The Rahns Do the Wild West - Part 1 - Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park

This space is a place for the Rahn family to chronicle our adventures, so here goes....The Rahns do the Wild West - 2015!

We'll start with Part 1 - departing from Virginia and landing in Jackson, Wyoming - then spending the next 3 days exploring Grand Teton National Park and the surrounding area.
 
There will be future posts that will document the rest of our trip...
     Part 2 - Yellowstone National Park and West Yellowstone, Montana
     Part 3 - Kalispell, Montana to Glacier National Park and on to Lethbridge, Alberta (Canada)
     Part 4 - Lethbridge to Banff, Canada and Banff National Park

This was our fourth trip to Jackson and the Tetons, and we definitely had our favorite spots that we couldn't wait to return to, but also we discovered some new favorites on this trip!

Day 1 - Traveling to Jackson Hole and Arriving in the Tetons

happy sisters and ready to go

We love the view as we start approaching Jackson - the Rockies are always a happy sight for us!

We landed and rather than rush to check in to our hotel, we drove through the park to one of our favorite places - Mormon Row. A series of original OLD homesteads that were used by early pioneers in the area before it became a National Park. This area is know for it's bison population, but they weren't there to greet us this time.

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After visiting our spots in the park, we headed to do a quick grocery trip - bottled water and snacks (enough to last us for 11 days) - with a rental car for the whole time, it was going to be easy to transport all of our "stuff" from place to place.

Love this sign as we enter Teton Village where we will be staying for 4 nights.

Our first visit to this hotel was to celebrate our 10th anniversary and we've returned 4 times since - this time for #16!

We unpacked, got settled and then headed back out to dinner and some more exploring!

This time we found a moose! Center of the picture, hiding among the trees.

Day 2  - Paragliding, Ropes, Jackson

Don woke at 5:00 am and headed out for his daily 3-4 hour animal photo-safari. The girls slept in, had a leisurely breakfast and then we were ready for Carleigh's 9:00 a.m paragliding trip. She was SO excited and I guess I was also. :)
 

The highest peak - with a bit of a snow cap (and no trees) is where she would be jumping/flying from.

She's up there in the sky somewhere - possibly a speck on the left.

her view from the sky - I'm down there somewhere waiting for her.

She's getting closer - greenish kite in the center

ready to land

almost down

down and unhooking

all done!

After paragliding - Don joined us for that, we were off to explore the High Adventure Ropes course for Katie. She was determined to do it, but not exactly thrilled. For a kid who doesn't like extreme heights or rollercoasters, I was really proud of her. She pushed past her fears and did it...all by herself. Carleigh sat this one out, and though Don and I could have done this, we also chose to sit it out.

ready to go

climbing across a tight rope style rope - attached at the top with ropes on the side to hold on to

going across a rickety bridge

again a tight-rope style walk, with very little support other than the  carabiner clip at the top

At the end they put you on a small zip line to get you down to the ground. She completed this course twice, could have gone a third time, but was very happy with what she had accomplished.

After playing around in Teton Village, we drove down to Jackson Hole - about a 10 minute drive from Teton Village.

love the true Old West feel - stagecoaches, western style buildings

Cowboy drinking Starbucks - only in Jackson.

One of the highlights of our trip is always a picture in front of the Antler Arches. We've got one from each of our visits.

We haven't changed at all!! ;)

 

After fun in Jackson, we headed back to rest and relax while the girls showered, and got all dressed up for their Mountain Photo shoot. We had early dinner reservations and then we were off to the Tetons to take pics of the girls. They had been planning this evening for about a month.



Day 2 - Evening Photo -shoot in the Tetons

Katie found a friend on our way to dinner - they had nice talks!

first stop - field of wildflowers

next stop- various locations around Mormon Row

next stop - Schwabaker Landing

they couldn't wait to pose with the sunroof and the mountains with setting sun behind them - this was also planned

final stop - there was a chill in the  air and the sun was beginning to set

Day 2 ended successfully and we all slept well that night.


Day 3- Hiking and exploring Grand Teton National Park

We started with hiking around Jenny Lake area

The water was nice and cold on a 90 degree day.

The girls were intrigued with the "backup camera" on our rental car dashboard. So as we stopped for a break, they decided to go find the camera and pose for it. Yep, we snapped these pics right off of our car's dashboard.

We then continued on towards Colter Bay - we explored that area and then had a great dinner at Leek's Pizzeria. A fun pizza restaurant right on the water.

We then headed back to the Teton Mountain Lodge - with a stop at our new favorite spot - Schwabaker's Landing to get some more reflection shots.

 Day 4 - Shopping,  and Gondola to Top of the World

After Don had some morning animal exploring, and we had some sleeping in and breakfast time, we decided to head back in to Jackson to do our final shopping trip. It was successful on all parts.

Yes, the girls rode the little horsey ride.

Aside from riding the horse, a highlight of that afternoon was the purchase of Teton necklaces. They each chose a very different style and were very excited!!

Carleigh's

Katie's

After our shopping adventure, we headed back to Teton Village and took the Tram to the top of the mountain - we returned to the summit that Carleigh had jumped off of. She was VERY excited to get back up there.

still some snow left up there

It was beautiful...and cool - still 90 degrees down below

we followed the Top of the World trail for a bit

We finished the Tram ride, headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. Our last dinner in the Tetons and Jackson.

We also had to do some interesting packing - we would spend the next 3 nights in 3 different locations and didn't want to cart our 200 lbs of luggage into each hotel. After we repacked and rearranged and had a great dinner at Calico - a nice Italian restaurant, we headed to sleep and geared up for Part 2 of our adventure - Yellowstone~!


Day 4 - Leaving Jackson- Heading to Yellowstone 

We headed out bright and early and found these guys on the road as we left the Tetons.

One final View of the sun rising with the mountains

And we drive another 2 hours to get to Yellowstone National Park and begin Part 2 of our adventure!!

Stay tuned for Geysers, Grand Prismatic Spring and Guns!!