The Ambitious Odometer: {Road Trip} Day Six - Grand Teton National Park Day 1

Today we said goodbye to our home away from home, for the last couple of days, in West Yellowstone. Montana...

and decided to make our way down to Grand Teton National Park to explore the majestic mountain and lake views...

On the way out of Yellowstone, we made a quick stop at Lewis Falls, named for Merriweather Lewis, the "Lewis" in Lewis & Clark...

where the kids enjoyed climbing the rocks and tree trunks at the base of the falls...

After a brief drive on the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, that connects the South Entrance of Yellowstone to the North Entrance of Grand Teton, we entered Grand Teton National Park!

and quickly got our first glance of the beautiful mountains in the distance from the banks of Jackson Lake...

We decided to take the road that most closely follows the mountains along the western side of the park and stopped at Leek's Restaurant for a delicious pizza lunch...

I had the pesto pie, and it was incredible!

From there, we made a stop at Willow Flats for more beautiful views...

We spent a good time exploring the lake up close at the Jackson Lake Dam & Reservoir...

before continuing our drive and making a stop in front of Mount Moran...

After that, we made our way to Jenny Lake...

and were rewarded again with breathtaking lake views backdropped by mountains...

Jenny Lake is a glacial lake, and the water is typically super cold!

We decided to head down to the dock and take a boat across the lake to do a little hiking...

More beautiful views from the boat ride over...

Once across, we started our hike up...

and made our first stop at Hidden Falls...

From there, we continued up towards Inspiration Point and stopped at this overlook to view the beautiful Jenny Lake from above!

From there, the trail continued on up to Inspiration Point...

We started our trek back down and it was pretty uneventful...

until...

we rounded a corner to find, a moose...

but not just any moose, a MAN MOOSE!!!

It was literally, right there off the trail!

Oh my word... Anyone who knows me and our travels, knows that all I've wanted to see forever has been a true, MAN MOOSE with antlers!!!

I mean, I've been searching for this guy through trips to Maine, the Northwest Angle of Minnesota, and Alaska (where we did finally see some moose, but they did not have antlers)...

And, THERE HE WAS...in Wyoming, RIGHT OFF MY TRAIL!

And, I was too terrified to get close enough for a photo, and my kids thought it was hilarious, but I guess I need to be specific in my requests from here on out, because sometime you get EXACTLY what you wish for...

To clarify, I was hoping to see a large man moose, along the side of the road, from the comforts of my own car that, for the record, can move more quickly than he can run...

And, sorry for holding you back, M, but I just wanted to make sure that at least ONE of my children survived this encounter while these crazies were getting too close for my comfort...

Well, thankfully, we all survived to tell the tale, and I was very happy that a couple from the area rounded the corner a couple of minutes later so we weren't alone with Mr. Moose for very long, and they were more knowledgeable about how to get past him...

Bless!

After we were safely back on the boat, I could truly reflect on our moose encounter, and it was pretty darn cool...

Not much more can top that!

The kids took a freezing cold dip in Jenny Lake...