Cycling Grand Teton National Park

After we left Yellowstone behind us in the north, we cycle down to Teton NP. Teton is just a few kilometers south of Yellowstone but we planned to camp in between in Flagg Range Campground. When we arrive there the friendly guy at the office tells us “camping is $40 per night, no matter you’re in a big RV or a small tent”
We look at each other “to expensive”
“But….” the guy says “just a quarter mile south from here is free state campground”
We guess marketing was not his best class in high school but it sounds good to us. So we go.
At the tiny campground are just six campsites with two available. It’s just 3 in the afternoon so we relax the rest of the day in the nice warm sun.
The night that follows is cold again. -5C with again; our millions of bright stars.
When we wake up the temperature rises fast up to nearly 30C in our tent so time te wake up. We stay an extra night on this campground so we take it easy. Kim does knitting and Arjan some bike maintenance. In the afternoon we cycle back the quarter mile to the Flagg Range grocery store. We eat something, hang around and are finally able to book the shuttle bus from Jackson, Wyoming to Vail in Colorado. The internet in Flagg Range is one of the slowest ever but the booking works out good in the end.
Because we’re running out off visa we gonna skip the more boring South Wyoming part to have more time in the National Parks in the south of the country.
The next day we leave early in the rain. First breakfast burritos at Flag Range and then the road south through Grand Teton National Park to the town of Jackson. It’s a 95km ride but there’s quite a lot to see on the way so we leave early.

During the day we stop at several places to have a look around. On nearly every place people ask us questions and nearly every conversation is like this;

“We’re you cycled from?”
“Alaska”
“ALASKA?? No way!!”
“How long did you take that?
“About four months with some detouring”
“Wauw, amazing”
“Where you going to?”
“Al the way down to Argentina”
“NO WAY… ARGENTINA??? WHAT THE HELL. That’s amazing. Good for you!!”
“How long will that take you?”
“About one and a half year, till November 2019”
“We’re you guys from?”
“We’re from Holland”
“Oh yeah, people from Holland like to cycle, don’t they?”
“Yes they do”
“Have a nice trip then and be save!!”
“Thanks, have a good trip yourself!”

This kind of conversations we had a lot already on this trip but today it’s extreme, so many people asking.

The Grand Teton NP is beautiful with a long mountain range and lots of lakes to follow.
In the end of the day we enter Jackson.

A racing cyclist joins us the last few kilometers into town with the same conversation again as above and warns us that Jackson is expensive and it’s hard to get a place to sleep. But he says also, go to the visitor center and they can probably help you. “Bye”
At the visitor center, it’s closed already so we move on to the city center in search for a Starbucks so we get WiFi and can search a campground or so online.
When we park our bikes outside the Starbucks an eight year old boy turns up with some questions what we’re doing. “Oh no.. same conversation again?” No, this conversation turns out very different. The boy is quite surprised about our stories and his younger sister and dad also hear our stories.
Dad asks “We’re you gonna stay tonight?”
“Yeah, good question, we don’t no actually and wanna go on the Starbucks WiFi to search something”
“Oh.. you can stay at our place, we have a back house we’re you can stay”
“Really? That’s awesome”
He introduces hisself as Sean, son Enzo and daughter Ivy.
We’ve bin amazed already a lot of time how friendly people can be but just being invited to some ones home by a total stranger on the street didn’t happen before.
Together we walk to their home nearby.
On the way Sean explains that Jackson is indeed quite expensive because it’s a touristic destination with lots of outdoor possibilities, a ski area and two National Parks closely. Campgrounds are hard to find and Sean and his family did invite cyclists to their house before, also pickups from the street. Their not into technology so their not on Warmshowers but have heard about it.
When we arrive at their house he shows us the back house and introduces us to Laura, his wife.
Before we even settled in they invite us to have dinner with them. How awesome!!!
The night that follows is full of good stories, Thai Curry and good Californian wine made by Seans family over there. They’re super outdoor minded and traveled a lot. They’re also quite familiar with South America and particularly Argentina/Patagonia so have a lot of good advices for when we are going there.

The next day we explore Jackson. We found it a nice place. Together with Fairbanks and Whitehorse one of our favorites so far.

In the evening Laura & Sean invited us to go with them for dinner in town with friends, Ian & Bef.
They also have tickets for a live concert afterwards but because the concert is sold out we can’t go with them there.
Dinner is gonna be Thai Curry (again) the restaurant is partly outdoors, the atmosphere is chill and the food really good.
After the dinner we walk up with the four of them to the concert theater to say good bye to them over there.
Outside the theater a guy offers us a free ticket because his friend can’t go. Another girl shows up with a left over ticket as well for the regular price. So in the end we have two tickets half price ?
The band/artists who are playing are unknown for us but it turns out we like them a lot.
Joshua James as kickoff artist and Gregory Alanisakov as main act. We have an unexpected great evening and drink some beers with Bef and Ian in the back house at the end.

The next morning, the sun is on already and pretty good weather. We supposed to organize things for tomorrow morning when we take the shuttle bus to Vail, Colorado at 9 am. But because the weather is so good Laura asks us to go with them to a nice lake in the national park for some canoeing, sub-boarding and relaxing. “Sounds good to us, we can organize later in the evening”
On our way to the lake Laura calls a few bicycle stores to hear if they have leftover cycle boxes. One has one box… hmmm so one to go.
We decide to pick up the box on the way back and make a second box out of carton from the recycle depot. For now, the lake is calling☀️
The lake we’re going to is in the mountains and we’re expected it should be crowded because the nice weather, but it’s not. We’re the only one there… awesome ?
The rest of the day we fill with relaxing and paddle boarding. Bef & Ian, and their kids Zoey & Cabo come enjoy us as well. Later on a few more friends come over too.

When the sun goes down we drive back to town and pick up the bike box and some carton.
At home Arjan starts dissembling and packing the bikes. Kim and Laura go shopping for some food.
They also go checking some spots in town for a second bike box and luckily they find one.
We pack the rest of our stuff, eat Mexican style lasagna and Sean points out some spots on our South America maps were to go when we’re there.
The next morning Laura and Ivy drops us off at the bus stop at nine.
So sad we have to say goodbye to so many people we really like…

Our shuttle bus will take us to Vail in Colorado. The ride, including three stopovers, will take 29 hours. From Vail we will cycle through Colorado, west to Utah to ride a lot of famous parks like Bryce Canyon, Zion NP, Grand Canyon, and so on… Will be continued…