Chapter 28: Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks…Heading Home
- traci wilson
- 7 days ago
- 7 min read
The two remaining major destinations of our trip across the U.S. were Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. I’ve combined them here because we had to take the puppies with us and dogs are not allowed on any of the trails in these parks. We weren’t able to find any affordable daycare options and each of the days were too long to leave them in the RV. We dedicated a full day for each park to drive through and see the sites.
Grand Teton National Park
Our first stop was The Windy River KOA in Dubois, Wyoming, our base camp for Grand Teton National Park. We arrived the day before the fourth of July, so spent the holiday watching a local parade, having a barbeque, and catching some fireworks in the evening. The campground was clean and well situated near stores and restaurants in the small western themed town of Dubois, but it was very busy and just a little crazy due to the holiday.
The following morning, we loaded up the dogs and headed towards Grand Teton National Park. Our first stop was a small picturesque lake in the Shoshone National Forest on the way to the park, that turned out to be on the continental divide. We took a little walk on a dirt road near the lake to stretch our legs, enjoying views of the water, abundant displays of wildflowers, and even spotted a pine martin and some deer.
Back on the road, we headed towards the community of Moose, Wyoming, situated at the southern entrance of the park. The valley and mountains leading up to the main attraction were beautiful in their own right and would have been worth the drive all by themselves. At least that’s what we thought until the whitecapped Grand Teton Mountains came into view—truly majestic, standing out against the deep blue sky.
We stopped at the south entrance visitor center and picked up our national park sticker before resuming our scenic tour towards the Jenny Lake Visitor Center, planning to also stop there. We pulled over a couple of times to take in the mountain views and snap some pictures along the way. The Grand Teton Peak loomed larger and larger in the forefront of our vision as we approached The Jenny Lake Visitor Center.
The traffic also increased exponentially and by the time we got to our destination both sides of the road leading up to the visitor center was lined with cars. We took one pass through the parking lot which was a complete madhouse. There was no way we were going to find a parking spot there so we drove on down the road. It’s a good thing we’d already bought our park sticker (and used the bathroom) at the first location!
We came across a ‘one way’ scenic loop that went around Jenny Lake which was busy but at least we could find parking so we were able to get out and look around a bit! Jenny Lake was beautiful, especially with the Tetons in the background. The day was filled with so many beautiful views of the mountains and the surrounding area. One thing we noticed is that there are a lot of bicyclists here, especially around the Jenny Lake area. That seems to be a popular way for people to explore the park who aren’t interested in hiking.
Yellowstone National Park
After leaving Dubois, we didn’t have a long travel day to get to Yellowstone as the two national parks are right next to each other. This time we stayed at Yellowstone Park KOA in West Yellowstone, Montana. An interesting fun fact—we crossed the continental divide a total of four times during the trip from Dubois to West Yellowstone! It was a beautiful drive through the north end of Grand Teton National Park and into Yellowstone National Park on our way to the town of West Yellowstone. Dave spotted a gray wolf along the way that made his whole day!
We had a little trouble getting set up in our campsite at the KOA because the ground was very unlevel and we ended up moving to a different site. We still had problems at the new site but we were able to made it work. Once we got settled everything was fine. We’d got a deluxe site which had a paved patio, a metal picnic table, and a big wood swing for two which we took full advantage of—very nice! The rest of the campground was large and well kept.
Driving through Yellowstone on the way to the campground on the other end (we got a preview for the next day), we noticed it was super crowded everywhere there was an attraction, so since we only had one day to check out the park, we decided to get up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning to try and beat the crowds. We were marginally successful.
Despite the early hour and the near freezing temperatures there were already plenty of people when we got to our first stop—Fountain Paint Pots. There are little boardwalk ‘hikes’ that you take to get closer to the hydrothermal areas that are usually less than a mile long. This first location was a half mile loop so we left the dogs in the truck and went to take a look. We got a little way along the boardwalk when we heard the truck alarm going off. Dave went running back to turn it off. Trying again, we got a little further when the alarm went off a second time. Maggie, who was in the front seat, was setting off the alarm by jumping at the windows every time we left her!
We hurried through this first stop because of the dog, but we didn’t miss much since the frigid air mixing with the heat from the bubbling pots was creating so much steam that it made viewing difficult anyway. When we got to the next location, the Grand Prismatic Pool, it had started to warm up a bit and we were able see into at least some of the aqua blue pools. We decided to take turns at this location to keep Maggie from setting off the alarm, which wasn’t as much fun as we’d rather experience the sites together. Then we figured out that if we left the truck unlocked, the alarm wouldn’t go off if she jumped at the windows. That was a game changer!
We were able to go check out ‘Old Faithful’ and managed to catch an eruption (we did have to wait about 30 minutes for it), as well as the Yellowstone Inn and Lodge. After leaving the Old Faithful area we went on a scenic loop through Canyon Village and Norris Geyser Basin areas. Along this route we saw an abundance of wildlife including bison, elk, buck deer with huge racks, and even a grizzly bear! We stopped at Yellowstone Lake where we took a mile long walk around some spectacularly colored pools. There were also some hydrothermal domes right in the lake itself. So cool!
The final stop was at the North Rim Trail, and a short hike down to the Upper Falls Overlook, a beautiful cascading waterfall. We took turns again at this stop, not because of the alarm, but because it was too hot by now to leave the dogs in the truck even for a short time.
Our overall feeling after visiting these two magnificent national parks is that we wished we could have taken a deeper dive into each one, going on some more extensive hikes and really exploring the area in greater detail. The way we did it though, gave us a good overview of the area, which made for some great adventuring even if it was only by driving around. We definitely want to return when we don’t have the dogs!
“Finale”
As this trip concluded its final chapter, we headed to Spokane to visit family and take a much needed break from all the seeing and doing. From there it was back home, our sixteen week epic road trip across the country was at an end. Was it worth it? Absolutely, this has been one of the most amazing experiences of our lives! We’ve learned so much and enjoyed so many beautiful and amazing places along the way that I know have changed us forever. Would I ever do it again? Absolutely not! At least, not in this way. It was a huge push that at times felt overwhelming.
Dave sums it up here:
In March we set out on a 16-week tour of the USA. We took this journey pulling a 37-foot fifth wheel trailer and joined by our three canine fur babies. We went as far west as Eureka, California, as far south as New Orleans, as far east as Acadia, Maine, and (ironically) as far north as Spokane, Washington! The journey was not on the most direct path as we meandered around the country. We drove through 37 states, visited 13 national parks, multiple state parks and a number of other attractions. We hiked just over 250 miles scattered over 24 different states. We pulled the fifth wheel a little over 10,000 miles and drove a total of 14,616 miles. It was epic, amazing, horrible, wonderful, and life changing.
Well said, Dave!
So, as far as this journey’s concerned, it’s the end of the road. But the larger story is only just beginning! I look forward to so many more adventures yet to come, including getting back to working on my first novel! There’ll be more on that in future blog posts. This isn’t goodbye, only see you in the next chapters of An Unwritten Life Imagined!
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