A week in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Cody, and Jackson, Wyoming

If you’re planning a trip to Yellowstone National Park and/or Grand Teton National Park, I hope this will help you! I did a lot of research before our trip, so I’m sharing our plans. (A quick overview – we flew in & out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We were gone from Saturday to Saturday. We were in Grand Teton National Park thru Sunday night, drove into Yellowstone Monday morning, then went back to GTNP at the end of the trip). This trip included my husband, our 2 kids, my parents and my sister. My first advice would be: get a map of GTNP and of Yellowstone so that you can learn where things are. It will make things a lot easier when you get there!

Saturday, July 3

Originally, we were leaving Huntsville after lunch & arriving at 8 pm, but since our flight changed, we had some extra time to explore Grand Teton National Park today! We got to the Jackson Hole airport at 1:10 pm. We loved this airport – you step right off the plane to the outside and are greeted by the Teton Mountains! We got our luggage & rental car and headed north towards our hotel for the first 2 nights – Jackson Lake Lodge. Our first stop was the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center (also called the Moose Visitor Center). I recommend stopping here & going out to the back (where this picture was taken). It has arrows on the ground that point to the Teton Mountains and tells you the names of them. I thought that was cool 😊

There are 2 roads that will take you north, towards Jackson Lake. We took the one on the east side – 191/26/89. (We will use the one on the west side when we come back down here tomorrow. It is called Teton Park Road). We stopped at 5 turnouts/stops along the way, including Mormon Row, Glacier View Turnout, Elk Ranch Flats Turnout, and Willow Flats Overlook.

Our favorite was Oxbow Bend Turnout. It was beautiful and so serene. People were kayaking on the water, and we got some beautiful pictures with the river & the mountains in the background.

We also got to see bison for the first time along this drive. (We would see many more later in the week.)

How amazing to know that the God who created these awesome bodies of water, these big, beautiful mountains and these amazing animals not only created you and me, but loves us – more than we could ever imagine! ❤️❤️❤️

We checked into the lodge and then drove up to Colter Bay Village (about 5 miles north) and ate supper. Then we went to the general store and got some lunch meat, bread, chips and drinks to have for lunch the next day. (We had brought a few snacks with us.) Everything is expensive there. Bottled water is $3 each and a case is $36, so we just bought a few and decided we would refill them each day. The tap water here tastes really good. We walked around the Bay area and saw lots of boats. In my opinion, this area has a campground feel. I was glad we weren’t staying here. Not that I don’t like campgrounds, but we have plenty of those in Alabama. I wanted more of a mountainous feel 😊 We headed back to the Jackson Lake Lodge. We loved the atmosphere here! We were in a classic cottage. It was just so comfy/cozy feeling and very relaxed. We sat outside in the chairs in front of our room and talked before it was time to go to bed. The weather was so nice – just a little cool but felt perfect. When we went to bed at 9:00 (10:00 central), it was still light outside!

Some neat things about the lodge: It is just one level and you park right in front of your room. It has a mini fridge. There was a convenient place to get ice for our coolers (in the parking lot). No, there is no air conditioning, but we brought a small fan, and they had another fan available, so we made it fine.

Sunday, July 4

Some of us walked up to the main lodge for breakfast and got to see some elk out in the field not too far away:

This building has 60ft windows which create an amazing view:

We left the lodge at 9 am & headed south on Teton Park Road towards the Moose entrance of Grand Teton National Park. We were in GTNP all day today. We decided to do the hike around String Lake. We saw some beautiful sites along the walk, including a stream, the lake & the mountains.

The hike was somewhat challenging because it had some uphill climbs. Also, part of the trail goes into the woods away from the water, so we were a little worried about bears but never saw one. It was 3.7 miles total. We were hot by the end and some of us put on our water shoes & got into the lake. It was cold but felt great at the same time. (The String Lake trailhead was not clearly marked. We actually started at the Leigh Lake Trailhead.) We fixed our sandwiches and ate lunch in the car as we drove to our scenic float trip down Snake River. It was at 1:30. We went with the company Solitude. We met them in the parking lot at the Park Headquarters near the Moose entrance. It was a very relaxing trip, & we learned some things along the way. It was interesting to learn that the river is always changing. We got to see 2 bald eagles up in some trees. And our guide saw a moose in the trees along the river but we didn’t get a good view of it. After the float trip, we went to nearby Dornan’s for supper, around 4:00. Dornan’s is privately owned by the Dornan family (one of the few privately-owned places in the park). There are some stores, a gas station and a couple restaurants. We ate at the pizza & pasta place. The pizza was great! We got a case of bottled water at the store. It was about $6 – much better than the prices at the general stores.

Heading back to our lodge, we saw a bull elk by the road in the Jenny Lake area.

We went back to Colter Bay Village to restock on lunch supplies because we will have lunch in Yellowstone park the next 2 days.

Tip: We had to use a pit toilet before going on the float trip and it was disgusting – I can’t think of any other word to describe it 😖🤢 I was afraid we were going to have to use these every time we were in the parks, but there were several places with actual bathrooms with indoor plumbing, so fortunately, this was the only time I had to use this kind of bathroom!

Monday, July 5

This morning , we left the Jackson Lake Lodge at 7 & headed to Yellowstone! Our first stop was the West Thumb Geyser Basin. It was our first time to see geysers, and we were very impressed! Each one was different. It was so cool to actually see them in the ground constantly spewing or bubbling. We didn’t realize at this time that that was Yellowstone Lake behind these geysers. We drove by it later in the week and saw how big it was!

Side note: you are on South Entrance Road when you enter Yellowstone from this direction. Old Faithful is to the west, but you have to go east if you want to visit West Thumb Geyser Basin before visiting Old Faithful. It felt odd to go east initially when we were ultimately going up the west side today, but this is not far out of the way at all!

So we headed back towards where we just came from 😊 and our second stop was Old Faithful. It was predicted to erupt at 9:45 +/- 10 minutes. It actually erupted at 10:12. We went outside around 9:15 to watch it and got a second row seat. It was so cool to experience. We kept thinking it was starting to erupt because it would spew out small amounts of water, but it was obvious when it actually erupted. Water went high into the air!

This is also the area of the Upper Geyser Basin. We walked along the handicapped path and saw some geysers, and this led us to Morning Glory Pool. It was everything I expected! It was absolutely beautiful and just so unique!

Then we walked the boardwalks to see the other geysers. Altogether, it was a 3-mile loop.

On our way back, we saw Old Faithful erupting again :))

We went inside Old Faithful Inn. It is really old & very unique and pretty. It even had pretty bathrooms lol It was looking like it could rain & started sprinkling so we hurried to the car. We had sandwiches in the car again today. I highly recommend having lunch in the car if you are able to. It saves a ton of time, not to mention money.

Tip – clean bathrooms with indoor plumbing at the Old Faithful Visitor Center and the Old Faithful Inn.

Next, we went to Biscuit Basin. We got to watch the Jewel Geyser erupt. It erupts every few minutes.

Then it was on to Grand Prismatic Spring! There are more springs/pools that you see on the way to it. One was called Excelsior Geyser Crater. It was really unique & pretty. It kinda looked like the ocean. It was also pretty big.

Grand Prismatic Spring was really pretty but it was a little hard to see. It had a lot of steam right above it. It was kind of a cloudy/hazy day and I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it or not. We had already walked a lot, and the kids didn’t really want to make the 5-mile hike to see it from the overlook, so we got pictures from the boardwalk right where it is. (The hike to the overlook also includes Fairy Falls. I hate we missed it but that sounds like a great reason to go back 😉)

We finished everything around 2:00 and drove out of the park towards West Yellowstone, MT. We checked into our hotel – the Yellowstone Lodge. We unloaded all our luggage and freshened up and then drove into Idaho. The land was very flat and we saw lots of cattle. We drove back into West Yellowstone and went to Bullwinkles for supper. We tried the bison burger and the elk burger and thought they were good. Afterwards, we walked around the little downtown area. They had a lot of gift shops, restaurants and ice cream places.

Tip – The Yellowstone Lodge has coin laundry, so we were able to wash a few items tonight.

Tuesday, July 6

We left the hotel at 7 am & went back in the West entrance. Our first stop was going to be Gibbon Falls, but first, we stopped at the Gibbon Falls picnic area for a minute. It is marked by a small sign. The river runs by it & it looked like a perfect spot for a picnic! (but it wasn’t lunchtime yet😊) Drive a 1/4 mile farther on Grand Loop Road and you’ll come to Gibbon Falls. Walk to where you can see the lower falls & you’ll see an amazing view!

Our second stop today was Norris Geyser Basin – the hottest geyser basin in the world. Steamboat Geyser is here. Its eruptions are sporadic & unpredictable, but major eruptions are 300 feet high 😳 The 2 basin areas consist of 2 loops – it’s 1.5 miles for the big loop & less for the smaller loop. We just did the bigger one. There were some pretty geysers & some really unique ones. The only restrooms are in the parking lot – but it’s indoor plumbing!

Before 10:00, we were leaving & heading towards Canyon Village – it is straight ahead at the intersection. This is where the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is. We stopped at the Visitor Center and got some good information. This area has clean bathrooms with indoor plumbing.

We went to the south rim & hiked about a mile or so and then came back to the car & drove to Artist Point. (If you didn’t want to do any hiking here, you could just drive to Artist Point and get this great view). The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is stunning. The canyon is huge, and the waterfall and river are beautiful 😍 This is something I would not miss on a trip to Yellowstone!

After this, we drove to the picnic area and ate lunch outside. The weather was perfect today. It was cool & crisp this morning but warmed up this afternoon. We didn’t visit the north rim at all. Traffic was backed up at that entrance so we decided to keep going. We left the Canyon area & went east towards Norris (back towards the way we came) & then north to Mammoth. We were passing by the Liberty Cap at 3:00.

Traffic was backed up so it took a while to get thru this area. But we were so happy when we got to the main town area. There were several elk hanging out! Some of the babies still had spots on them. They were so cute! We got out and walked around for a few minutes. The ranger told us that the elk go there every afternoon. It was such a cute little town.

We drove through Mammoth and exited the park through the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance. This is the original entrance to Yellowstone.

We found our place for the night – the Dreamcatcher Tipi Hotel. When we got there, the kids were super excited! It really was a neat place. The lady checked us in but there was only about one other family out there. It was so hot in the sun and I was beginning to worry that it wouldn’t be much fun & we would not get much sleep because the tipis only had fans.

The bathrooms are separate from the tipis of course, but when you think “community bathrooms” it wasn’t that bad! Actually, they were very clean and you have a sink, toilet and shower when you go into one of them.

We decided to get supper and go in some of the shops while it was warmer outside. We ate at Cowboy’s Lodge and Grille. It was so good!! Everybody loved their food. We got some ice for our coolers at a gas station on the way back to the tipis since we didn’t have a fridge tonight. Thankfully, it had cooled off some by the time we got back and lots more people had arrived! We played corn hole & watched some elk in the field across the road. We counted between 40 & 50 eating in the field.

Between 8 & 10pm, they have s’mores by the campfire. We enjoyed those & then took showers and went to bed because we were getting up early the next morning. Even though we didn’t sleep the best, this was probably our favorite place that we stayed! It was just like a little community and we loved talking to the other people who were staying there!

……well at least one person did sleep good 😉

Wednesday, July 7

We left the tipis at 5:30 am heading to Lamar Valley. It took about an hour to get there. We saw a ton of bison, some pronghorn, and a black wolf. The wolf was running across a field and then crossed the road! We stopped at a picnic area (I think it was the Soda Butte one) and saw some little critters called uintas. They looked like a cross between a rabbit & a squirrel. They were so cute! Around 10:00, we were leaving there heading out of Lamar Valley and saw a bear cub! It was right by the river. We were so surprised to see it! We never saw momma bear. We were thrilled that we got to see both a wolf & a bear in Lamar Valley!

Then we stopped at a pull-out & saw mountain goats. This was the weirdest thing I saw all week! It just looked like awful terrain for something to live on, with mostly rocks on the hillside, but we used binoculars to look up there & there they were! I still think this is so bizarre 😂

We left the park via the northeast entrance and started toward Cody. You are initially on Beartooth Highway when you exit the park. Some mule deer crossed the road in front of us. One of them had horns.

In just a few miles, we stopped at The Bistro in Cooke City and had a wonderful breakfast! This was an unexpected stop because we had planned to have lunch in the car again but we decided to stop here, & we were glad we did 😋

Not too far ahead, we got on the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway – and boy was it scenic! The mountains and the whole area was just so vast. It was unreal how many mountains there were. The roads were also pretty curvy 😬 We got to Cody around 12:15.

We walked around in downtown Cody and went in several shops. Then we checked into our hotel and rested for a while. We were staying at the Holiday Inn tonight. We had dinner at Cody Steakhouse. It was great!

Then we went to the rodeo! Everyone had a great time. Tip: the best seats are on the far side when you come in. They have backs on the seats, they are in the shade, and you overlook the stalls where some of the animals come out.

Thursday, July 8

We slept late this morning. We left the hotel at 9:30 going to Buffalo Bill Center for the West. Our tickets were good for 2 days. If we had known this, we might would have gone to it for a little while the previous day as well, to have more time touring it. If you like history and like to read, you could spend hours here. We didn’t realize how big it was. The Draper Museum part of it was really cool because it had an interactive area for kids, with lots of different animals from Yellowstone. They also had a nice little playground area and horse rides. We walked around to the horse ride kiosk but they were already booked. This might be something you would need to call & reserve ahead of time.

We left there around 11:45 because we had reservations at Irma Hotel at noon. When we got there, they didn’t have our reservations but they had availability so that was good. We ordered, and it took a little while to get our food, but it was very good. They had a lunch buffet as well that we could have eaten from, but we didn’t want a heavy lunch. We have about a 5-hour drive ahead of us now…

We headed back in to Yellowstone via the East entrance. We have now been in or out (or both) of all 5 of Yellowstone’s entrances.

This drive took us by Yellowstone Lake. It is huge! It actually looked like the ocean with waves crashing on the shore.

We stopped at Lake Yellowstone Hotel and went inside. To see this hotel, turn left where the Lake Area sign is. It is buttercup yellow and it’s really cool. I would love to stay there if we ever went back. When we left this area, we saw 4 bull elk. Their racks were amazing!

We turned left onto South Entrance Road at Grant Village. From here, it was 78 miles to our hotel – Jackson Hole Lodge. This road takes you out of Yellowstone, back to GTNP, then on to Jackson.

Note – if you wanted, you could wait & visit West Thumb Geyser Basin now instead of right before Old Faithful because you are near it now – just a thought…

We stopped at Lewis Falls. I don’t remember seeing it when we were headed north on Monday, probably because it was much easier to see when you’re headed south. I was so glad we stopped. The whole area was beautiful, and we got some great pictures. I just wish we had known about it earlier because we would have kept out our water shoes to wade around in the cool water. The kids did take their shoes off and got in, but I would have loved to too! I just didn’t want to get in barefoot!

Friday, July 9

We walked around in downtown Jackson, went in several stores, and made pictures under the antler arches.

Since we had some extra time today and not any real plans, we decided to go to Jenny Lake to do the shuttle boat, and we hiked to Inspiration Point. We got there around noon and left around 3:30. Of course we came at one of the busiest times of the day, so we waited over 45 minutes for the boat back. My parents walked the 2.3 miles back instead of taking the boat and they actually got back a few minutes before we did🙈 We should have all walked back. I would have rather been walking than standing in line waiting for a boat 🙃 We had originally thought about going to Snow King Mountain today but decided not to, and the national elk refuge didn’t have anything there to see, so I’m glad we decided to go to Jenny Lake. It was fun, and the view was beautiful from Inspiration Point! It’s 7,200 ft elevation. This first picture is of Hidden Falls (you come to it before Inspiration Point). Both were beautiful and worth the hike!

So, we had a good hike on Sunday and another one today. Thankful they weren’t on the same day!

Tip: wear sunscreen and take bottled water with you for the hike to Inspiration Point.

We went to the Bar J 5 Chuckwagon dinner at 6:00. The food was good, and the music was great! Their fiddle player was amazing. It was an entertaining show that ended with How Great Thou Art.

We got back to the hotel about 9:30 and had the dreaded task of packing up for the last time. Shuffling things around between suitcases wasn’t too bad this week. I got a little tired of it in the middle of the week, but it was ok. We didn’t have snacks to bring home (which were packed in our cooler on the way there), but we had several souvenirs to find a place for 😊

Saturday, July 10

We left Jackson Hole at 7:35 am and arrived in Houston around 11:30 am (central). We got some beautiful pictures of the sun coming up over the mountains in the east, on the way to the airport in Jackson.

Our flight from Houston to Huntsville was delayed about an hour but we were thankful to be home & to have had such a wonderful trip!

Other tips/helpful things to know:

Jackson Hole is the entire valley. Jackson is the main town located at the southern end of Jackson Hole.

It was still light at 9:30 pm every night!

Download the Gypsy app and purchase the Grand Teton/Yellowstone combination ($9.99). We really enjoyed listening to it as we went along. It was very informative.

You need bear spray. You have to buy it or rent it after you get there because it can’t be on planes, even in checked bags. We found out Friday night that a bear cub was on the path near Jenny lake where my parents had walked, about an hour before they were there – so you never know!

Two things I was not prepared for: curvy roads & lots of walking. Curvy roads weren’t everywhere, but there were quite a few places where you could get car sick if you’re prone to it. Our kids were 13 (almost 14) and 9 when we went. If they had both been teenagers, we could have done even more hikes. I’m SO glad we went, but if you are debating on taking a trip, make sure your kids are old enough to hang with you and do the things you want to do. Most things require a fair amount of walking, if you want to see them. Also, the hike to Inspiration Point is steep and I would not want to take a young child up there 😬

But if you have kids & are debating on whether to go, just go! Our kids loved it even more than we thought they would!

Don’t forget to pack:

Chapstick (the air is very dry)

Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen

A small fan for hotels that don’t have air conditioning

A good pair of tennis shoes!! You will need them every day! Water shoes if you want to get in the water & don’t want to go barefoot.

A rain jacket. It sprinkled on us one morning, so we were glad we had them. It can also be pretty cool in the morning hours. We all also brought a sweatshirt & pants for the days it was too cool for shorts.

We brought an empty cooler in our suitcase (and my parents did the same) so that we would have them when we got there. This also allowed us to bring some snacks and keep them from getting broken or crushed on the flight, because the inside part of the cooler was hard plastic. One handy thing we brought with us was individual packets of mayonnaise & mustard for sandwiches. That was 2 less things for us to buy when we got there, and it was easier than bottles.

What would I do differently?

I would make it so that our “early morning” would not have been the morning after we stayed at the Dreamcatcher Tipi Hotel – or I would stay 2 nights there! We loved staying there so much and hated to leave. It would have been great to sleep in that morning and enjoy it a little longer. Also, I kinda regret not doing the hike to the overlook at Grand Prismatic Spring 😔 I think I read recently that you can get to it from a fairly short distance? (not the 5 miles that I had thought) So I would look into that! I thought I had researched everything but must have missed that somewhere 😔

What was my favorite part of the trip?

Seeing something different every day! No 2 days were the same, and there was something new and different to do and see every day. When I planned this trip, it was to “Yellowstone” but a friend’s family had visited GTNP on their trip, so we included that too. I am SO glad we did!! It had such a relaxing/serene feel that we just loved ❤️ One day, I think it would be cool to see Mt Rushmore, Idaho Falls and some other attractions in the area, but we didn’t have time on this trip if we wanted to spend this much time in these 2 National Parks. I am thankful we were able to see as much of these 2 parks as we did.