4th of July - Grand Teton National Park

Today we all enjoyed a late morning, enjoying the fact that there was no 5:00am alarm going off. The campground we're staying at rents out Jeeps, and since we didn't really want to take the RV into the park, and Chris has always wanted to drive a Jeep, we decided to rent one for the day. He was pretty excited to get it, and we packed up and headed out to explore the park.

We stopped at a restaurant down the road for breakfast, and the eggs and toast held us over well for our park adventures. August liked the rustic high chair he was assigned to.



We drove into the park, and Chris was taken aback to find that the single day entry fee is $30. Since we have two more national parks we are planning to visit, we ended up buying the national park annual pass for $80. We are looking for ways to see more of them in the next year now, ha.

First we went up to Jackson Lake, then down to Jenny Lake. We took a boat shuttle across Jenny Lake to do the hike we had planned. The boat ride was very pleasant, since there is no other motor craft on it, it was as smooth as glass and nice and cool. The view pulling up to the mountain side was breathtaking.

It was an "easy" 3-hour hike to Inspiration Point. I like going on hikes, though I don't like the hiking itself. I think I like the challenge of starting something you know is going to be tough and then seeing it through to completion. Inevitably at some point you wish you weren't doing it, but then afterwards you forever have a sense of accomplishment that you kept pushing yourself even when you were sweating and puffing up at a slow pace. The view from the top was definitely worth it.

A shot of my lake from Inspiration Point.

Afterwards naps and showers were in the cards for us and we celebrated the holiday with an All-American afternoon siesta. Once we were awake we hopped in the Jeep (which Chris has decided he is not that big a fan of anymore) and headed down to the town of Jackson for dinner and fireworks.

Jackson is a lot like Breckenridge in that it is a tourist town, catering to skiing vacationers in the winter and park visitors in the summer. The restaurant scene is pricey all around, but luckily I was able to find us a good place that wasn't astronomical.

Snake River Brewing Company was delicious. We ordered the steak tacos to start with (we were hungry after skipping lunch), and then Chris ordered the pasta bolognese and I got the slash and burn pan-fried Idaho trout. I was a little freaked out that my trout arrived with skin on, but it peeled back easily and the trout was cooked well and very tasty.

Since it was 30 miles back to our campground, we decided to park on the way out of town so we could watch the fireworks and then head out ahead of the traffic. August was not overly impressed with the fireworks show, but did have a lot of fun with an air conditioner located near us and the strawberry milk he got as a treat. He liked staying up way past his bedtime with mommy and daddy, and fell asleep quickly on the way home with his blanket over his head.







Overall it was a great holiday and we stayed up late trying to make the most of it, hence the late post. Hope you all enjoyed your festivities as well!