The mountains looked pretty awesome entering the park, but I was still waiting for the "moment." About five minutes into the park we were greeted with this.
And it only got better from there.
Our big excursion for this park was a hike around Jenny Lake. This was a pretty big deal for me since it was a five mile round trip to the Hidden Falls. There is an option to take a boat across the river and cut the hike down to 1.5 miles but I was feeling up to the challenge. The weather was perfect for hiking, plus there was a lot of tree cover.
Along the hike we had gorgeous views of the lake,
a baby moose in a pond,
and ultimately the Hidden Falls.
After the hike we were both starving but ended up getting big ice cream bars at the general store instead. We continued driving through the park, stopping often to take pictures and take in the majestic mountains.
Our final destination for the day was the Jackson Lake Lodge in the park. The lodge is absolutely gorgeous. It's a bit of a "forced modernism" structure that has retained it's original look from the 50s. When you walk about the stairs in the lobby you are greeted with 60 foot, floor to ceiling windows with the ultimate view of the Teton Range. In my opinion, this is the best view in the park. You have the rolling meadows that open up to the Jackson Lake, and then the mountains in all of their glory. It really is stunning and I could have sit there all day staring at them.
After getting settled in our cabin we headed over to the Mural Room at the Lodge for dinner. The Mural Room has the same huge windows, and the same view. It was one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been to! We had fun deciding what to get for an appetizer. We finally decided to be adventurous and ordered the hazelnut and ginger bison carpaccio. I was a little nervous about eating raw bison but it was delicious. We also had an amuse-bouche of tuna tartar which was quite yummy! Our dinners were delicious and dessert was as well. We had such a great time staring out the windows at the mountains. A fox even ran by the window.
After dinner we headed to one of the Lodge bars to have drinks outside and watch the sunset over the mountains. Unfortunately, the mousquitoes were really bad so we watched from inside the lobby darting outside every few minutes to take pictures. As the sun was setting deer and elk came out in the meadows. It was truly beautiful. I still cannot get over how amazing the mountains were. Grand Teton National Park definitely surpassed our expectations.
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