Yellowstone & Grand Teton's - June 2016 Trip Report
Well after much deliberation and planning we were finally able to take a week and head to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We started out on a Friday morning from Denver heading towards Boulder, WY where we spent the night at Highline Trail RV Park. This was only a temporary stop on our way up to Henry's Lake State Park near Island Park, ID, where we based out of to explore the western side of Yellowstone and the town of West Yellowstone. Henry's Lake was a great location and we saw several truck campers as well...the area was beautiful and spaces nicely spaced, but the mosquitos were terrible!!! So terrible we didn't spend any time out side that wasn't absolutely necessary which was a downside to this time of year that we were unaware of...we won't make this mistake again and will return to this area in the fall from now on....anyway....
While we were at Henry's Lake our major outings consisted of a beautiful canoe trip down the Snake River where we enjoyed several moose sightings to include a couple mother's with their calf's.
and a visit to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone proper where the kids had the opportunity to see several grizzly's, wolves and raptors. Additionally, they even were able to help the handlers bury food for the grizzly's and then watch as they were released to uncover the food.
Lastly was a stop at Mesa Falls....which was absolutely incredible and doesn't get as much attention due to it location on the western side of Yellowstone in Idaho. This was incredibly beautiful....a bad picture didn't exist!
While we really enjoyed Idaho and the town of West Yellowstone we were ready to get into Yellowstone and the Grand Teton's proper as the kids were anxious to get their Junior Ranges Badges to add to their collection of badges. We saw several beautiful sites and the kids even had the privlidge of having BKA0721 administer their Junior Ranger oath...
The recommendations of several that have personal knowledge of the area was very accurate and certainly helped us in giving us the direction someone new to the parks needed. The necessity to get into the first come first serve campgrounds early morning was absolutely true...we arrived at Signal Mountain by 0800 and had our choice of about a half dozen sites...this was the routine generally every morning. We also took some excursions down a few less traveled areas where we found beautiful areas to relax away from the crowds of people.
Overall we had a great trip and are already planning a return hopefully this fall when the mosquitoes will be gone and we can spend more time exploring some of the backcountry as well as kayaking more lakes and rivers.
While we were at Henry's Lake our major outings consisted of a beautiful canoe trip down the Snake River where we enjoyed several moose sightings to include a couple mother's with their calf's.
and a visit to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone proper where the kids had the opportunity to see several grizzly's, wolves and raptors. Additionally, they even were able to help the handlers bury food for the grizzly's and then watch as they were released to uncover the food.
Lastly was a stop at Mesa Falls....which was absolutely incredible and doesn't get as much attention due to it location on the western side of Yellowstone in Idaho. This was incredibly beautiful....a bad picture didn't exist!
While we really enjoyed Idaho and the town of West Yellowstone we were ready to get into Yellowstone and the Grand Teton's proper as the kids were anxious to get their Junior Ranges Badges to add to their collection of badges. We saw several beautiful sites and the kids even had the privlidge of having BKA0721 administer their Junior Ranger oath...
The recommendations of several that have personal knowledge of the area was very accurate and certainly helped us in giving us the direction someone new to the parks needed. The necessity to get into the first come first serve campgrounds early morning was absolutely true...we arrived at Signal Mountain by 0800 and had our choice of about a half dozen sites...this was the routine generally every morning. We also took some excursions down a few less traveled areas where we found beautiful areas to relax away from the crowds of people.
Overall we had a great trip and are already planning a return hopefully this fall when the mosquitoes will be gone and we can spend more time exploring some of the backcountry as well as kayaking more lakes and rivers.
