Back Again!

 Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks were two of the very first national parks we had ever been to (and we're old enough to remember). We had some memories of certain areas of the park and some of our favorite things that we did there, mainly eating huckleberry ice cream! As we left Glacier we were excited to hit yet another park that we had been too before. 

Since we weren't able to get campsites in the park, we stayed in a National Forest right outside near West Yellowstone. It was a bit of an inhibitor needing to drive through park traffic each morning but no biggie, we had somewhere to sleep at night and that was good enough for us. 

We only really had one day scheduled in the park, and so we wanted to hit some new things that we hadn't seen before. We visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, viewing both the upper and lower falls, did a couple scenic loops and made a stop in Canyon Village. 

The views that stuck out to us the most though, were on the long drives through the park. Stuck in traffic most of the time, we appreciated the opportunity to stick our heads out the window and really take in everything around us. 

We did the same thing the next day on our way to Grand Teton, making a pitstop at a couple visitor centers to stamp our passports. That afternoon we checked into our campsite, got the low down on a couple recent bear sightings, and did a short hike in the Colter Bay area around Jackson Lake. 

That night after our hike we hopped in the increasingly rare opportunity to shower and do our laundry. While waiting with clothes in the dryer we were shocked to hear some hubbub about a bat in the laundromat! It only took a couple of hours for things to calm down and for us to be able to get our clothes again but that all goes to show that staying in a national park isn't visiting nature, it's coexisting with it! 

Somehow we had only scheduled to stay in each park for a day, much shorter than our past trips. It was nice to be able to see these parks once more and explore some new sights but we also realized that just because you have seen something once doesn't mean you shouldn't go back again! Several of the parks that we went to on this trip we immediately wished we could visit again with new people or at a different time of year. Getting to mix the memories of a past trip with new experiences and views is truly one of the best parts of a national park. And we look forward to many more memories down the road!