Our second full day in Gartner, Montana, we decide not to hang out in Yellowstone, but to drive through Yellowstone to Grant Tetons National Park. I have to say, this was DEFINITELY worth the drive. The views of the Grand Tetons mountain range is so breath taking.
As usual, we stopped as soon as we got into the park at the first visitor’s center we could find and got the kid’s Junior Ranger books. The badges at Grand Tetons were so cool, as they were made of wood instead of the usual plastic. We started driving around while the kids worked on their books, and ended up at the Rockefeller Nature Preserve located in the park. K wanted to sit and listen to a presentation by a ranger on butterflies, so the boys decided to check out one of the scientist backpacks and take a hike. What we thought would be like a 30 or 40 minute hike for them turned out to be a two hour hike to a beautiful lake. K and I started down the trail to find them, but it had been a long week already, and my navigation skills were off. Yep, I took the wrong path…the LONGER path. after 45 minutes of hiking, we turned around and gave up. I knew we were safe and the bears wouldn’t come near us because K wouldn’t stop talking!!!
Once we located the boys, we started driving back towards Yellowstone and stopped at Colter Bay for dinner and to get M Junior Ranger badge (K got hers waiting for the boys to come back from their adventure at the nature preserve). We at dinner at the Colter Ranchhouse. The food was ok, but what we really loved was the huckleberry ice cream we saved room for. All four of us fell in love with huckleberries there!
If you ever take a trip to Yellowstone, make sure to definitely build in a day at Grand Tetons. Considering they are literally right next to each other, you will kick yourself later if you don’t!