As I scrolled through my vacation pictures, I couldn’t pick just a few to talk about when it came to Grand Teton National Park. I mean, this park is so beautiful! This post is part of my vacation recap, so take a look at the other posts HERE.

When spent 4 full days in Grand Teton park, and on our first trip into the park, we saw this mama grizzly bear with two cubs. How can you go wrong when the park starts out like that??

The weather in June was nice too. The important part is to dress in layers, and be prepared for rain. We did get rain for some periods of our trip, and most hikes started out wearing pants and long sleeves, and ended up in shorts and tank tops some time during the hike.

I’m not sure if it’s the amazing scenery that spoke to me more, or the amount of wildlife we saw. As for the views, there was something breathtaking on every hike. Lakes at the start of a hike… (String Lake)

Lakes at the top of a hike.

Even when we couldn’t see the tops of the mountains, it was still pretty!

The clouds made for amazing sunsets!

The pictures don’t even look real – but trust me, we really were there!

As the sun went down, the elk came out.

The highlight at Teton had to be the 15 mile hike we took. It was the hike into Cascade Canyon. The first stop along the hike was this waterfall.

Soon we went much higher to Inspiration Point.

We encountered snow on this hike!

We also encountered a BEAR!! This black bear decided to use our trail as his route that morning.

He wasn’t aggressive, but just walking the trail in our direction. I did have my bear spray ready just in case, but after we backed away from him, out of sight, he wandered off the trail and we continued on. Check out this video of our encounter…. we will never forget it!!

Also along this hike we saw some cool animals. We saw a mama moose and a baby along the stream.

A marmot!

And this adorable animal, a pika! My favorite 🙂

And wouldn’t you know it, when we got back to the parking lot, there was a baby bear near the trailhead! He was so cute. As you can see, the park ranger was not scared of him.

I’m sure you can see why I thought this park was so incredible. It’s located right below Yellowstone too, so if you have a few free days, you can head over there to explore that amazing park too! In my next post I’ll tell you about some fun things to do when you’re not hiking in the park.

Hope you can stop by again! You can subscribe to my blog using the link on the right so you don’t miss any new posts 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!

Q: Have you ever seen a bear in nature?

Q: Have you ever seen a pika? It was a new animal for us!

6 thoughts on “Epic Road Trip 2020 – Grand Teton National Park (part 1!)”
  1. I have been to Glacier, Rocky Mountain and Grand Tetons National Parks without seeing a bear. Although I’m not sure if that is good or bad. There was a bear attack here in Colorado two days ago about 25 miles away from my house. Camper had to shoot the bear when it charged him. I am going back to Glacier at the end of July and possibly Yellowstone. Maybe see one then. Pikas are considered by environmentalists to be like the canary in the coal mine. They cannot live in warm climates so they generally stay up high above 10,000 feet. Scientists have noted that each year pikas move further up which isn’t good news for us. I saw quite a few this past week hiking up Mt. Democrat in Colorado.

    1. I’m surprised you haven’t seen any bears! Although I do think other people are better at finding the animals and we just join in the viewing. I’m not that patient to hang out and wait for them. Also, make sure you check out the closures at Glacier before you go. I don’t think the East side will be open. Very interesting about the pikas!

  2. Oh my goodness, it sounds like you had so much fun, and that bear encounter! Wow! I’ve really been looking forward to your recaps and I’m happy to finally have time to sit down and read them all!

    We honeymooned in the Grand Tetons and took a trip to Yellowstone while there. The following two years we were in grad school in northern Utah so it was easy to make a day trip to Jackson. Our favorite hike was to Lake Solitude and I remember having to step off the trail to get around a huge bull moose. Just two years ago we traveled back for the first time since the early 80’s and I ran in the Grand Teton Half Marathon. It was wonderful to be back!

    In my all of our trips, we never saw a bear in the wild…
    Debbie @ Deb Runs recently posted…Weekly RunDown: July 19 – 25 / Thunder, Lightning, and Endless Rain EditionMy Profile

    1. I’m surprised you have never seen a bear in the wild! Maybe it’s the time of year. We have been on vacations in June when we saw them. Maybe they are more active then!

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