Notes From the Field: Greater Yellowstone with Gather Away

Jackson Airport is the only airport in the World that is inside a National Park (a lovely small airport with a short runway – hold on tight!) and then a 15–20-minute transfer to Jackson through the Teton Valley.  Jackson Hole refers to the area rather than the town, which is just Jackson.

Jackson is full of great restaurants, boutiques, lovely cafes and modern restaurants offering excellent menus and catering for different dietary requests.  We ate at the Snake River Grill, Julie’s favourite, and The Kitchen – both offered an excellent cross section of delicious foods and ‘normal’ portion sizes!

We spent the first day exploring Jackson and visiting the hotels that Julie favours, again a good mix of budgetary options, some family-owned, some with spas, but all with a warm welcome. We took the time to explore beyond Jackson and the Teton Village, which has larger properties, more resort in style but with great facilities for families as well as being close to the cable cars and ski options.

Jackson is a great base for exploring the Great Teton National Park with superb wildlife (it is the best place for moose viewing due to habitat) but we also saw some great birding, bison, elk, grizzly bears, mule deer, foxes and badgers and for us, we absolutely loved taking a walk and really getting off the beaten track to experience the serenity and beauty of this extraordinary Park.

This area is probably best for those wanting to combine wildlife whilst being more active, horse riding at Spring Creek, Art Tours, Hiking, Cycling, Boating – in boats of all shapes and sizes. We also visited the rodeo with its cowboy theatrics in the town square all whilst staying in great accommodation.  There is a reason why Harrison Ford and many others base themselves in Jackson!

In Winter the elk, bison and moose move closer to town with between 5-8,000 elk to be found in the Elk Refuge which of course attracts the predators. Then you can switch to some fun winter born activities such as sleigh rides, dog sledding etc.

Interestingly, visitor numbers are more or less the same to Grand Teton and Yellowstone – 4-5 million each year, which blew our minds!!  Most of these visitors come to explore from mid-June to September but only around 500,000 in Winter, another good reason to travel then and Jackson generally has less snow, so it is easier to explore.

Yellowstone is 2.2 million acres in size and was the first National Park in the World, created in 1872.

Many people do day trips from Yellowstone to Grand Teton or vice versa, however we very much agree with Julie that this is far too short for either.

Either way it is a long day, generally 12 hours ++

We loved taking the time to walk away from the roads and find beautiful, serene spots to enjoy the bird and wildlife as well as having the time in the Parks early on (no one much around) and when the wildlife is more active.  On a day trip, the earliest you would be in either place is 10am, by which time wildlife has generally disappeared into the thick and cool forest and everyone else has also arrived.  We did not find any hotels that offered an early breakfast so it really made a difference to be able to have coffee and a packed breakfast each morning so that we could find the wildlife out in the open and being active.

We would recommend 2 days in Teton as a minimum and 3nts 2 days in Yellowstone to have a full experience – 2 days of wildlife and then a short time to visit the geysers and hot springs and explore the other beautiful areas such as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. You could easily stay longer in either and add in activities such as fishing, boating Lake Yellowstone or hiking in Yellowstone, but by far our favourite spot was the Lemar Valley (so called Serengeti of Yellowstone), stunningly beautiful and filled with wildlife.  We also were very taken with the Hayden Valley where we saw our first wolves – the Wapiti Lake Pack with 2 small cubs and we then saw the Junction Bute Pack in the Lemar area.

We had so many bear sightings; grizzlies with young cubs and then a variety of black bears though they come in many different colours, from cinnamon to brown to jet black, many with cubs, some hunting elk fawns, eeek!  We saw numerous coyotes and a successful hunt of a pronghorn baby.  Pronghorns, bison galore, foxes, pine martins, numerous elk (of course), mountain goats, long-horned sheep, harlequin ducks and a golden eagle feeding a chick on its nest which was so special. We had 2nts in Jackson and 4nts in Yellowstone (and Gardiner in the North) and it was the perfect amount of time to include visits to the geysers, hot springs and we were always guided to the best viewing spot and at quieter times when we were not delayed by an extraordinary sighting.  The Grand Canyon and Lake Yellowstone were stunningly beautiful.

So, armed with a packed breakfast each day, we were able to get out early to explore before the crowds descended. We also had fresh, healthy and delicious picnic lunches or stopped in restaurants with good fare, always with good timing and forethought.  Everything was reconfirmed, adjusted according to how we were feeling and to fit in with sightings, weather, crowds and this definitely made a huge difference.  I had been to this area 7 years ago and self-drove.

We had a lovely time as a family but we only saw bison (difficult to miss) and lots of elk, the geysers and beauty of the Park which  is really extraordinary but we missed most of the wildlife, the photographic opportunities and certainly were not able to leave the hotels early without breakfast.   We were like everyone else and joined the queues but this trip has really shown how much you can elevate the entire experience. It is slightly more expensive for the Gather Away experience than a standard guided day trip but you get so much more for your money and of course don’t have to join the crowds in the middle of the day.  It is definitely worth telling potential visitors about the options and their experience in the Greater Yellowstone Eco system will be the jewel in the crown of their visit to this region.  Even if it is only 3 nights, it will add enormous value to their visit.

Julie remains the logistical expert as there are so many different times of year to visit, to understand the park closures, access points etc. but we have learned an enormous amount so please call us to chat through any ideas.

We personally would love to return in winter and will focus some ideas and itineraries around visiting at this time as it’s a perfect time for incredible photography and wildlife spotting as well as geysers freezing as they erupt.  Give us a call!