Grand Teton National Park

GTNP is a small NP compared to YNP. The dozen or so peaks that exceed 12,000 feet are a spectacular sight rising straight up from the floor of the Jackson Hole with no foothills. The park is abundant with Elk and Moose feeding along the Snake River.

Over the last several years hundreds of miles of mountain bike trails and paved trails have been added all around the Jackson Hole. You can ride your bike from Jackson all the way to and through way the park. This area is really becoming a biking meca. Aditionally, there are a number of excellent hiking trails of which we were able to take advantage of with the mild day time temperatures and dry conditions.

The town of Jackson has become very touristy and pricey. There has been a considerable influx of foreign tourists coming in large bus convoys. The good news is that despite all the crowds you can still find relative solitude on the trails since most of these groups hop on and off the buses to take photos and then move to the next scenic look out. Can’t help but feel sometimes that the more popular parks feel  Disney like in the way they now have to manage transportation and crowds to accommodate up to four million visitors a year. Some of the parks are way to small to handle these numbers and now have waits of hours to get a shuttle into the park.

Excited to be heading west into Idaho to spend some time at several unique national monuments that require backcounty travel capability.