Grand Teton National Park

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"Big Nipple National Park"

Feels like a missed opportunity to really drive visitorship. For what it's worth, I had no idea that's what "Grand Teton" meant until my mom told me (thanks, mom!). Oddly enough, they don't explain it at the visitors center.

But let me back up a bit.

We came at the park from Idaho. If you don't know your geography (which I certainly didn't before our visit), know that there is a mountain range in between the two states. In fact, the Grand Tetons are part of this mountain range. Said mountain range does have a pass through it, though (it's WYO 22, the Teton Pass). And while driving a minivan over this pass is one thing, I needed to get an RV over it.

To be clear, RVs are allowed on this pass, and many, many RVs have navigated it before me (I know this because I did some preliminary research before we drove it). And a brief spoiler: We made it over just fine. But we were smelling the brakes there for a little while. And Julie may have sweated off a few pounds while driving behind me!


This park is interesting because one half of the scenic loop is a public highway. The park obviously can't charge an entry fee for that part, so you only have to pay the fee if you are driving the other half of the loop. We have an annual pass (which is a no brainer if you are going to visit 3 or more parks in a year), so it was a non-issue for us.

Call me crazy, but I don't think they actually look like... well, you know

We drove the loop and stopped at the spots a tourist is supposed to stop. We were fortunate on the day we visited that the weather was clear. We had beautiful views of the nipples tetons and the surrounding range. But as I'm learning on this trip, the most memories were made during spontaneous stops. In this case, it was our search for bear 399.

Bear 399 is a mother grizzly that is raising 3 cubs. She had been frequenting a particular stream, and she was known to be good around humans (which for a bear means she doesn't show any desire to approach humans for food but also doesn't seem to mind humans watching her). We hadn't planned it, but we decided to take a turnoff towards the stream where she had been spotted.

We didn't see bear 399, but the kids played at and in the stream for hours. Who cares about mountains when you can move rocks around on the ground? This is a pattern that has repeated itself at park after park. The planned hikes and activities are fun, but where the kids really thrive is in the unstructured time. So Julie and I are really trying to be diligent in always leaving some time for playing in sand, climbing on rocks, or wading in streams. If that means we miss a scenic overlook or two, so be it.

Their goal is always to divert the flow, because... why not?


Location: Grand Teton, Wyoming 83414, USA

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