Travel Guide: WYOMING

A couple months ago we celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary! (you can relive the wedding fun HERE). Initially we wanted to head back to Maui to celebrate where we got married – I mean come on, who wouldn’t want to just chill in paradise? We had flights booked and hotels reserved, and we were constantly keeping track of COVID travel restrictions, but at the last minute (well not really, like a month before) we realized that our dreams of celebrating in Hawaii were diminishing. SO! We started looking up alternative places we could travel. Our criteria: It needed to be in the continental US, was not a COVID hot spot at the time, and where we could spend a lot of time outdoors (vs museums, and places indoors that would be closed due to COVID). I don’t know at what point we decided that Jackson, Wyoming fit our criteria, but I am so glad we came to that decision.

Jackson is right outside of Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) and is a couple hours South of Yellowstone. It literally turned to fall while we were there too! It was so magical, and I couldn’t think of a better place to spend our first wedding anniversary.

Check out all our other Wyoming posts:

WYOMING VLOGS (Part 1, Part 2, bloopers) // WYOMING PHOTO DIARY // WHAT WE ATE IN WYOMING // TRAVEL BUDGET: how much it cost us to go on this trip!

Please note some of the links included in this post are affiliate, and I may receive small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click through and make a purchase. All thoughts + opinions are always my own (read my affiliate disclosure here).

WHERE WE STAYED IN WYOMING

Jackson Hole is the valley we stayed in and explored. In Jackson Hole you have the town of Jackson, and Teton Village as far as the main places to stay as a visitor. Jackson town is where most of the restaurants, shops and things to do are. Teton Village is a ski resort town, where most of the larger resorts are, and is about 15 minutes outside of Jackson. We chose Teton Village because it was less crowded (although I’m sure in the winter it gets pretty busy), had gorgeous views, and seemed quieter than the town of Jackson. We still drove into town for meals and to walk around though because it was on our way into GTNP, and up to Yellowstone.

Teton Lodge and Spa

This is a quaint resort in Teton Village. It’s literally at the base of the mountain, right next to the ski lift. It’s a family and pet friendly resort, and I loved that it was within walking distance to the rest of Teton Village -it was nice to walk to the small cafe for coffee and hot chocolate in the mornings. They have a restaurant, a spa (that was booked up by the time we got there), and a roof top hot tub (they have a ground level pool, and an indoor pool as well). Upon check-in, we were upgraded for free to a small suite that included a kitchenette and gas fire place. I can not rave enough about the customer service at this resort as well. We (well, me) dropped our small camera in water while we were canoeing and as soon as we got back to the hotel Travis asked for a bag of rice – and they delivered! ha! Loved that this hotel is on Hotels.com too because we were able to use our Hotels.com points for 2 of our 5 nights.

STAY: Teton Lodge + Spa (through hotels.com) // Teton Lodge + Spa

GETTING TO JACKSON WYOMING

FLYING: You can fly directly into Jackson Hole; if you fly an airline that offers that. But because we flew Southwest, we didn’t have that option. The next closest airport that Southwest flys into is Salt Lake City (well also Boise, Idaho). Either way you’re looking at a 4-5 hour drive into Jackson and back. We chose this option because we try to stay loyal to Southwest to accumulate miles for future travel. It turned into a fun mini road trip, and we were able to see parts of the country we’ve never seen before (parts of Utah, Idaho and Wyoming).

DRIVE: This would be a fun road trip if you live on the Western side of the United States. You could plan it out so you hit up a couple other national parks along the way depending on where you are traveling from and how much time you have.

HOW WE GOT AROUND

A car is absolutely necessary in Wyoming. Since we flew into Salt Lake City, we rented a car at the airport and had that throughout our stay. We opted for a small SUV, but a compact or full size should do the trick if you’re not expecting any snow during your visits and won’t need a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Even if you fly directly into Jackson Hole, you can rent a car at their small airport too. But expect a lot of driving no matter where you stay. There is a lot to do and see and you don’t want to miss any of it!

WHAT WE DID IN WYOMING

We had 4 full days in Wyoming, not counting our book end travel days. Here’s our itinerary (minus food; that will have a post all it’s own!). We didn’t do ALL there is to do in the area, although I think we had a good variety, so I’m going to link a couple sites at the bottom that I referenced when creating our itinerary that might have other suggestions of things to do that we didn’t get around to.

PRO TIP: Because we knew we were going to do a lot of driving around the national parks, we downloaded the Gypsy App that covered Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. If you remember we loved our Shaka Guides while in Hawaii and we were excited to find something similar here. I highly recommend downloading this app if you are exploring the area – you get history, tips on where to stop for great views, and what stops are actually worth it along the way.

DAY 1

We slept in because we had a long travel day the day before, grabbed breakfast at Persephone in Wilson (half way between Teton Village and Jackson), and then headed out on a hike.

Jenny Lake Hike | This is one of this more popular hikes in GTNP – I would suggest getting there on the earlier side, parking seemed to be a bit of an issue. The hike itself is a 2.5 mile easy hike / walk around Jenny Lake to Hidden Falls. Once you hit the falls, you can keep going up to Inspiration Point, or hike back into Cascade Canyon. Alternatively, for a small fee, you can take the ferry across the lake and bypass the 2.5 mile walk in and, or out from the falls. It’s a gorgeous hike around the lake so I highly recommend the relatively easy hike. We hiked in and out, and didn’t end up taking the ferry either way. We didn’t go further past the falls because we timed it wrong, didn’t pack lunches, and it was still smokey from the fires so we didn’t think we would get a great view anyways.

We ended our day with some delicious pizza and ice cream in Jackson.

DAY 2

We got an early start to head towards Yellowstone for the day. It took us a good 2 hours to drive between Jackson and Yellowstone, but it was a beautiful drive – fall foliage everywhere! Yellowstone is a large park (it was actually the first national park in the US!). There was no way we were going to cover even half of it in one day; and we knew that going in. So we decided we wanted to at least see Old Faithful, which worked out perfect because it’s on the Southern side of the park – the closest to Jackson. During our day trip we stopped at Keppler Cascades, walked around the boardwalk at West Thumb (highly recommend!), explored the Upper Geyser Basin to see the other geysers and hot springs, and got to visit Old Faithful.

Again, visiting Yellowstone as a day trip from Jackson might not be the best choice because of the time it takes to drive into and out of the park from Jackson, but we decided it was something we wanted to do since we were close enough.

Keppler Cascades

West Thumb Boardwalk

Old Faithful + Upper Geyser Basin

DAY 3

The first half of the day we went into Jackson town and walked around the town square. We walked around the Jackson Hole farmers market that is held on Saturdays for part of the year, and through the little shops that surround the town square. We grabbed lunch in town before we headed out to do some sightseeing around Grand Teton National Park.

We drove Highway 191, and used our Gypsy guide to learn more about the area and stops we wanted to make. These are the stops we made (in this order heading North from Jackson):

GTNP entrance sign; there is a turnout so you can park and get out for a picture
Mormon Row Historic District off of Antelope Flats road to see the famous TA Moulton Barn; one of the most photographed spots in the country!
Schubachers landing; HIGHLY recommend, the views are breathtaking
Look out over Snake River

Jackson Town Square

GTNP sign

Mormon Row

Schubachers landing

Snake River Lookout

DAY 4

This was probably our earliest morning of the trip – but so worth the early wake up call. We knew we wanted to kayak or canoe on one of the lakes in GTNP, but we weren’t quite sure if it was going to be possible with COVID restrictions. We found out that we could rent a canoe or kayak on Jackson Lake out of Colter Bay – BUT! it was first come first serve, and no calling ahead to reserve or to check the status of them (or at least that’s what their website says). So we passed through the town of Jackson for breakfast, and then drove out to Colter Bay. There were still plenty of canoes and kayaks to choose from when we got there around 9 AM. The views were breathtaking from the water!

On our way back into Teton Village we took Teton Park road to Moose road with our Gypsy guide and stopped at some of the suggested stops to take in the sights. These roads are at the base of the Tetons, whereas Highway 191 (that we took on day 3) was further from the mountains. One of the turnoffs we took on our journey was for signal mountain. It’s about a 15 minute wind-y drive up the mountain with views over the entire valley (and great reception – there is literally a large cell tower at the top..). We ended the day with anniversary dinner in Jackson and one last stroll through the town square. It was a perfect way to end our 1st year of marriage.

Signal Mountain

Jenny Lake

WYOMING RELATED POSTS: Photo Diary // Where we ate // VLOGS // Travel Budget

Here are some other websites I found helpful when planning our trip to Wyoming and/or Jackson hole:

Jacksonhole.com // LocalAdventurer.com // Diretinmyshoes.com

I’m already mentally planning our trip back to Jackson – it is so gorgeous in the fall and I can only imagine how magical it can get in the winter time when everything is covered in snow and twinkling lights! Also, we are already planning to come back for at least a week to explore all Yellowstone has to offer!