then we needed to move on. The couple that we ran into suggested hiking the Jenny Lake south trail.

Jenny Lake with my blessings :)

The kids were more excited about rocks to climb and jump on than the view behind them :)

The whole time we were in these two parks, I wanted to see moose. Well...this is the closest I came to my dream :)

Fresh moose scat

At least there were a lot of chipmunks and other critters to enjoy...

One of my favorite critters on the trail:

Thankful we got the scoop about the trail...

After we completed the hike, the kids had finished their requirements for their junior ranger badges.

Exploring a new road through the park and we found these guys:

This is how I spent much of my time!

Oxbow and the Tetons

These elk were swimming in the creek.

We found a new bird!

A Yellowheaded blackbird...

Our last trail to explore this day:

Lakeshore Trail on Colter Bay

We had this trail and area of the park totally to ourselves!

View from the trail

B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l:

Another rock walking challenge

Success!

Um...how do we get back?
They had to jump really far to reach the island from the last rock. The jump wasn't possible in the reverse.
So we spent time throwing large rocks to them from the shore :)
Eventually, they had a pile and a plan.

Teamwork!