As we drew closer and closer to Grand Teton, we kept saying things like: Oh my god! Wow! (and sometimes) Holy s*%t!
It really is that unbelievable.
We came into the park at the west entrance and spoke with the Park Ranger at the gate. We asked her if she had any recommendations for campgrounds and she threw out the name of an area I had read about. It was one of the more populated campgrounds and so we asked her if she had ever heard of Shadow Mountain, something we read a few sentences about in one of our books. She hadn’t.
So we gave up on getting camping advice from her and asked her if there was a regulation against open campfires in the park. She didn’t know. She said that we were the first people to ask her that. We didn’t know how to respond.
She told us she was new. While I’m tempted to say that we understood, when we read the newspaper/brochure she gave us, it said right there that campfires are allowed.
(To be fair, we both understand what it’s like to be new and every experience we have had until this point with a ranger has been very positive and informative).
And so with that enlightening experience we made our way up north a bit. We then went on a small and easy hike to Leigh Lake which gave spectacular views of Mt. Moran. It was a tad over two miles with a level pine needle layered trail. A few rocks here or there made it a little interesting, but the only thing that made it harder than a walk in the park was the altitude. Coming from Chicago, you can really feel the thin air up here. It’s very easy to be out of breath.
After Lake Leigh we went down south to Jenny Lake. There’s a very sad story behind the naming of those lakes. Leigh Lake was named after some white dude whose last name was Leigh. His wife’s name was Jenny, who was Native America, and she died of smallpox along with all of her seven kids in the 1800s. That sucks.
But the lake is very pretty. 
As we were going along the scenic drive (which has to be one of our favorite roads we’ve taken on the trip), we rolled by the Jenny Lake Lodge. Not sure what we were going to do for lodging that night, we thought we should stroll in and see how much the rates are.
I walked into the lodge and was quite impressed with the smell of the fire in the reading room fireplace. I asked the adorable Australian receptionist how much rooms were and she politely told me that rooms started at “five eighty five and they come in all different configurations so depending on how many…”
“So five hundred and eight five dollars?” I interrupted.
“Yes.”
That quickly eroded any interest I had in hearing her accent tell me more about the cabins. I told her that it was a bit out of my range (a bit?!?) and she nodded and said she understands.
We continued south through the park and saw the Teton Glacier peeking through a canyon. The trees obscured most of the glacier, but we were still able to see the top of it.
We then went further south to “Climbers Ranch.” We had no idea what it was about and it wasn’t mentioned in our guidebooks. I walked into the office and was met with a smiling gentleman who asked me if I was here for work week. I told him that I didn’t know and that I actually didn’t even know what this place was about.
He then went on to tell me that the cabins are for rock climbers and that this entire week they have groups of volunteers who are staying here in order to get the grounds ready for the season. To get a bunk, which was just a sheet of plywood, it would be $20 per person. Not bad. But something just wasn’t bringing me in.
I asked him if he knew anything about Shadow Mountain, he said he didn’t, but would ask a local. He didn’t either.
And so as we pulled out of the parking lot, Marc decided he had enough of hemming and James gave up on hawing about where to spend the night. Which was great because James was tired of dillying in Teton and Marc was done with dallying in Teton as well (that hurt us too, but we couldn’t resist). So we decided that, despite the slightly rough weather, we were going to find out what Shadow Mountain was all about. 
