Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Park - July 4th weekend - Part 1

I don't remember since when, but I had always wanted to go to Yellowstone National Park.  I had heard so many things about it that I put it on my places to visit list.  Unfortunately, every time my family and I thought about it, it was too late to plan a trip there since the lodging would get completely booked on the Park and it would be hard to decide where to stay nearby.  Luckily, some of my friends decided the trip almost 3 to 4 months in advance, but I was not sure at that time.  Long story short, I decided to go and the trip's final count was a group of 15 people :).  We booked the condo in Jackson Hole Resort Lodging (same place as other friends booked it)  and surprisingly we got it at a better rate even on last minute.

To tell you little bit about the condo that we booked, it was booked in Jackson Hole Resort Lodging and we got it in Teton Village, 3rd floor, which had perfect view to the base of the lodging.  We just had to step out of the condo, into the balcony, to see the July 4th fireworks which was very convenient!  The condo was fully furnished, and perfect for our stay.  It was 1bd/1ba condo with fully equipped kitchen, a dining hall, spacious living area which included a sleeper sofa, and a beautiful view!  We had booked the condo for 4 nights for $738 which is not bad at all since it came out to be $148/person (between 5 people) for 4 nights.

Our trip started on July 3rd morning which consisted drive of little over 9 hours.  As I said earlier, we were group of 15 people going on this trip and we divided in 2 groups where 2 of the cars were going to leave on July 3rd morning and the other 2 cars were going to leave late in the afternoon.  We left in the morning around 9 am and reached our condo around 7 pm.  There was some nice scenery on the way to the lodging which you can see here.

Drive in Wyoming (on the way to Jackson Hole Resort Lodging)

Drive in Wyoming

View from our Condo (Teton Village @ Jackson Hole Resort Lodging)

If you need to do grocery shopping before heading to Jackson Hole, make sure you stop by the Albertson's in the town before you head to the lodging. 

Great thing about our condo was that the Jackson Hole does fireworks on both July 3rd and July 4th nights at the base (very close to the lodging) and since our condo was on 3rd floor facing the base, we had a great view of fireworks right from our condo.  We were able to enjoy the fireworks right from our condo balcony with clear view!  After fireworks, little relaxing in the condo, had nice dinner, and then slept early to be going the next morning to the first stop of Grand Teton National Park.

Next, our packed day at the Grand Teton National Park!