Today was a Clark Griswold Day if there ever was one. We absolutely packed today full of adventure with only minor grumbling due to exhaustion.
We bought doughnuts back in Cody, so we had a nice breakfast of coffee and doughnuts on our little porch before loading up for our next adventure… Horseback riding and a night at Heart 6 Ranch.
We’ve had to popcorn around a bit on this trip due to hotel availability. Jackson Lake Lodge only had our cabin available one night and Heart 6 Ranch was only open one night. But they were only 20 minutes apart, and we just made it work. Today, we are horseback riding and some of us are excited!
The lady at the hotel said to give ourselves 45 minutes to get to Heart 6 Ranch due to 2 lane road and construction, so we left by 8:15 for our 9am arrival… and wouldn’t you know the one time we leave on time, there is zero traffic and zero construction so we arrived at 8:40 🤪 The ranch was fun, and it was clearly a working ranch.
The boys wandered over to another cabin with the door open
I couldn’t see what they were doing, but they were laughing and talking. When I got there, I found out what was entertaining them:
We met 2 groups from NC who were riding today too. One group from Charlotte, and a man and his daughter from Lenoir. We all recognized each other because our accents stand out out here. We saddled up and hit the trail. Mike was riding Colt, Leo rode Timber, Michael was on Timber and I rode Rockwell.
It was a beautiful ride up to the top of a mountain in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
We did have a bit of excitement at the top of the mountain. My horse, Rockwell, bent his head down to snack on some grass and must have instead gotten a bite of an ant hill, because he yanked his head back and bucked me straight off his back. Thankfully, I was able to get both feet out of the stirrups and hold onto his reins before landing solidly on my backside. Thank you Jesus for hearing and answering my prayer to keep us safe today! It was about time for me to re-bruise my backside since the bruises from Coeur d’Alene had just about healed up 🤣
We had corned beef sandwiches on top of the mountain and just relaxed for a half hour while the horses rested. The views were amazing
We definitely had the hard-headed horses of the group… which is fitting for us 😉. It took about 5 pictures to get one where we and our horses are all looking remotely in the same direction:
Lunch finished and horses rested, we headed back down the mountain.
We got back to Heart 6 Ranch and got horses back to the corral. We checked and our room was ready so we checked in a little early. We all enjoyed letting our backsides rest after bouncing on horses for four hours. I think my crew is a little tired.
Hahaha! We spent about 45 minutes resting and then decided to head into Grand Teton… just as we made it into Grand Teton, we noticed cars stopped on the side of the road. As we approached, we found out why. Bison! A big ol’ herd of Bison!
Oh my word, they had walked right through the fence, and just meandering around the field. They are huge!!
We had a list of things to see in Grand Teton and I knew we couldn’t see it all, but was ready to start checking them off.
✔️Item 1: Snake River. Snake River has been here forever. According to the plaque 😁 all the plateaus along the River bank are levels where the Snake River once rose from glacier run off.
✔️ Item 2: Jackson Lake Overlook
✔️ Item 3: Jackson Lake Dam… love a good Dam picture 🤪
✔️Item 4: Jenny Lake. This was one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever visited.
We got on the road here for Jenny Lake – finally the smoke started to clear so we could see Grand Teton. We knew we wanted to ride the shuttle boat at least once. We hopped on and road the boat across, and decided to hike up to Hidden Falls and then hike back around the lake (about 3 1/2 mile hike) back.
First, the boat ride was great relaxing with nice breeze (why they wanted us to wear masks outside in the wind off the water was unclear). The views made it all worth it – It was gorgeous!
Then, we disembarked on the other side, and hiked the half mile up to Hidden Falls.
And of course, we found rocks to climb
The hike was perfect – a little warm at times but for the most part, it was shady with a nice breeze – and very little elevation 😁
Although these are always fun to see 😬
The reward for hiking, other than the views, was a swim in Jenny Lake. This water was chilly! Not Glacial but we er chilly but chilly
They had the best time… although when they jumped in the first time they said it took their breathing away 🥶🥶 I was also very proud that I remembered towels today! Score one for the big brain on mom’
We hiked back for a view the mountains and view more pictures. Usually, I take the pictures and then edit out to get best shots, deleting bad ones etc. but I could resist these… they so truly show real life vs photos
That is so real life 🥴🤪🥴🤪
We headed back to the Heart 6 Ranch from Grand Teton
We decided to just grab dinner on the way in at the little on-site restaurant, Buffalo Valley Grill. Mike and Leo had bacon cheeseburgers, I had a steak and Michael decided to try a bison burger. It takes a little longer to get bison burgers because you have to cook them slower since no fat, but Michael said it was delicious!
One more picture of this sunset
And the Brown’s are off to bed. It’s been an amazing day but we are exhausted! Tomorrow we head south, then east, then north for the last few days of our trip.
Brown Family Adventures: 50 States by Graduation 