Day 8 - Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks

Day 8 – Grand Teton & Yellowstone: Mountains, Muffins, and a Mild Geyser Trauma

This whole "waking up at 5 or 6 AM every day" thing is getting a little old... but somehow, we're still doing it. And yes—still having fun. Maybe it's the fumes from all those geysers.

We kicked off the day with a great breakfast: a delicious quiche and a blueberry muffin that probably deserves its own postcard. Fueled up, we made our way to Grand Teton National Park—mountain after mountain, more breathtaking than the last.

Early on, we got into a very debate about the pronunciation of “Teton.” Unfortunately, with zero cell service all day, we couldn’t ask Google, Siri, or even that suspiciously confident guy in hiking sandals. But we had looked it up earlier: the Native American name for the range was Teewinot, meaning “many pinnacles.” Very poetic. Of course, the French trappers had... other ideas. 😎 Later we also looked up the pronunciation, and Ray and I have been saying it correctly. It's all those other crazy people that are saying it wrong.  We pronounce it, Tee- tawn.  The others, Teeton.  Score one for Al and Ray.

We later met a family from Ohio—super nice people—and their kids knew everything about the Tetons. Like walking encyclopedias, but with sticky fingers. We bonded over our shared love of roller coasters (Cedar Point pride!), and they even showed us a video of themselves climbing part of the Tetons. It was incredible. And absolutely something I will never attempt. I like my feet firmly planted on the ground.  

Mount Moran? Gorgeous. Honestly, every mountain in Grand Teton looked like it was plucked straight from a travel ad. The Snake River was impressively wide, and the Jackson Lake Dam was surprisingly cool. And let’s talk about buffalo—or “bison”. 😎 One was hanging out very close to the road, giving us a front-row seat to some good ol' American wildlife.  A definite highlight.

After conquering Grand Teton, we figured: why not tackle a bit of Yellowstone? Although, to be fair, trying to “do some” of Yellowstone with Al and Ray is like saying, “Let’s just have one slice of pizza.” Yeah, right. We ended up seeing pretty much everything we had on the list.

We kicked things off at Old Faithful, which was pretty awesome—and lasted long enough to make you say “Wow” more than once. But I wasn’t leaving without seeing the famous Morning Glory Pool. I was told it was “less than a mile” from Old Faithful. That was... a lie. It was definitely over a mile and a half, with about six different people along the way telling me it was just “another half mile.” Lies, all lies.  Bastards! 😎

At one point, Ray asked if I could carry him the rest of the way. I obliged—until I accidentally dropped him into a geyser pool. Don’t worry, he seemed okay. Just... a little bubbly in the face. We don’t talk about it.

I eventually walked the final stretch with a couple from San Francisco. They were great company, and the Morning Glory Pool was totally worth it. I racked up almost 15,000 steps, so yes, I earned that view. On the way back, we caught the Grand Geyser erupting, and Old Faithful gave us a second show. After that, we skipped the rest of the geysers. We were officially “geysered out.”

We swung by Firehole Falls and Gibbon Falls, checked “falls” off our list, and called it a day. Oh, and the Grand Prismatic Spring? Almost as cool as the Morning Glory Pool. Almost.

As we were leaving Yellowstone, we jokingly said, “Well, guess today’s a no-animal day.” Mother Nature must’ve heard us because bam—traffic jam. We figured it was just the usual end-of-day exodus, but nope—turns out we were bumper-to-bumper with a herd of elk. Just casually hanging out on the side of the road like they owned the place. Honestly, with the number of animals we've seen on this trip, I’m starting to feel like we're filming a low-budget National Geographic special.

Tomorrow we head to Glacier National Park—a lovely 6-hour drive, which is far better than our original plan of spending all day at Yellowstone and then driving 8 hours. What were we thinking? Tonight, we’re finally sleeping in. I’m aiming for a solid 9 hours. Will I get it? Probably not. But I’m dreaming big—literally.