Stop #38: Fireside Resort, Jackson Hole, WY

We had driven past the Grand Tetons before but too far to truly admire them. While we were on our way back to Montana we decided to make a stop at Jackson Hole, Wyoming to visit Grand Teton National Park.

Fireside Resort Cabins

We booked at Fireside Resort, a campground surrounded by trees and that is open year round. Upon arrival you are greeted by a beautiful entrance lined with small luxury cabins. This gave us the impression that the campground would be just as impressive but unfortunately that was not the case. While surrounded by trees, the sites were gravel and the only amenities provided were picnic tables and firepits. But then again, you are in Jackson Hole and you are probably visiting to enjoy the many activities in the area be it in the winter or summer. So with that in mind, a basic campground would be just fine.

Our site

We visited in late April which is considered shoulder season... not ski season anymore and but not summer either. The visitor center for Grand Teton was closed when we arrived but it was opening a day later. We returned then to learn that most of the park roads were still closed due to snow coverage. A bit of a bummer but we made the most of it. We drove along the part of the road that was open which had a few scenic lookout points to take in the Tetons which did look impressive. We stopped at Jenny Lake which was still frozen but also beautiful. There was lots of snow on the ground so the kids made little snowmen wherever we s topped. We happened to have our sleds on the back of the truck and upon coming across some nice hills we stopped so the kids could do some sledding. We weren't expecting so much snow so the kids weren't exactly wearing snow suits but they had fun and didn't end up too wet. The trails at the park still had too much snow and while we are pretty adventurous, hiking in knee deep snow with two kids is not our idea of fun. We did see a few folks cycling around the park which seemed nice even though parts of the biking trails also had snow on them. By visiting during this time of year, we missed out on partaking on the many other activities that you can do here in the summer including, hiking, water activities, etc. but we are still glad we visited to see these amazing mountains in person.

Grand Tetons

Beautiful scenery

Frozen lake at Grand Tetons

Spring at Grand Tetons

Sledding in May!

Building snowmen

We covered the Tetons on that one day and visited the town of Jackson Hole on another. It's a cute little town, similar to many other ski towns in the Colorado area. There are plenty of restaurant options  (Yeah Buddy Pizza was great), gift shops, and a cute little park in the middle. It was pretty quiet when we visited but can only imagine how busy it gets in the winter considering how popular of a ski destination this is. To our surprise we got 4-5 inches of snow before departing to our next stop... confirming that we were indeed still in 'Sprinter' in this part of the US.