The Grand Tetons National Park & Jackson, Wyoming

We left Yellowstone National Park by exiting it's south gate, and drove on the Rockefeller Parkway towards our bext stop -- the majestic mountain peaks of the Grand Teton National Park.

The Grand Teton National Park was established in both 1929 and 1950. The original 1929 park protected the mountain peaks and the lakes near the base. The boundaries were later expanded in 1950 to include much of the adjacent valley floor

Rising more than 7,000 feet above the valley of Jackson Hole, the Teton Range dominates the park’s skyline. The elevation of the park ranges from 6,400 feet on the sagebrush-dominated valley floor to 13,770 feet on the windswept granite summit of the Grand Teton, with forests carpeting the mountainsides.

All photos will enlarge when clicked on

The mountain views are all breathtaking! There are plenty of activities in the park, such as hiking trails, horseback riding, boating, back country camping, fishing, climbing, cross country skiing and snowshoeing, and wildlife viewing, etc.

Jenny Lake is a beautiful blue mountain lake set in the heart of Grand Teton National Park, at the base of Teewinot Mountain. It was formed by melting glaciers about 60,000 years ago.

Jenny Lake Lodge is located in the heart of the Grand Teton Park and offers exclusive cabins and fine dining. It is one of several lodges located in the park.

This is a view of the lodge's elegant and comfortable sitting area. The chairs were so comfortable!

The lake views were captivating! Each view of the mountains were better than the last. Picking photos for this post was hard because I had so many wonderful shots to choose from!

You will have to enlarge this photo to see it better, and even then you may have trouble making it out, but the brown shape in the middle of the wild sage brush is a grizzly bear eating a carcass!

We stoped when we saw a group of cars pulled to the side of one of the Grand Teton roads where then saw a ranger who was on patrol warning everyone to stay in their cars and not disturb the bear, as it would attack to protect its meal. I was able to snap this photo as we drove past, which is the closest I'd like to come into contact with a wild bear!

The town of Jackson, Wyoming sits on the southern end of the 60 miles long Jackson Hole Valley. As the southern gateway to The Tetons National Park and Yellowstone National Park, Jackson is also in close proximity to several ski resorts.

If you enlarge the collage above you can see an arbor made entirely of elk horns! One of these arbors were at each corner of the Jackson town square.

The National Elk Refuge is located near Jackson and we were told that each spring the local boy scouts troops go into the refuge and collect the fallen elk horns, which are then auctioned off in town with the proceeds going to charity. In winter horse drawn sleighs will take visitors on a close up ride to see these majestic animals. There is also a large heard of bison located in the refuge.

The beautiful, larger than life size sculptures seen in the collage were made by artist Vic Payne, and were for sale outside the Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson. The man holding a small boy on his horse was entitled " Memories," and the Native American sculpture was entitled " Ancient Hunter."

Pistol door handles on a shop in Jackson

The town of Jackson dates back to 1894 and retains some of it's early western history flavor, along with the addition of sophisticated galleries, shops and restaurants.

A close up of a section of the elk antler arbor

The very cutest western cowboy of all was our little grandson, modeling a cowboy hat I bought him in Laramie, Wyoming!

We had returned to Colorado for the last leg of our wonderful vacation and spent the Labor Day weekend having fun with our son , daughter-in-law and grandson.

As our little guy crawled off into the sunset, we bid farewell to our wonderful wild west adventure vacation and returned to New York, filled with fabulous memories of all the wonderful sights we saw!

It was definitely one of the best vacations we have ever taken, and I hope you've enjoyed my blog posts about it. Hopefully I have enticed you to go to see some of the beautiful Western national parks, or that I have brought back memories if you have already visited them.

Thanks for all your comments along the way - I've sincerely appreciated each and every one!

It's Mosaic Monday at Mary's blog Little Red House --please visit her today to see more blogs that are participating in her wonderful event! Thanks Mary!