WYOMING: Elf Refuge, Tetons, Jackson Hole
When we went to the Tetons last year, we saw the National Elk Refuge. We had both never heard of it so we looked it up and it showed that in the winter over 20,000 elk migrate there. We knew we had to see that. We have tried to see elk up Payson Canyon (we may have bought an elk bugle and sat in our hammock for hours, calling for elk - no luck - see image below). So we were stoked to be able to see these animals up close and so many.
We drove up to Jackson Hole on a Saturday morning. Aaron drove the whole way which was awesome. We drove a slightly longer way so we could see Bear Lake along the journey. It was incredible! I am so glad we did.
We made it to the Elf Refuge around 1 and we headed in. You don’t even have to pay to go in which is so nice! We found the first pack pretty quickly and we stopped the car and ate lunch with our view of about 1000 elk. It was incredible. We kept driving and saw several other packs (is that even the right word?) of elk and several groups of bighorn sheep. We had heard they would come and lick salt of your car so we were hoping for that but no luck. Honestly, with our luck, we were scared we wouldn't see any animals so we were still pretty stoked. It is hard to tell in the first picture but all the dots are elk. You can see a better pack in the second one.
Then we went to go on the sleigh ride into the elk refuge where they bring you right up close to the elk. Unfortunately, Aaron took all the pictures on his phone and then deleted all of them... Why does this happen to us so often? But I have a few from my phone. The ride was seriously so much fun. Freezing but fun. We got to get so close to the elk and see so many bucks, it was amazing! We were debating if we should do the sleigh ride or not and if you are weird and love elk like us, then for sure do the sleigh ride. It was incredible!
While we were in Jackson Hole, we also headed up to the Tetons. We seriously love the Tetons so much. We planned on exploring a little but there was a lot more snow than expected so we just took in the view ha. But next time we want to come back with cross country skis and snow boots. The mountain seriously looked amazing!
After our adventures we explored Jackson Hole which is the cutest town. We went out for dinner and discovered that literally the weirdest most awkward people in the world live in Wyoming but we had a delicious dinner so what can you do?
When we finished exploring we heading to Idaho Falls where we were staying for the night. We had to drive through the mountains to get there and it started snowing which made for a pretty sketchy drive but Aaron handled it like a champ. When we made it to the other side of the pass, they were not letting cars go across so we got lucky. In Idaho Falls, we got some incredible ice cream and cheese curds (shout out to Reed's Dairy) and then headed home the next day. It was a quick but awesome adventure!
