Van Life at Grand Teton National Park

What is happening? I am currently camped right outside Jackson Hole and I have just been blown away by the beauty of this area. This campsite I'm at, I believe it's on national forest land. It is absolutely stunning. If you've been following along, I haven't made a video in a little bit. I've been waiting on the south entrance to Yellowstone to open up and it's going to be open this Friday. So now I'm coming into the Jackson Hole area, which is the name of this, I think it's like 50 or 55 mile long valley that is just surrounded by mountains. I've been camping around here for a few days and now it's time to head on into the town of Jackson. I think it has a population of 10,000 people and it's got like this really cool downtown area. So I think I'm going to go check that out today and then we're going to go find a camp and then tomorrow we're going to go check out Grand Teton National Park. So I am pretty excited about that because I have never been here. So in case you're new here, my name is Garrett and in 2024 I sold everything I owned and I moved into the back of this storyteller van and I've just been traveling the country and one of my goals is to hit all the national parks. So here in Wyoming there's two national parks and one is the Grand Teton National Park and the other one is Yellowstone. Yellowstone won't be today or tomorrow because the road doesn't open up until Friday. Next video will probably be on Yellowstone. Teton National Park encompasses the Teton mountain range and one thing I thought that was pretty interesting about it is that it is the youngest range within the Rocky Mountains and the crazy thing about them is there's no foothills to these mountains. They just jut straight out of the valley so they're pretty iconic to see. There's a sign, welcome to Jackson, Wyoming. I think I found some RV friendly parking here within the town of Jackson. We have arrived downtown so I'm just going to go walk around for a little bit then we're going to go try to find somewhere in a national forest to camp this evening. That downtown area was pretty touristy but still pretty neat to see. All the camping spots around Jackson, Wyoming and Jackson Hole they get filled up pretty fast so even though it's only early afternoon we're going to go ahead and go try to snag a camp spot because if you wait too late they'll all be taken. I was going to eat in town but figured I'd save some money and just eat the pre-made salad I bought from the grocery store. Trying to get away from my turkey and cheeses that I eat almost every day for lunch. Yeah unfortunately I turned my fridge temperature up the other day because some of the stuff in the bottom wasn't feeling like as cold as it should and it froze my salad. So fridge is working really well I just had to turn the temperature back down. I think I found some coordinates to camp at. It's about 30 minutes from where I'm at and it's free camping so that's the important part. It's time to get out of town and go find that spot. I had to stop here and get a picture for the sign here. There they are. Look at those peaks over there how jagged they are like that is just super impressive looking. Living in the van full time anytime I get to a new area my number one priority is can I find a place to sleep. Even though it's only early afternoon I still have plenty of time in the day where I could go explore. I gotta find somewhere for a base camp first. Here we go. Welcome to the Bridger-Teton National Forest. This may be the best view I've ever had at a campsite before but it is May and it is pretty cold and windy so I'm gonna have to shut this door for a little bit. I've been hanging out and now it is getting about time for dinner and get out all my ingredients because I'm making one of my new favorite dinners which is a recipe for parmesan crusted chicken and it's pretty cold outside so I'm just gonna cook inside tonight. Let's see got our chicken, parmesan cheese, asparagus, some minced garlic. I already got out my bread crumbs and oil here. Now I'm gonna need is my mini red potatoes. This campsite is starting to fill up pretty quick which is not surprising considering the views we have. I think we're gonna start out getting these potatoes ready. Giving them a little wash here. We're gonna add a little bit of oil here. Add about a tablespoon of minced garlic. I'm gonna go ahead and put these potatoes in because they're gonna take a little bit longer. I always have to be careful with this oven because the burners on top are really close so I like to trim off all the extra parchment paper here. Let me just preheat this to 425. Now I'm gonna get my chicken ready. Go ahead and butterfly these. Get a nice coating of oil on this chicken. I'm gonna add some bread crumbs. I'm also gonna do some salt and pepper. Yeah this is the reason I like having all this extra counter space. Having this folded down in the back because I use it for everything. We're gonna scoot all these over so I can fit my chicken on there. Hopefully I have room. Yeah there we go. We're gonna go ahead and cheese these potatoes too. I'm gonna set a timer for 25 minutes. And then last but not least, asparagus. We'll add some more garlic, a little bit more salt, pepper. I think it's about time to add the asparagus. Gourmet dinner up in a national forest with a view of the Tetons. Yeah this is gonna give me leftovers for probably two or three days. That's dinner. This looks and smells delicious. Let's do the taste test here. Yeah this one is going into the normal rotation for sure. The only thing I'd change, I think I would add the cheese a little bit later. It's not burnt but very crusty. I haven't talked quiet. There's people everywhere now. Like this place filled up quick. But I mean it's not surprising with views like that. This has got to be probably the best campsite I've ever had. That was a delicious dinner. Saved my leftovers. Now I don't have to cook for the next couple of nights so that's nice. I really need to get more storage containers. This will have to do. I'm gonna get my diesel heater fired up and get out the ipad so I can watch a movie and hit the sack. Let's see what's on the Netflix. Good morning. Got a solid eight hours last night. This place is filled up a little bit. I mean with as awesome as the view is here, it's not surprising. Beautiful morning. Cheers. So today is finally the day. I'm actually gonna go into Grand Teton National Park and go check out some of the sites. I am pretty sure that I'm gonna go see a place called Jenny Lake this morning. But it is 8 30 and AI told me I needed to be there by nine o'clock. There's no way I'm gonna make that so we'll see if I get a parking spot. If I can't, I guess we'll go check out something else. I should really start planning better. Right now it's 8 55. I really have to do better with maybe setting an alarm if I have to get up early. Let's do the pre-departure checklist. Everything looking situated back here. Lock this cabinet. I think we're ready to go. Hey man, thanks so much for the travel guides and the recommendations. Yeah you guys as well. It's a really cool story. I was talking to some of my camp neighbors last night and they just finished the past year of full-time travel. And they drove up to Alaska, spent the summer there, and then hit a lot of the same parks that I'm hitting. And then they went to Baja California, which is another adventure I would like to do at some point. So they gave me some of their travel guides. Very kind of them. It's nice. This place actually has some areas to camp where you don't even have to drive up the mountain. You barely have to get off the paved road, so that's nice. Crossing over the Snake River. It's like for a private vehicle it's normally $35 to get in here, but I've got my National Parks Pass so I get in for free. Wrong pass on this one. Hey, how are you doing? Good, how are you? Thank you for your service. Do you have your ID with you? Yeah right here, sorry. Didn't bring that to you. Do you need a map or guide to the park today? That would be cool. There you are, safe travels. Thank you so much, appreciate you. So I believe that peak right there in the center just about, the tallest one, I believe that is the peak that's called Grand Teton. It's nearly 14,000 feet high. It looks like Jenny Lake is coming up next. Oh this parking lot has tons of parking. We're gonna be just fine. Looks like May was a good time to visit for those of us that don't like to settle arms. Well it looks like the trail I was planning on doing is closed. I'm gonna have to go in this ranger station to see what they recommend, because again I wasn't trying to do like a super long hike today, but we'll see what we find. Grab my favorite hiking shirt. When I say favorite hiking shirt, I like this one because it covers my arms for sun and it's got a hood so I can cover the back of my neck and my ears. This is the map of the Grand Teton National Park and we are at the Jenny Lake Visitor Center. So it looks like this park road we were on continues north and just goes all the way up here. So after this hike we'll probably do the loop all the way around and then I gotta go back into town and Jackson because I'm gonna need a shower. Yeah today it'll be fanny pack only with some bear spray. I'm gonna take out my trash because I'm pretty sure you gotta have all your trash taken out here. Door didn't have anything I wanted so we're heading on down to the lake now. Yeah I think over there you can actually take a boat tour around the lake, but it's not open yet, not quite in season. The water is crystal clear though. One pretty big difference here that I've seen, everybody is carrying bear spray. There we go, first wildlife sighting, mule deer. And most of this trail is pretty wooded so you don't see a lot, but every once in a while you get a view like this. I think this whole trail all around the lake is like seven or eight miles so still got a little bit of snow on the ground. Yeah I really wasn't even planning on going this far, but just a beautiful trail, beautiful day. Oh yeah, I see him. He's a busy one. Yeah I've been getting to it. I turned around heading on back toward the parking lot, saw some mule deer and a bear. Definitely some wildlife around Jenny Lake. I need to make lunch real fast, which is just going to be a turkey and cheese today. So if you're coming to visit Grand Teton, unless you're planning on doing like any big hikes, really it's kind of a day trip. I mean you can see the range and that's really the big draw of it I think. After I finish my sandwich here, I'm going to cruise around the rest of the road and then head back on into Jackson so I can get a shower. We're approaching Jenny Lake Lodge. That's supposed to give us another overlook of Jenny Lake. Yeah this place is this packed in May. I can only imagine in peak season. I believe this lake over here is Jackson Lake and we are at the northern end of the park now. Good view over there. Wow. Well I think that's all the sites within the park road. Right up here this is the main road that kind of cuts through between Jackson and Yellowstone and it's part of Grand Teton National Park but it's not the interloop. And anytime I'm in an area that doesn't have a planet fitness like Jackson Hole, what I've normally been doing, I'll find a local gym that has like maybe a weekly pass or a monthly pass. That way I don't have to sacrifice working out to be in these beautiful places. I'll just go to a local gym and shower and work out there. Yeah there is no way I did Teton National Park any justice. You have to come see it for yourself. I probably say that on most of my National Park videos but just one of those things, the camera isn't going to do it any justice. Those mountains are unlike any mountain range I've ever seen. We have arrived. Probably going to hang out around here in Jackson Hole for another few days before I head into Yellowstone. So with that I think I'm going to go ahead and call it for this video. I'm going to go get a much needed workout in the shower. So thank you so much for watching. I truly appreciate it and I will see y'all on the next one.