Personal || Jackson Hole, WY || Grand Teton National Park

Jackson Hole and Grand Tetons

Back in September, I had the opportunity to photograph a wedding at the base of the Grand Tetons just outside of Jackson Hole, WY. You can see that wedding here! We arrived a little early and stayed a little later and made a mini vacation out of it. So instead of trying to tell every detail all right now, I’m going to let the pictures speak for themselves and add some captions where necessary below or above certain images.

The vertical image below was from the balcony outside of our motel. That’s right I said motel. We stayed at Motel Modern which was by far the coolest motel on the planet! Below our room was an amazingly delicious BBQ place called Big Hold BBQ. We may or may not have had dinner down there with the baby monitor plugged in while Grayson slept. No judging.

These are elk below. female elk. I was trying SOOOO hard to see a moose, but we saw lots and lots of elk, one buffalo and exactly no moose. blah.

Dustin was a champ and carried Grayson practically every single hike we took. He had a baby carrier on and would wrap his jacket around both of them. So thankful because that kid is heeeeaaaaaavy!

This was the Grand Teton National Park welcome center and is where we got all our souvenirs. A sweatshirt that I wear weekly, a hat for Dustin, an ornament for our Christmas tree, a postcard for our travel stash, and a print for Grayson’s room. We have way too many souvenir traditions but we’ve done it since we got married so there’s no turning back now.  

The day before we drove into Yellowstone National Park, David and Lori were in a toy store in Jackson Hole. The owner was making small talk when Lori mentioned we were heading to Old Faithful the next day. The woman, immediately stopped what she was doing and told them we definitely should not go, that there was a blizzard coming and it was going to be so dangerous and roads were going to close and we were just crazy for even considering it. So naturally, we pay no attention to anything she says, and we head out of Jackson Hole at 7:00 in the morning. The first 10-20 miles of our trip, its snowing so hard, in the dark, that we can barely see 20 feet in front of us. I’m freaking out, texting Lori, seeing what they think, are we crazy?? Are we going to get stuck or wreck? We do NOT know how to drive in this kind of snow… literally 30 minutes later, it was completely done, roads were totally cleared, and my freak out was for nothing at all. Thankful for a husband that doesn’t let my unnecessary fears hold us back from having adventures.

These are some of our favorite people right here.

So. chunky.

Grayson got to see Old Faithful and I have proof.

Something about this image… I just love it so much (below).

This below isn’t really rock balancing, but if you’ve never seen it, look it up. it’s super cool.

The only Bison we saw the whole entire time. I made dustin slam on his brakes, I got out of the car so fast and ran over to it. They walk so slow, it really looked harmless and I got pretty close to it, then turned around and ran ahead of it so I could get this shot of it walking at me. Looking back, I realize that was probably pretty dumb. I’m sure they can move fast if they want to.

All the steam coming off the water when the boiling hot water mixed with the freezing cold river.

Another shot that I love so much. Just seeing the silhouettes of all the people.

I just need a bride and groom on this walk way with me and the hazy bodies in the background. Please and thank you.

Here, we saw this male elk below go cray cray on a baby male elk trying to steal his women. The only male elk we saw the whole trip. Dustin got uncomfortably close to this one and I snuck back to the car and fed Grayson.

Here is the start of Mormon Row. We came here for the wedding I shot the day before and came back to watch sunrise that didn’t happen because it was too cloudy, but also made our last day super long because we got up so early, so it worked out.

From here down, Dustin and I had already left to go back to Salt Lake City (where we flew in and out of), so the rest of these were David and Lori’s extra day off of Lori’s camera. We downloaded each others’ images and these are the ones I edited (she may have completely different ones) but some of my favs.