A Magical Vacation to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park

I have your next vacation planned for you. Seriously! 

If you haven't been to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and you love the outdoors, you must, must get there. 

This trip was one of my favorites of all time, and you know I've been many places! 

I was so incredibly lucky to have a dear friend from growing up, Mary, join me. I met Mary the day she was born, her family being wonderful friends living next door to us in Fairfax, and I had the pleasure of babysitting for her and watching her grow up into the lovely young woman she is today. Mary just graduated from Va Tech in May and luckily decided there was nothing she'd rather do for a week after graduation than adventure to Wyoming with me! 

We began our adventure with some yoga at Redrocks. I can't imagine a better way to start. 

After yoga, we made our 8 hour journey to Yellowstone. We listened to many "tunes" and played "I'm going to Grandmother's house and I'm bringing..." I enjoyed putting many three-word phrases into the game much to Mary's dismay, including "Pokemon playing card" for P and "Yellowstone tourist map" for Y.

We arrived to find our adorable, dry, warm, mosquito-free cabin.

After unpacking (and when I say unpacking, I mean putting our flashlights on the table), we set off to find dinner and passed this spectacular view off the side of the road. I think it was at this point that I decided this was one of my favorite places in the world and that I would indeed one day be back. 

We enjoyed salad, pizza, and great beer on the patio of a pizza parlor with this view... my idea of absolute heaven!! 

Being that it is over 3,000 total square miles, the attractions in Yellowstone are very spread out. One day we drove over 2 hours to get where we wanted to go in the park. Each popular area has a sort of village near it, with restaurants, a hotel, and cabins. It is touristy, but still somehow maintains the feel of backcountry. I was very impressed with how Yellowstone is planned and run. There are large parking lots around each area, much to my appreciation, but once you enter the area you don't feel like you are at an amusement park.
The first village area we decided to visit was Old Faithful and the geyser basins.
It is called Old Faithful because it erupts faithfully every hour!

We spent the day walking around the geyser basins looking at the thermal pools. 

Look at those colors! 

These geysers/hot springs/thermal pools are this color due to bacteria living in them! 

We saw lots of wildlife including bison, elk, deer, and even 2 bears. We searched all week for a moose but sadly no moose!  

Grand Teton National Park is a truly magical place. My pictures do not do the beauty justice, but I tried! 

We hiked around Jenny lake, saw a bear on the side of the path, said, "Wow!" literally hundreds of times, and took the boat back across the lake. 

After Grand Tetons, we continued south to Jackson, WY a place I'd always wanted to see. I have to say Jackson is just another ski town. It's not that different from Vail, CO. Does that sound snobby or like first world problems? Probably. 

On the way back to our cabin, we stopped at a spectacular little spot where old houses built by a mormon community around 1890 are still intact. 

That night's dinner was one of my favorite times when we stopped at a general store for some cheese, crackers, and beer, and relaxed by the water. 

The next day was my favorite (how many times have I said that?) spot in Yellowstone. It was the village or area of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. 

First we hiked a bit to the canyon and saw a beautiful rainbow. 

I've never been to the real Grand Canyon, but I thought this was pretty darn amazing! 

That night as we were driving back to our cutest little cabin, we stopped on another beautiful shore of another beautiful lake and watched the sun set. 

 And the final day, we visited one last big attraction area (which shockingly was not my favorite), and spent the rest of the day stopping and walking through beautiful roadside creeks and rivers.

Thank you Wyoming and Mary for an absolutely perfect week!