Grand Teton National Park

Morning coffee with the flavors of peace, beauty and subtlety. Sometimes all it takes is to find a corner, and be your own self. One may be far too stretched out to be able to identify oneself. We often tend to drag ourselves in the worldly wise world but it will remain to be a haze until you find yourself. That finding your own self my dear friend, is the sunshine of the day in life.

When we headed towards the Grand Teton National Park, I could feel the essence of the natural aroma that symbolized this trip. Once you adorn yourself with the natural scents of Sagebrush, forested lodgepole pines, spruce and fir in the Grand Tetons, those hikes become heavenly. The magnificent view of the Tetons and the majestic musical falls, clear water, alpine wild forget-me-nots, all align to make it an experience like no other. You are enchanted and you simply sail in the Pied Piper queue of the Grand Tetons. I don’t desire Giorgio Armani or the Chanels anymore, for now I have aromas to go after 😊.

I have always tried to find myself amongst nature and one of the charms for me on these trips is to be able to sneak out at 6:00 am for a coffee walk with him. And what if the traditional walk changes into the romantic walk in the woods? Kids dozed off due to last night's haul. Ahh! I want that in every trip.

We lodged at Headwaters lodge at the Flagg Ranch the first day after the long drive from Yellowstone.

Staying at Headwaters Lodge gave us a wonderful connecting dot from YNP to GTNP. The best part at the lodge was that there was no internet. It was practically a naturalist living for a day and a night. Voila!

Jenny Lake Junction & Jenny Lake Scenic Drive

Jenny Lake Junction was the busiest place in GTNP and the views are breathtaking. We took the boat shuttle ride to the Leigh Lake Trailhead. A trend that I love to follow, a hike, a boat or a trail. We headed to the junction bragging about its out of the world experience in the top rides world wide. That's how we usually convince our kids to get along and have an upbeat demeanor through out. Not realizing how steep the hidden falls hike will be, we stopped at very nook and halt of the trail, yet taken aback with corner delights. We encountered some spectacular views at the Jenny lake here. I had seen a twin of this lake earlier too, well, a twin meaning as gorgeous as itself. Yes, certainly, that twin was no other than Lake Tahoe, CA.

Embarked the trail head to the hidden falls. From there I called it a pied piper hike (from the way it enchanted us :) to the hidden falls. So, welcome to the course of enchantment, with props that of sage, flowers at the pines , musical water streams crossing every curve of the mountain and many whimsical view too.

Hidden Falls

I have certainly morphed into a hiker in the past few years. And no wonder I wanted to hike even at a place like Cancun! And here comes the classy and grand Hidden Falls.

Jenny Lake Scenic Overlook Trail.

Gypsy was our friend throughout the trip, just like a guide and funny and enjoyable beauty interpreter. That's how we remained connected to the myriad number of vista points throughout the trip. Jenny lake view across the Cascade Canyon is stunning . Pleistocene carved the U shaped Canyon and the basin filled by the lake. Today, the lake is named after the Shoshone India woman who married a British fur trapper Richard Beaver.

Jackson Lake Lodge

One of the traditional and most popular in the GTNP. They say if you sail well, then you nail well.

The lodge gave us the magnificent views of the Teton Range in the center of the valley. We practically did nothing here besides mind meditation amidst nature and landscapes. We were smitten away with the magical baby pink lilies of the valley and Suhana's rock n roll outside the lodge's outdoor patio.

All in row for you to view the backdrop, Jackson Lake Lodge views with Willow Flats, Jackson Lake lodge and the Teton Range beyond

Cartwheels on the roll, they say you act happy when you feel happy....so true in the pic above

Gave me time to retrospect all along...

Gypsy enlightened us with audio historic background for these mersmerising views.

The French fur trappers originally named the Teton range as ‘Les Trios Tetons’ meaning the three breasts, later Wilson Prince Hunt called it ‘Pilot Knobs’ in 1811 as he used them for orientation while crossing Union Pass. Today the three Tetons ( Grand, Middle and South) are best seen here in Wyoming GTNP. Did you know that the geologic forces still shape the youthful landscape of the Tetons? With no foothills to obstruct, the jagged peaks and deep canyons of the Teton range rise abruptly from the valley. There are about 2.7 billion year old rocks found in the core of the range are oldest in North America but these mountains rank youngest in the world. The collision of the tectonic plates generated massive earthquakes causing the mountains to rise while the valley floor dropped.

Can shopping be missed on any trip? Inside view of Jackson Lake lodge. Jackson Lake Lodge is one of the two Historic Landmarks in the park. With its concrete textured walls, it was the first modern lodge built in the park

The Jackson Lake Lodge was very picturesque and gave us some memorable fairy tale moments that we will cherish lifelong.

The Willow Flats Overlook

The willow flats brought us to the wetlands and meadows that are excellent habitat for birds, elks, moose, beavers with views of Jackson Lake and the Teton Range.

The Mount Moran - named after a famous painter Thomas Moran is the dominant peak of the northern Teton Range. The mountain reflects all the geologic forces that formed the Teton Range. Five glaciers - Falling ice, Skillet and Triple - flank Mount Moran.

The Signal Mountain Summit

Driving on the curvy mountain terrain, with windy road and almost 1000ft above the valley floor to the summit left me in a pure nostalgic state of mind where I imagined myself to be the Bollywood star reeling the life of my own in the gorgeous backdrop. The two overlooks here provided the panoramic views of the Teton Range and Jackson Lake.

This Sweeping view from the summit at the Signal Mountain captures the five mountain ranges surround night Jackson hole valley.

The Teton ranges rises to the west, the snake river range to the southwest, the Gros Centre range to the southwest, the Absarokas to the east and the Yellowstone plateau to the north.

Signal Mountain has set some beautiful memories for us. I can now age comfortably with this treasure

Alpine wild flower - 'Forget- me - not' . these flowers had a wide coverage all around the Signal Mountain Overlook area.

Oxbow Bend Turnout

Meander of the snake river that attracts wildlife including moose, beavers, river otters, osprey and American pelicans Mount Moran provides a backdrop for the classic view of any picture clicked here. Moran is the hidden by the clouds in this pic below.

Cunningham Cabin Historic Site

Cunningham Cabin Spot is a dogtrot style cabin one of the few remaining homestead cabins in Jackson Hole. Common in eastern states, the cabin consists of the two small cabins joined with an open covered breezeway. The oldest historic building in the park shows challenges off the homesteading

Snake River Overlook

The iconic view of the Teton Range on the vantage point

Mormon Row Historic District

Mormon Row has iconic historic barns and homesteads. This is truly iconic of the Grand Tetons

Schwabacher Landing

Schwabacher Landing is the largest beaver dam. Beaver constantly work to enlarge and enforce their dams. They are most active at dawn and dusk. When the wind is calm the pond reflect the central Teton Range framed by spruce and cottonwood trees. in our case the clouds did not want the reflection in the pond .

Colter Bay

It seemed those clouds were walking with us here

Menors Ferry

We strolled to the Menors Ferry District to explore homestead and pioneer like in Jackson Hole. Bill Menors cabin and view of replica of the ferry that crossed snake river. What an innovation of a ferry!

The Chapel of the Transfiguration is a small log chapel in Grand Teton National Park, in the community of Moose. The chapel was sited and built to frame a view of the Cathedral Group of peaks in a large window behind the altar. See in the next pic..

Peaks thru the window behind the altar…

Along with the picturesque views, beautiful meadows, heavenly hikes, wildlife watching, biking 🚴‍♀️ , floating and boating 🛶 are the various activities that attract millions of families to GTNP in Wyoming.

While we had The Old faithful pizza and the Dragon mouth seasoned dinners in YNP, I cannot miss the dark chocolate Huckleberry ice cream bar or the one with Chocolate Chip Moose Tracks in GTNP. We got the pleasure of savoring very possible snack of Huckleberry. Huckleberries are close cousins to blueberries however, wild ones are sweeter and more concentrated with some tartness. The wild ones are exceptionally rare too & that is native to Northwestern United States. This berry cannot be grown commercially because of the unpredictable elements of weather. They say when in Rome, be a Roman. So be it then!

There is lots more in the treasure, don't go anywhere except the places you stroll in the blog here.