9-6-18 Jackson-West Yellowstone by way of the Grand Tetons:

Spending some time with baby Layla.  She loves playing hide and seek.  My elbow was blocking her view of my face.  She thought that was funny. 

It was a beautiful morning!  Our first views of Jackson were of the little strip mall across the street from the lodge. 

After packing up our stuff again in our Dodge Caravan mini-van (nice free upgrade from the full size car that probably wouldn't have held all our stuff!) we headed to breakfast.  The kids checked ratings online and said this place is were we should go.

Cute restaurant and breakfast was good.  Off to a good start.

Then we walked around a bit.  Seems antler arches are a big thing here.

The square in the middle of town had antler archways at all 4 corners.

We decided to run into the grocery store before hitting the road.  Picked up snacks for the road---cheese, crackers, candy, chips.

Layla loves shopping carts now.

We also had to check out TJMaxx.  Thought they might have Jackson stuff in there, but they didn't.

Driving through town on our way out of town.

interesting little town

even have bike rentals.

Just out of town we were already admiring the scenery.

and interesting houses.

and wildlife---statues.

There are even a lot of wild flowers this time of year.

4 miles out of town is Grand Teton National Park.

They are as amazing as I expected!

We took the drive into the park and down to Yellowstone.  It's nice having the senior pass and getting into the National Parks free.

more wild flowers in the park

it must have been 90 degrees today, but there's still snow in the mountains.

  Stopped at one of the pull offs and walked around a bit to enjoy the views even more.

Josh pushing the stroller with Layla in it.

I took a trail a little bit rockier and met back up with them farther down the lake.

Thought this would take me to the lake, but it took me to another parking lot!

heading back up hopefully towards Angie and Josh.

Hummm---right or left?

At least I found the lake.

and a marina.

the kids were waiting by the marina and snacking on cheese and crackers while Layla just enjoyed being out of the car seat.

aspens?

more of the lake

Poor little guy.  Looks like someone used him for target practice.

I walked up for a higher view (which turned out to be just trees).

One of the few butterflies I saw.

After about an hour or 2, we hit the road again.

The Tetons were clouding over, but it was still pretty.

Fall was just beginning to show.

Would have expected it to be more crowded in the park

remnants of a fire.

We came upon a place where a bunch of cars were pulled over, so we did to.   Then we found what they were looking at. 

This guy was huge.  Only grizzly we saw the whole trip.

It's only about 60 miles from Jackson - the southern entrance of Yellowstone, but we had about another 60 miles to go through Yellowstone park to get to West Yellowstone.

But the scenery there is outstanding, too.

Coming in from the South Entrance.

more wild flowers along the road

We were anxious to get to the resort and try to keep Layla on a good sleep schedule, so we only stopped once when we got into Yellowstone.

Had to document our first buffalo

Coming upon the midway Geyser basin

Don't know if these were killed by the geothermal water or the fire of 1988, but they looked pretty cool.

The ride through the main part of the park didn't have too much traffic.

Reached West Yellowstone about 6ish.  Wonder if this guy ever got through the leather of the seat? 

Finally in our room----in time to see a pretty nice sunset from our 3rd floor patio!

Pretty nice place!

I headed to the grocery store to pick up dinner makings (spaghetti) and other stuff---cereal for breakfast, creamer for coffee, snacks for snacks.

One more look at the sunset.

It was a great first day of actual vacation.  Can't wait to explore more!