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Very excited about our upcoming trip to Wyoming and the Mountain West!
Anyhow, we are doing various things before we arrive in this vicinity, including staying 3 full nights at Old Faithful. Then, on the first such day, we are traveling, and seeing Grand Teton along the way, ultimately staying in Afton, Wyoming. Looks like that is right around 4 hrs. driving without stops, which will happen for sightseeing, etc. of course.
1. Just how busy does the ferry get during the summer, albeit on a weekend, at Jenny Lake? Trying to determine whether it would be worth it to focus in on doing that, or to just do what we can there, and then hit some other spots too (Oxbow Bend, Mormon Row, etc.)
2. How big of a concern would encountering a bear be along the Jenny Lake trail, or moving towards Secret Falls or Inspiration Point, be, so long as I stay on path?
3. What would you recommend a family do, if they only have an hour or so, around the core downtown area of Jackson? Eating, sights, etc.
Then, on the 16th, we are driving from Afton to Park City, which looks about a 3 hour trip, of course without any stops. What is there to see along that route? I do see the JC Penney Museum is in Kammerer, along with the home store.. but the home store is not open till 11 and it appears (could be wrong) that the museum is closed at this time. Not sure I've ever seen a museum with less of an online presence, so hard to really say. Anyways, I'm thinking when we head out from Afton that morning, we sorta just press through so that we can get into Park City by 10:30 or 11 and enjoy the rest of the day (we fly home from Salt Lake the next morning), but if anyone has anything from roadside stops, points of interest, in Afton, Geneva, Cokeville, Evanston, Coalville, etc. They would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
If you had the time, driving Hwy 150 south of Evanston would be scenic, modestly longer than direct route to Park City. If you do go direct, maybe stop at one if the reservoirs along the way.
Traveling just south of Afton, a left (east) on FS10208 follows Cottonwood Creek up to Cottonwood Lake.
I'd want to start early in morning and stop often. Imo, rushing wouldn't be best. But pick your spots within your timeline.
JC Penney museum is indeed marked as closed at moment.
Talk to ranger at Grand Teton entrance about any recent bear activity and / or look for signs. Always a possibility. Carry bear spray, stay in groups, avoid being out there at dawn n dusk, make noise, read up on encounter advice, etc.
Before committing yourself to anything, I would strongly advise doing a Google-search for any & ALL web-cams on all points listed along your 'travel-itinerary'...
...I think you will want to get a better overall idea of the tourist traffic you'll be encountering along the way...
...might also wanna log into gasbuddy.com and take a look-see at the fuel-price$ you'll be paying...and room-rate$ (motels, hotels, RV-parking spots) as well.
I know Jackson town center itself has web cams but are there specific cameras for along the traffic route? Car rental and hotel is already squared away as far as bookings go. Are gas prices crazy in western US right now? So long as things aren’t like $10 a gallon should be okay seems to have gone up everywhere. I do see why your saying that. $280 for Motel 6 in Jackson is INSANE. Found something in Afton for $130 and fortuitously in Park City Core for like $150.
Im prepped for traffic some to quite a bit as I know how many people go out that way, and living in the I-4 corridor as I do it’s a way of life.
That being said, if you know of any specific insights on traffic delay spots, etc or links to be aware of (we will be traveling through Yellowstone and Tetons stretch during week, if that helps, would certainly be appreciative for them!
Last edited by theurbanfiles; 06-29-2021 at 05:57 PM..
Reason: Context
To your gas point-it does appear that in Jackson particularly. And in some of the towns at least out there it’s about 50-70 cents a gallon more than it is here now in the East. That said, I can live with that, I was just worried based on what you indicated that there might be fuel shortages, etc.
When I check Google Maps which usually factors for delays, it doesn’t necessarily show particularly bad ones moving through park, though it could be data there isn’t as reliable as it is say around Tampa. Is there another app you recommend checking?
I know something about wildlife bottlenecks, right? Like, bison crossing road for an hour straight or so at times? Though admittedly witnessing them in that volume would prob be something of an experience.
At Yellowstone with our 3 nights, that should give us time to see everything even with some delays.. and the only thing that doesn’t appear to be within a few miles of Old Faithful that is high priority for me is the Grand Canyon area. Mostly, I want to hike the trail network around Old Faithful itself which appears pretty expansive. I should note, we did book that as well, basically last summer as was needed to secure the lodging.
It'll be a full day getting from Old Faithful to Afton. Narrow 2 lane, unannounced road construction, animals in road, blissed out tourists, and stressed out RV'ers may all await to provide a diversion.
If you haven't already noticed-Jenny Lake is on the interior road. Oxbow Bend is a natural horseshoe bend in the Snake River and it is on the outer road, not far from Jackson Lake Lodge and the interior road intersection, but to go to Jenny Lake, you turn back from Oxbow Bend-it's is a pull-out that works for photos of the range and maybe moose hanging out.
Moose aren't necessarily likely, I have seen them from the balcony at J Lk Lodge, but they are dark and they like to hang out in the willows chomping on stuff, so during the day that's where they are, and not so much on the move. One year, cow and her calf were frequently in the pond right along the highway at J Lk Lodge turnoff.
Are you hiking at Jenny Lake or just taking the boat across and back? If hiking, and not everyone is going to hike, the
hikers can be dropped off at String Lake trailhead and hike along the lake rim to West Boat Dock. Then catch boat over to Main Dock at South Jenny or continue hiking all the way to South Jenny and meet up with the one(s) not hiking. If all are staying together, you can hike from South Jenny over to West Boat Dock and take the boat back, or you can just take the boat both ways. Last I knew it was 18 bucks round trip or 10 bucks one way. Either way bears not all that likely especially in busy season and busy trail along the lake. But they might show up just to see what's available. The boat doesn't take reservations, but if boat fills up, the next one is just 10-15 minutes later. Finding parking spot at South Jenny on weekend will be adventure in itself.
Mormon Row is on the east side of 89. Interior road from Jenny Lake is on the west side of 89. Chapel of Transfiguration and Visitor Ctr are on interior road. So if you come from Jenny Lake, when you get to Moose Jct, turn left and go a little ways north on 89 to turn right to Mormon Row/Moulton Barn. 89 is the outer road that also goes to Jackson and Afton.
3 hours Afton to Park City is just it if cruising right along. JCPenney filed for bankruptcy last year and was to auction off the "Mother Store" in Kemmerer last September. I assume a sale was made and it's gone, but usually only go to Diamondville to eat and haven't gone downtown Kemmerer in a while. Diamondville is right next to Kemmerer.
If the Penney store was the only reason to go to Kemmerer, and it's not happening, then the best way to get to Park City is to go thru Randolph and Woodruff Utah to Evanston anyway. You turn at Sage Junction instead of going on to Kemmerer.
I dunno if you are spending any time in Cody. The museum is packed with interesting stuff. Rodeo might appeal to some.
We weren't necessarily going to be. We are kinda starting and ending in Salt Lake City, and looping around and over from Livingston and through to our cabin at Old Faithful. I love cities, and collecting and learning about them, and Cody itself does look interesting and unique. With that said, it looks like it's about 2.5 hrs. from the lodge or 1.5 hours from the turnoff by Lake, WY, on the Grand Loop Road, it might be tough to swing it on this trip. I wonder though, if it might be worth making it to Buffalo Bill's hunting lodge of Pahaska Tepee which is only about 40 mins from that point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NW Crow
If you have the time & interest, Bear Lake in Utah might be worth a brief look. Unusual, beautiful water color.
It looks like this runs across the UT/ID border, right? Looks interesting enough, and not terribly far off the path (make the 3 hr. trip from Afton to Park City about 3.5, so manageable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NW Crow
If you had the time, driving Hwy 150 south of Evanston would be scenic, modestly longer than direct route to Park City. If you do go direct, maybe stop at one if the reservoirs along the way.
OOH-you captured my attention really with this one-this looks absolutely gorgeous, and different from much of the scenery on the trip in that we'd be driving directly through the mountains as opposed to by them or looking out upon them. The lake looks breathtaking too, and this would prob be the highest elevations we'd see on our entire loop. This does look like an hour detour-but that isn't horrible, we could still probably get to Park City by lunch doing that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NW Crow
Talk to ranger at Grand Teton entrance about any recent bear activity and / or look for signs. Always a possibility. Carry bear spray, stay in groups, avoid being out there at dawn n dusk, make noise, read up on encounter advice, etc.
Thanks-where would be best for finding bear spray-do most chain stores (Costco, Wal Mart, etc.) carry it in places like Salt Lake, Bozeman, etc? How exactly is it to be kept or to be aware of? Never used it before, and we do have a small child we would want to keep it out of the reach of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NW Crow
In Jackson, picnic in Town Square or stop at Emily Stevens Park. Or pop into wildlife art museum or historical museum. Or find some ice cream.
Sounds good-but let me follow that up with some questions: Anywhere particular good for carryout (sandwiches, pizza, tacos, etc.) near the square that would be good and picnic-able? Same question on the ice cream front as far as a favorite place?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NW Crow
Jenny Lake boat ride. Suggestion to come very early... or maybe late afternoon.
So, in looking, if we were to leave out from Old Faithful Lodge at 6:30 am, AND meet minimal delays getting there, we could get there at about 8:30 am.. which still isn't particularly early-on the same token, I don't know that we'd want to be there at 3, 4 pm since we still likely have well over 2 hrs. driving from there to get to Afton, even if traffic is smooth. I'm sorta keeping my expectations at bay for this one. We will aim to get there somewhat early (hopefully by 9ish), and see what crowds and lines look like, re: the ferry. If it requires missing one thing of it (running every 15 mins), that's acceptable. But... if it's an 45-60 mins... then what we might do instead is just walk around a portion of the lake, check out the visitor center, and then move on. We will have to play it by ear anyways since I don't believe advance reservations are possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NW Crow
Good short hikes near Park City if you want to take a break from downtown scene. Should be good for wildflowers.
So, in normal circumstances, I definitely would-but Park City is really just the tail end part of our trip, and we'll have just come from 4 days of national parks in a row, and I like a healthy mix of city and nature (urbanist who loves visiting national parks) and so Park City itself should keep us occupied-that said, if they are walking distance from town and I happen to stumble upon them, then great. There are a few things I had in mind for our 8-10 hrs. of daylight in Park City. 1) Main Street Historic/Shopping Area (maybe even taking the 2 PM guided walking tour) 2) Utah Olympic Park (perhaps just checking out the visitor center for an hour or so while I drop my wife at Outlets, or even seeing the diving show they have there) 3) Homestead Crater (looks to be about 25-30 mins out of town... but ultra cool looking, just not sure I'll have the time) and 4) The scenic ski lifts/lodges in town (perhaps checking out the resorts that they take you too, etc.). Not quite sure how difficult it will be to secure passes for lifts, etc. either, so I may contact Chamber of Commerce about those logistics.
Wal-Mart has bear spray at my store in sporting goods. Pricey ($30 ish). Keep out of sun / heat and on an adult for quickdraw if you get it (not buried in a pack). Read instructions carefully before hand. If you are not going deep in to wild away from crowds you might not need it. Probably available in local sporting good stores in / near parks if you make a late decision to get it.
Last edited by NW Crow; 06-29-2021 at 08:03 PM..
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