The Hall Family Travels Blog

We spent three nights in a Forest Service campground just outside Grand Teton National Park. It definitely wasn’t our favorite campground of the trip, but ironically, it ended up being the setting for a few moments we’ll probably remember forever.

From East Yellowstone, we traveled south toward Grand Teton National Park with plans to stay for five nights. After arriving at Hatchet Campground and getting our first taste of the area, though, we decided three nights would be plenty before moving on toward West Yellowstone. Our time in the Tetons wasn’t packed with sightseeing, but between a few wildlife encounters, a long hike, and one very close call at camp, it gave us plenty of memories to take with us.

An Early Morning in the Tetons

Our first venture into Grand Teton was an attempt to find some wildlife. We left camp around 5:30 a.m., which sounded like a great plan until we realized it was still completely dark outside. Not exactly ideal conditions for spotting animals.

We drove through several of the areas known for wildlife, keeping our eyes peeled for bears, wolves, moose, or anything else we could find. We briefly spotted a fox along the road and came across a few bison, but so far, the wildlife viewing had been pretty underwhelming.

Then we headed toward Schwabacher Landing.

As we got closer, we realized the road was packed with cars and people waiting for the famous sunrise view of the Tetons. Rather than join the crowd and risk getting stuck in the middle of it, we decided to turn around.

As we were leaving, though, we noticed something moving along the mountainside.

A herd of elk.

We pulled over, grabbed the binoculars, and started counting. As best as we could tell, there were at least 60 elk spread across the hillside. It was the biggest herd we had ever seen.

As the sun continued to rise, the elk made their way toward the top of the hillside. Eventually, we could see their silhouettes standing along the ridge with the morning sun glowing behind them.

It was one of those moments that made getting up at 5:30 a.m. completely worth it.

We eventually moved on and decided to take Moose-Wilson Road, thinking a quiet, forested back road would surely give us another chance at seeing wildlife.

Nope. Not a thing.

Breakfast on the Rocks and Jackson Hole

We drove all the way into Jackson, Wyoming, where we stopped at Phil Baux Park to finally eat some breakfast. The park had large rock climbing structures that the kids—and, honestly, us too—had a blast climbing around on. We climbed to the top of one of the structures and ate the yogurt and granola we had packed for breakfast.

Afterward, we walked into Jackson Square and wandered around the shops. Jackson was such a cute town, filled with unique restaurants, art galleries, and plenty of shops to explore. The boys especially loved the toy store, where they found Lego sets they don’t normally see in regular stores.

After exploring Jackson for a while, we headed back toward Grand Teton to pick up Junior Ranger booklets for the boys. They would spend the next day working on them so they could turn them in and earn another park badge.

Little did we know, the biggest adventure of the day was waiting for us back at camp.

A Very Close Call

That evening was beautiful, so we cooked dinner outside on the Blackstone and planned to eat at the picnic table. After sitting outside for a while, though, the boys decided they’d rather eat inside. The mosquitoes were starting to come out, and honestly, we weren’t going to argue.

We brought dinner inside and had barely started eating when the wind suddenly picked up.

Huge gusts started blowing through the campground. We looked out the window and watched a giant cloud of dust blow past when we heard a strange scuffling noise outside the trailer.

We stepped outside to see what was happening.

That’s when we realized a huge tree had fallen directly behind our trailer.

A branch had barely swiped the back slide, and the entire tree had missed our trailer by what looked like just a few inches.

We just stood there staring at it.

It was hard not to think about what could have happened if that tree had fallen a few feet differently. Our trailer could have been seriously damaged, and someone could have been hurt. Instead, we had somehow gotten incredibly lucky.

The wind continued to whip through the campground, swaying the tall lodgepole pines surrounding us. For a while, we debated whether we should move the trailer somewhere else, but thankfully the gusts eventually died down and we felt safe enough to stay.

It was one of those moments where you realize just how quickly something can change. One minute you’re sitting down to dinner, and the next you’re standing outside staring at a massive tree that nearly landed on your home.

Definitely not something any of us will forget.

Nine Miles Around Jenny Lake

The next day was our hiking day.

We headed to Jenny Lake with plans to hike along the Jenny Lake Shore Trail to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point before turning around and heading back. The original plan was about six miles total.

When we reached Hidden Falls, we looked at the map and realized the trail continued around the opposite side of the lake, creating a much larger loop.

Since we had already come this far, we decided to keep going.

The boys weren’t exactly thrilled about adding a few more miles to an already long hike, but they went along with it.

And we’re so glad they did.

Because somewhere along that trail, we finally saw what we had been hoping to find all day.

A bear.

It was far enough away from the trail to be safely observed, sitting on the hillside and munching on berries. We were able to watch it from a safe distance, and after all of our searching throughout the Tetons, finally seeing a bear in the wild felt like such a treat.

By the time we made it back, we had hiked more than nine miles over about four and a half hours.

We were exhausted—and so were the boys—but Dustin and I couldn’t have been more proud of them. They made it through nearly the entire hike without complaining, other than a few comments about tired and sore legs.

Nine miles is a long way for little legs, and watching them push through it was another one of those moments we’ll remember from this trip. And honestly, I think they were pretty dang proud of themselves too.

Another Junior Ranger Badge

Once we made it back to the visitor center, the boys turned in their completed Junior Ranger booklets and earned another park badge.

That brought them to 12 badges so far!

They are so proud of their collection and love every opportunity to earn another one. And for us, it’s become one of our favorite parts of visiting the national parks with them.

Watching them raise their right hands and take the Junior Ranger oath to protect the parks and wildlife never gets old. It’s one of those little traditions from this trip that makes Mom and Dad especially proud.

On to the Next Adventure

The Teton Mountains were beautiful, and we really enjoyed our hike around Jenny Lake. But after three nights, we were ready to move on.

The campground wasn’t our favorite—especially after nearly having a tree fall on us—and we found that many of the hikes we were interested in were longer loops than we had originally planned for.

So, after a short but memorable stay, we packed up and headed back toward Yellowstone.

We were excited to get back into the area around West Yellowstone and see what was waiting for us at our next campsite.

As it turned out, that next spot would become our favorite campground of the entire trip.