We set our alarms for 5am and we were on the road by 6. It was about a half hour drive to Jackson Hole where we’d meet our tour guide. Her name was Rachel and we had a group of only 5 of us in a large Sprinter van.
We started out the day seeing 3 moose in a field. They were pretty far away, but we could see them clearly through our binoculars. Our tour guide set up a scope and attached her camera too so we could see them really well on that. This is the beginning of mating season — that’s the only reason why the moose aren’t solo. There was one male and two females and the male had huge antlers! It was really cool to see them eating and I loved when he would pick his head up and we could see how droopy he was!
After that we headed further into the park and down a gravel side road. Rachel was scanning looking for any trees that might be moving to indicate a bear might be there eating berries. This time of year they eat like 22 hours a day! They need to be fat for winter so they never feel full. On our way back up the road, she spotted one really close. It was the perfect black bear with a tan nose just eating berries as fast as he could. He was so cute!! We watched him for a little bit right from the tour van — no scope or binoculars needed.
Then we kept heading into the park and eventually came up on gorgeous views of the Tetons with a huge field in front of them. There were about 10 or so working mules just hanging out enjoying the sunshine. We snapped some pics with them during a bathroom break.
At Oxbow Bend we got a real treat! We saw a family of three otters — one swimming and two sunning on the bank. They were MUCH larger than I had imagined — like the size of Lucy! The two on the bank were sort of preening each other for a while and then one hopped into the water and within a few minutes had snagged a large fish! He dragged it up the bank and they all feasted on it National Geographic style! It was gory and amazing to watch.
At a later overlook we could see a herd of Pronghorn hanging out in a big field. We needed our scope and binoculars to see them, but they were definitely there. I had never heard of them before but apparently they’re distant relatives of the giraffe and can run extremely fast.
Then we said goodbye back in Jackson and after a snack, we headed back into the park for our ride across Jenny Lake and afternoon hiking.
The ferry cost $20pp round-trip and was just a 10 min ride across a beautiful lake. The Tetons were rising up from the other side of the lake, making for a gorgeous view as we approached the bank. We exited the boat and immediately started climbing up the path. The first “stop” on our hike was Hidden Falls, a beautiful 100-ft cascading waterfall just about half a mile from the ferry dock. It was gorgeous and we spent a few minutes just enjoying it before heading further up to Inspiration Point.
Inspiration Point was a large boulder right on the side of the mountain that overlooks Jenny Lake. It was a great stopping point after a pretty aggressive uphill rocky climb to get there, but the view was more expansive (and flat) than I wanted because the Teton range was to our backs!
Then we kept going on the Cascades trail another mile until it opened up into a big boulder field. The views of the jagged mountain peaks were amazing and we spent some time up there sitting by the river and hoping to see some moose or bears. On our way back down the mountain we did actually see a juvenile moose though! He or she was in the trees by a stream and it was so amazing to see it that close and sort of wild on our hike!
We had heard that the ferry might have a long wait time for the return ride, but after hiking 4+ miles we really didn’t want to walk the other 2 around the lake. Thankfully it was only a 20-30 min wait, so we enjoyed the benches and got the very back seat on the ferry so we could grab good selfies with the Tetons behind us!
We checked out Morman Row on our way out to see the pretty sunset light on the old barns and buildings before grabbing some Thai food in Jackson Hole. While in town we also snapped some pics at the famous antler arch.
We headed back at night, eager to soak our sore hiking muscles in the hot tub. On the ride over the pass, my Aurora app pinged and said that there was a chance of seeing Northern Lights in our area! We excitedly got home, quickly unpacked our stuff and headed out on the deck with the lights off to check. And we saw them!! There was a very clear green cloud moving over the mountains that we could easily see with the naked eye. Of course it showed up even better on camera too! The green eventually went away and then there was more of a pink glow that we could barely see but popped on camera. It was so amazing!!!!
