My dad planned, late on the 4th day night, that we would, for the last day visit Grand Teton National Park, since we had covered most of Yellowstone.

After doing the usual morning routine, we were ready for the hour and a half drive down south. There was nothing really to do in the car except watching out for animals. So that’s what I did for a whole hour. For the rest half an hour I just took a power nap. But I jolted awake when we started to slow down, because I thought it was for Animals, but it  was only for the entrance for Teton. After we entered the forest, my mom told me that the forest was thicker, than at Yellowstone, so it looked more inviting for animals to live there.

That caught my attention and I immediately started scanning the right hand side for animals, I also told my mom to check the left in case there were any there. But as we drove past attractions, we didn’t want to see, we couldn’t spot any animal at all, and before I knew it the sign for the Teton Visitor Center came into view. It stated that the Visitor Center was coming up in about 10 miles. Before that though, we needed a car break. So we took this exit that led to some lake.

Immediately, when I hopped out of the car, the cold air and breeze of the area got to me. IT WAS FREEZING COLD. I had to get my jacket, but still even with the jacket I felt very cold. We started to head to the river that was close. And when I was close enough to touch the water, a truck that was carrying a boat came up from behind. We watched as the guy unloaded the boat from the back of the pickup truck and set it into the water. Then after he started to row the boat, we decided that our break was over.

It was great to be back in the warm car, where I could take off my jacket. The Visitor Center came into view soon, and since it was our lunchtime, my took the turn that would enter. There, like all the days at Yellowstone we had sandwiches. So it looked like the lunch would be similar to the other ones. But no, when I was midway done with my sandwich, my mom told me to tie my laces, and when I bent down I found a Coin souvenir. It was had a picture of the Oxbow Bend, which was one of the attractions we would eventually see that day.

After, I had finished my sandwich, I was still feeling pretty hungry, so I asked my parent if they would get me Ice cream from the General Store. They said Yes! As usual I got my favorite flavor, Mint chip and my mom got a flavor I haven’t tasted before, Mountain Berry. And as usual the Mint Chip was AMAZING! My mom wanted me to taste hers, but I didn’t want to. After, My mom and I finished licking the ice cream, we were ready to go…….. almost. First we had to find a real souvenir for me, for this trip.

First we checked, the General Store, where I got the ice cream from. There, I liked only 2 things. The Elk Keychain and The Bison Key chain. I ended up not getting it because my dad said that, it was useless, because it would be lying around on the floor when we got back home. My parents we going to give up on the souvenir thing. But luckily, I insisted, and I ended up getting a pretty big, Lego Bison model from the gas store nearby.

After that, the car headed down south toward Jackson, we were still on the lookout for animals. But I was slowly losing hope of seeing any animals in Teton. Soon enough though, we reached the Oxbow Bend Lookout Point. Surprisingly, nobody had parked in the parking lot of the famous attraction. That was strange. My dad showed me the Oxbow bend, it was just a river, tress on either side and mountains in the distance. It wasn’t as great as I expected, but at least seeing it was better than waiting for the Grand geyser to explode.

Just a little ahead of the Oxbow Bend, was the Willow Flats Lookout Point. It is famous for Moose sightings in Teton. But when we all scanned the big grassland area that had numerous bushes, we couldn’t find any moose. Either they weren’t there or they were hiding really, or maybe it was too early to spot them. My dad said that, maybe the Moose would come out of hiding or wherever they were later. We weren’t just gonna sit in the car and wait for an hour, so I checked the map and found out the nearest attraction was, Signal Mountain.

Signal Mountain, was an attraction where you could drive all the way up the mountain. The recorded elevation for this particular mountain was 7707 feet high! So to pass the time we did the ride uphill. My mom said we may see more animals up on the mountain, than on ground, because it is at a higher elevation.  So during the ride up I checked the right, as usual, but gave up after a few minutes. After, a few 10 minutes we reached the top. (Later we would find out that it wasn’t the Top, TOP.) There was a short hike there, and in the beginning of the hike, there were a lot of Sunflowers. As we slowly climbed higher, you could see all the way down to the ground. My dad exclaimed that we may see moose from this height. But even with the new height advantage, there were no moose to be found. At least we got a brilliant view of grasslands, rivers, forests and lakes down below.

Then when we were heading back toward the car, I found out that where we had stopped, wasn’t actually the highest point of the mountain. There was actually a road that led to an even higher point. So after driving uphill for a few more minutes, we reached the real, official top of Signal Mountain. In the official top there was no hike, only a lookout a point next to the parking lot. This time were, much higher than before, but that only made the view look better. Also slithering on the ground next to my feet, was a worm, kinda thing that was fully made of spikes. My dad said it was a inchworm. But it doesn’t qualify as a new animal because I have seen Inchworms back home in California.

After the enjoying the view for sometimes, it was 5 pm. Time to go back down to the Willow flats and see if some or all of the Moose came out. First, my dad wanted coffee, so after we drove around 7000 feet downhill, there was another General Store. My dad got his coffee and I got Hot Chocolate. It tastes even better than usual, because at the top of the mountain it was VERY COLD. And something hot like the Hot Chocolate I got was nice.

At the Willow Flats, a few minutes later. I used the binocular and scanned the area. But even though we came out later, there was no moose to be seen. We gave up after a few minutes, and started to head down south, once more toward Jackson Hole. On the way there, we saw burnt down, halfway dead small forests, indicating that there was a forest fire in those places. A while later, when the fully green forest came back in to view, My dad spotted a glimpse of brown in the left side of the car, where a big marsh was. And a lot of people had stopped there, so was there an animal?

Only one way to find out. My dad parked the car on the side of the highway, and quickly we all rushed to wear people were standing and taking photos. But before we could reach there my dad and I got a glimpse of what my dad saw earlier, It was a Female Moose. And next to it was a baby. Suddenly, as if they saw that we were looking, both of the moose ran and hid behind the nearest view. From another angle you could see the Mother moose head, but that was it. Since we hadn’t seen a moose since the first day, we decided that it would be fine to wait for sometime and see if they would come out.

They didn’t come out, also it was getting late for dinner, so that’s why we decided to leave to the nearby Jackson Hole to eat dinner. After eating at a Mediterranean place we headed way up north toward the West Yellowstone Entrance. We were heading there because we were gonna stay there at the Hotel/Cabin called River Lodge. And that finished the last full day at Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. What a trip!