Yellowstone Park Day 4 to Grand Tetons

We had a few last stops to make in Yellowstone before heading to Grand Tetons. We made a quick stop at Artists' Point to get the best view of the canyon and its waterfalls. Then saw more geothermal features at the Mud Volcano area - a good vat of bubbling mud and the Dragon's Mouth. We did a hike by Yellowstone lake on Pelican Creek Trail, letting the kids wade in the lake and throw rocks, of course. We had lunch at the Lake Lodge cafeteria and then skipped the West Thumb Geyser Basin (we'd seen enough geothermal features by then).

We drove out of Yellowstone and soon entered Grand Teton National Park. The mountains were gorgeous. We checked out the Colter Bay Village visitor center to learn that the hikes we'd planned for the next day were closed due to trail conditions. They also gave us a tip to go to Jackson Lake Lodge to try to spot wildlife in the Willow Flats area. We got into our cabin and found a note on the wall that said "mouse nest?". We went back to the office to ask for a new cabin and they were willing to move us, though they didn't want to move us down the road from where our original cabin was because there was a bear in the area - right then! We got keys to a different cabin, and then drove right to that end of the road and got a peak at the black bear as the rangers were shoo-ing it out of the area.

After settling into our mouse-free cabin, we got ready to head to the beach. What a beautiful location for a swimming beach! A crystal clear lake with majestic mountains in the background. The boys had a great time swimming and skipping rocks for a couple hours. Then we picked up pizza and headed to Jackson Lake Lodge to see if we could spot any wildlife. All that we saw were some elk way out in the distance, which was not very exciting as we'd seen so many elk up close in Yellowstone. We did a little more driving around after and found other groups of elk nearer to the road and saw some beavers swimming in a pond. Still no moose...