Grand Tetons National Park to Cannonville, Utah!

After getting showered and packed back up, we headed to the Grand Tetons National Park. The views of the lakes with the shadows of the mountains are just amazing.

Grand Teton National Park is named for Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the Teton Range. The naming of the mountains is attributed to early 19th-century French speaking trappers—"les trois tetons" (the three breasts) and was later shortened to Tetons.

Grand Teton National Park is in northwestern Wyoming. It is approximately 310,000 acres in size. The park includes the major peaks of the 40-mile long Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. 

It is only 10 miles south of Yellowstone National Park, and the two parks are connected by the National Park Service managed, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway. The three protected areas in conjunction with surrounding National Forests make up the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which at almost 18,000,000 acres, is one of the largest intact mid-latitude temperate ecosystems in the world.

Human history of the Grand Teton region dates back to at least 11,000 years, when the first nomadic hunter-gatherer Paleo-Indians would migrate into the region during warmer months in pursuit of food and supplies. 

In the early 19th century, the first Caucasian explorers encountered the eastern Shoshone natives. The first permanent white settlers in Jackson Hole arrived in the 1880s. Efforts to preserve the region as a national park commenced in the late 19th century and by 1929, Grand Teton National Park had been established, protecting the major peaks of the Teton Range. The valley of Jackson Hole remained in private ownership until the 1930s, when conservationists led by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. began purchasing land in Jackson Hole to be added to the existing national park. 

There are many outdoor recreation activities to choose from at Grand Teton National Park. During the summer you can hike, walk, view wildlife, take photographs, backpack, camp, climb, fish, swim, boat, float, canoe and bike. In winter skiing and snowshoeing are popular activities.


Some activities (such as overnight backpacking, boating, floating, canoeing, fishing and snowmobiling) require fees, permits, licenses or registration. Special regulations may also apply, so take the time to become informed at any visitor center or ranger station.

After wondering through the Grand Tetons National Park we headed south, back out of Jackson towards  our next destination in mind, Bryce Canyon.

Along they way, we went through some small towns and past some awfully nice scenery as well, so I took more pictures!

Coming out of Wyoming on highway 89, we again went through Idaho, then back out, stopping at our next stop along the way, the KOA in Garden City Utah, just across the border from Idaho.

As we left the KOA in the morning, I stopped to take pictures of Bear Lake as we climbed the mountain on our way once again to Bryce Canyon.

Bear Lake is a natural freshwater lake on the Idaho, Utah border. It is the second largest natural freshwater lake in Utah and has been called the Caribbean of the Rockies because of its unique turquoise blue color, the result of suspended limestone deposits in the water. Its water properties have led to the evolution of several unique species that live naturally only within the lake. Bear Lake is over 250,000 years old., it was formed by fault subsidence that continues today slowly deepening the lake along the eastern side.

The first known inhabitants of the Bear Lake Valley were Shoshone tribes, but it was also known to many other Native Americans. The first record of whites seeing the lake is from 1818 when French-Canadian trappers working for the North West Company followed the Bear River upstream to the valley. Later, between 1825 and 1840, many mountain men, including Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger, met on the south shore with Native Americans to swap goods and stories.

From the Garden City KOA we got on I-15 south to Rt. 20, then to Rt. 89 again, into Panguitch, where I found these roadside attractions in peoples front yards, jeepers creepers, where did you get those peepers!

Just before we got to the KOA in Cannonville, Utah not to far outside of Bryce Canyon, we went through an area called Red Canyon on highway 12.

Highway 12 approaches Bryce Canyon National Park from the west via Red Canyon, a shallow valley in the side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau surrounded by much exposed, orange red sandstone. The rocks are eroded into the familiar pinnacles, spires, columns and hoodoos also found in the national park a few miles to the east. Only on a smaller scale and with less color variation. And although the main road is quite busy, most visitors hurry on to Bryce without stopping.

The formations go along Rt.12 for about 4 miles, at the edge of the plateau then fading away as the road reaches the flat grasslands, and extend several miles north, including two other valleys, the Losee Canyon and Casto Canyon,  all within the Dixie National Forest.