YELLOWSTONE AND THE GRAND TETONS – Six Days Exploring U.S. National Parks

We flew in and out of Salt Lake City, which was one of the closest major airports. However, there are also smaller airports a little closer.
A car is definitely needed to get to and around the two parks.
Yellowstone National Park has a lot of unique landmarks and geothermal features. While there is some hiking, it is mostly driving and stopping off along the route to view the various attractions. It is also very crowded in the summer.
Next time I would spend more time in Grand Teton National Park. It is a lot less driving and has a lot of options for hiking.

DAY 1: DRIVE FROM SALT LAKE CITY TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Gibbon Falls and Artists Paintpots

We flew into Salt Lake City, where we rented a car to drive around Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. It was a 5-6 hour drive through Utah, Idaho and a tiny bit of Wyoming to reach the park’s west entrance. Once we reached the entrance of the park, it was another hour drive to Canyon Lodge, where we were staying.

Along the way we stopped at Gibbon Falls, which was just off the road on the route to the lodge. Honestly, it wasn’t somewhere I would go out of the way to see. A little further down the road we stopped at Artists Paintpots, an area with several geothermal features. We walked around the various trails there for about 20-30 minutes. We hiked to the top of the hill there, which provided a nice view of the area. After exploring, we got back in the car to head to the lodge.

Artists Paintpots, Yellowstone

Once at the lodge, we settled in and then grabbed dinner at the lodge’s dining hall.

DAY 2: EXPLORING YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic

We woke up somewhat early to head down to Old Faithful. After driving an hour from our lodge, we arrived at 9:45. Luckily, it erupted 15-20 minutes after we arrived. Once the eruption ended, we spent 30-40 minutes walking around the geothermal features and checking out the historic Old Faithful Inn.

Note: Most buildings around the Old Faithful area post eruption prediction times.

Old Faithful

We then stopped at Black Sand Basin, an area with more geothermal features right off the road. We also stopped at Midway Geyser Basin, which was crowded since that is where the famous Grand Prismatic is located. After fighting the crowds, we found somewhere to picnic and then headed back to the lodge for a glass of wine before our wildlife tour.

Grand Prismatic

Evening Wildlife Tour to Lamar Valley

At 4:30 we met at the main lodge building for our Evening Wildlife Tour to Lamar Valley. It was a 4-hour tour in an old park touring bus. It was a scenic drive to Lamar Valley. Once we got there we saw herds of bison, which was really neat. We saw several other wildlife along the way. Once we got back to the lodge, we had a mediocre dinner before heading to bed.

Evening Wildlife Tour to Lamar Valley

DAY 3: EXPLORING YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Mammoth Hot Springs

Weather was not our side today. However, we still got to explore parts of Yellowstone. We woke up and drove to the very northern part of the park, which is where Mammoth Hot Springs is located. We originally wanted to hike Mount Washburn on the way but weather did not cooperate.

Instead we stopped at Tower Falls. From the parking lot, we walked down the trail a little bit and were rewarded with a beautiful overview of the Yellowstone River. 40 minutes later we made it to Mammoth Hot Springs. We toured the upper part of the springs before a thunderstorm hit. Therefore, we took a lunch break before exploring the lower part of the springs. We then took a leisurely drive along Blacktail Plateau Drive (a more scenic route) down to Roosevelt Lodge, where we hung out for a little bit before we had to meet for our chuckwagon dinner.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Roosevelt Old West Dinner Cookout

At 4:30 we met our group for the Roosevelt Old West Dinner Cookout. They gave us a briefing and told a few stories before splitting us up into horse drawn covered wagons, which we took across Pleasant Valley to our dinner location. It was a beautiful drive, complete with a double rainbow.

Roosevelt Old West Dinner Cookout

For dinner, they served us steak, cornbread, baked beans, potato salad, corn and peach cobbler. They also had a campfire going. We got back around 8:30 and then headed back to the lodge.

DAY 4: DRIVE FROM YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK TO GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

In the morning we drove to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, where we hiked down to the Lower Falls. It was a .75 mile hike with steep switchbacks down to the top of the falls. From there we made our way out of Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park.

Lower Falls of Yellowstone

Drive to Grand Teton National Park

It was a 3-3.5 hour drive to Grand Teton National Park. Along the way we stopped at the Natural Bridge Trail to hike to the Natural Bridge. The natural bridge was cool, but the hike was mostly along a dirt road and not very exciting. We also stopped along Yellowstone Lake to picnic.

We made it to Jackson Lake Lodge in the late afternoon. We had a room with a patio looking directly at the Grand Tetons, which was beautiful! We had wine on the patio before grabbing an early dinner at The Blue Heron Lounge on the property. We admired the views from the main building before calling it a night.

Jackson Lake Lodge

DAY 5: HIKING IN GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

Hike to Inspiration Point via Jenny Lake

We woke up early to do some hiking in Grand Teton National Park. We drove about an hour to the Jenny Lake Trailhead. We did a 7.2 mile (out and back) hike to Inspiration Point. It was a beautiful hike partially around Jenny Lake and then up to Inspiration Point (with the option to continue further). It was a little crowded but still a nice hike.

Inspiration Point

Note: For a shorter hike you can take a boat across Jenny Lake to the Cascade Canyon Trailhead and start the hike from there.

Once back down the mountain we stopped for lunch at Signal Mountain Lodge before heading back to our lodge.

Hike to Overlook Rock on Emma Matilda Lake

After relaxing for a little bit we did one of the hikes that was in walking distance from our lodge. We hiked to Overlook Rock on Emma Matilda Lake via Christian Road. It was an ok hike but definitely not my favorite, especially after having gone to Inspiration Point in the morning. Following the hike we had dinner at the lodge.

DAY 6: DRIVE FROM GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK TO SALT LAKE CITY

After a hearty breakfast at the lodge, we headed on our way back to Salt Lake City. It was about a five and half hour drive. We made a few photos stops along the way (at Cunningham Cabin and Mormon Row) to admire the Grand Tetons.