After we left South Dakota, we headed further west towards Wyoming. Wyoming is home to two popular national parks. Our first stop was to national park #11, Grand Teton! We drove straight in from SD so when we arrived we were hungry and tired. That didn’t stop our excitement when we saw wild buffalo on the way in. We hit the Craig Thomas visitors center just before they closed to grab a park map and get our bearings of the area. We initially wanted to go to Phelps Lake which is a clear water lake with beautiful colored rocks. However upon arrival to the road, we found out that it is not RV friendly. This led to an argument between Jeffrey and I about whether or not we’re considered an RV or a van.. I’ll spare you the details but the argument ended with a driver change and a few moments of separation (aka Jeffrey spending a few minutes locked in the bathroom). That’s the funny thing about living in 100 sq feet, there aren’t many places to escape! This is when we realized that we needed to feed Brianna.. after a few snacks we were back laughing on the road.
Teton park road is the main road that goes through Grand Teton. It’s a 24 mile road with tons of pull offs and places to stop along the way. We pulled off at Teton Glacier turnout and snapped a few gorgeous photos then headed to Jenny Lake. Jenny Lake is one of the more popular lakes in Grand Teton and has places to setup for the day and enjoy swimming, hiking and cycling. There’s a paved half mile trail called Discovery Loop that we walked around to see the lake up close. There is also a visitors center and ranger station here where you can get permits for back country camping and boating.
After Jenny Lake we hit the road again and decided to drive up Signal Mountain. This was a fun 7 mile drive in the RV! It’s almost 8,000 feet high and although it’s a little bit of a tight squeeze, a good driver can make it in an RV. Regular cars will have no issues on this road, just beware that there may be crazy RV drivers on it too! There are two lookout points at the top (Emma Matilda & Jackson Point). We spent most of our time at Emma Matilda because it was less crowded and had more parking room for the RV. This is where we had a strange encounter with some birds doing a mating dance, nature is awesome! We stopped by Jackson Point on the way down and Jeffrey ran out to take a few photos of the overlook.
Our next stop was at the Jackson Lake Dam. This is a great spot to pull over and walk the bridge to overlook the lake and to see the dam in all its glory. There were some locals fishing in the river under the dam and they seemed to be pulling in a lot of fish.
After a few photos, we headed to Leeks Marina which ended up being my favorite place in the park! It’s tucked away a bit and park visitors don’t seem to stop here as it’s a boat drop in. If you drive around the marina parking lot, there’s a short strip of parking that overlooks Jackson lake. There’s also a pizza place on the edge of the water that smelled delicious (still hungry). We parked the van and walked out on the boat dock to watch the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful and we were completely alone. We sat here for about 20 minutes taking in the sights and enjoying the solitude. We would have loved to get in the water but it was ice cold and we were ready to get to our boondocking spot for the night.
There’s no boondocking allowed in Grand Teton or Yellowstone. However, in between the two parks there’s a small strip of national forest land that allows overnight camping. We found the spot on iOverlander and it’s right off of the John D Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Highway. You cross a bridge and it’s on the left side of the road. Under the bridge is a river that had a few fisherman trying their luck for dinner. We played in the water for a while but decided to go in for the night after getting eaten up by mosquitos!! They are rough in this boondocking spot so be aware if you camp here overnight. When we parked there was only one other RV’er (a large class A) but by the time we went to bed there were about 10 vehicles spread out across the lot. It appeared that tent camping was also an option in this spot as there were 2-3 tent campers and a few car campers that drove in later at night. By 7am everyone was gone (except us, ha).
That’s our trip in Grand Teton NP! I would 100% recommend seeking out Signal Mountain and Leeks Marina. We’re always a big fan of secluded spots and both of these places had little to no crowds. Although we can’t personally speak to it because we couldn’t drive the road in, I think Phelps Lake would also be a good stop. The photos look amazing and anytime there’s a hike involved it usually means smaller crowds.
If we were to visit again (which we would – it’s a beautiful place), we would do some of the hikes like Surprise and Amphitheater Lakes. It’s an almost 10,000 ft elevation hike that’s about 10 miles roundtrip. This gets you up close to some secluded lakes.
