It's Lovely Weather for a Sleigh Ride...and walking in a Winter Wonderland! - Day 2 of our Grand Holiday!

Day 2 was packed with more adventure and very little rest! We woke on east coast time at about 5:00 a.m. and were ready to go by 7:30 for breakfast.

Day 2 ready to go!

 We drove the 20ish minute drive into the town of Jackson for breakfast and shopping before our sleigh ride. Our hotel is in Teton Village, the mountain resort about 20 minutes outside of Jackson and close to Grand Teton National Park

Downtown Jackson has a town square that has genuine antler arches on each corner of the town square and is surrounded by so many fun, quaint shops and restaurants.

We chose to eat breakfast at The Bunnery, a favorite of ours. It is delicious and so much fun!!

Salmon Eggs Benedict for Don

 After breakfast we bought tickets and checked in for our sleigh ride and found out that we were going to be on Sleigh #1! That's huge for a holiday week and that we didn't have reservations.
Don and I did this sleigh ride when we visited for MLK weekend 9 years ago and loved it. We couldn't wait to share it with the girls. You spend an hour on a horse drawn sleigh going through the National Elk Refuge with a guide who shares all of the local history and stories about the elk with you. You also get up close and personal with all of the wild elk that have migrated into the valley for the winter. By February last year there were over 10,000 wild elk that had migrated into this area. They are just starting to come down from the mountains right now, so not quite that many...yet. :)

It was a cloudy day and basically snowing the whole time, a very light "fairy dust" type of snow for most of the day.

Truly a winter wonderland...

Our guide Michael - his family runs the sleigh ride tours and he was amazing!

Not ours, but a good visual of what we were on.

After the sleigh ride, we headed back to Teton Village and wandered for a bit. We didn't come to ski, but quite a few other people did!

After wandering, we found lunch and then headed back to do some more animal searching! A favorite pastime of ours when we visit here. We love to wander the parks and look for bison, moose, elk, bears and anything else that we can find. We headed back to the National Elk Refuge and entered on the back side...we were successful!

We found a large group of wild mountain sheep! They were fun to watch for a while.

We then went into Teton National Park and wandered for a bit. Success again, from a distance.
We found two moose - looked like a mother and child in the snowy distance.

 We then headed back into town to do some more shopping and of course, we had to get the traditional Antler Arch picture.

It was so pretty after dark with all the lights, so another arch picture at dusk!

As I said, Jackson truly is a winter wonderland! I highly recommend visitng in the winter...even if you don't come to ski!

We then ate dinner at a restaurant in town and headed back to the Teton Mountain Lodge - our home away from home!

Right out the back door of our hotel on the village commons was the small, yet so adorable ice skating rink! Carleigh convinced Katie and I to put on skates and get on the ice! It was so much fun and I was so proud that I've still got it. :) I used to LOVE skating!!

Don enjoyed the fire-pit and took pictures

As we closed out the evening, the snow was coming down at a good clip and the forecast is for 3-5 inches through the day tomorrow. I can't wait!!

Day 2 is officially wrapped up and we are looking ahead to day 3!

Stay tuned for our 12 hour adventure into Yellowstone National Park on a snowcoach tour. We've got a 6:00 a.m. pickup in the hotel lobby and will return at 6:00 p.m.

Yellowstone in the snow with a lunch stop at Old Faithful Lodge and watching Old Faithful erupt - truly Seldom a Dull Moment with the Rahns!