My Trip Out West: Jackson Hole and Bozeman Travel Guide

April 8, 2021
Travel

Rick and I just got back from our trip to Bozeman and Jackson Hole a few days ago, and WOW I already miss it. You know those places that just stick with you? The kind of place that you TOTALLY fall in love with?! Well that was Bozeman and Jackson Hole for me. And I can’t wait to tell you allllllllll about it…

PLANNING THE TRIP

We took this trip March 31-April 5. Our 2 main goals were to see Yellowstone and Grand Teton. When we made the flight and hotel reservations, I knew this was “off season”.. but I didn’t realize how “OFF” it truly was lol. I typically do a TON of research before I book a trip, but this time I didn’t.

We were flying into Jackson Hole, and we were originally supposed to stay in Jackson Hole the whole time. We planned on driving up to Old Faithful through the South Entrance of Yellowstone (about a 2ish hour drive). However, after making our reservations, I realized that the only road open year-round to cars spans from the North Entrance of Yellowstone (in Gardiner, Montana) through Yellowstone to Cooke City, Montana. We REALLY wanted to go Yellowstone, so we changed our hotel reservations, and decided to drive straight from the airport to stay one night in Bozeman, Montana, closer to the North Entrance of the park.

After realizing that all of the entrances to Yellowstone wouldn’t be open, I was pretty concerned. I knew we wouldn’t be able to see Old Faithful. Would we be able to see anything?! A lot of the roads in Grand Teton were going to be closed too, so we wouldn’t be able to see quite a few of the things I had dreamt of seeing.

Going into our trip, I honestly wasn’t as excited as I typically am for a vacation. I’m a BIG planner when it comes to trips, but for this one I just wasn’t sure what we would be able to see/do, so I couldn’t plan much. I didn’t find much info online that was helpful in this regard, either. So, now I’m going to tell you exactly what we did, so, in case you want to go out west during the off season, you’ll know exactly what to do 🙂

BOZEMAN

Right when we landed in the Jackson Hole airport, we picked up our car and started the journey to Bozeman. During the off season, when you can’t drive through the park, it takes about 4 hours to get from Jackson Hole to Bozeman. The drive was AMAZING and SO scenic (like you’re driving next to a babbling brook with mountains in the background for a good chunk of the time- STUNNING!) However, you won’t have cell service for about 2 of those 4 hours, so make sure you look up directions before hand.

When we got to Bozeman, we threw our bags in our hotel room and headed straight to Main Street. I wanted to make sure we got to see it before it got dark. Main Street was SO SO cute!!! The views of the mountains were incredible, and we loved walking up and down the street, looking at all the cute shops and restaurants.

For dinner, we went to Montana Ale Works. I asked the concierge at our hotel for the “most Montana restaurant around here,” and that’s where she recommended lol. We both had bison burgers, and they were able to handle my manyyyy food restrictions (and were nice about it)!! I would definitely recommend this restaurant for a little taste of Montana.

We stayed at the Element Bozeman Hotel. It was clean, cute, and nice, but if we had been staying more than one night, we probably would have stayed at the Kimpton Armory Hotel Bozeman.

When we left the next morning, we were SO SAD. Bozeman was such a cute town, and I wish we could’ve gotten to stay longer and seen more of it. We definitely want to go back soon!

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

I’m giving Yellowstone its own section because I feel like it deserves it haha. Remember how I said earlier that I was scared we wouldn’t get to see anything in Yellowstone since we couldn’t see Old Faithful? Well, I was 1000% wrong.

The drive from Bozeman to the Yellowstone North Entrance was about an hour and a half. Let me tell you, this drive was probably the most stunning this thing we saw the whole trip. I am SO happy we made that drive because it was EVERYTHING.. words legitimately cannot describe it. The mountains were in the background the whole time, there was a gorgeous river right next to us, there were animals all over.. it was just AMAZING.

When we got to Yellowstone itself, we bought a National Park Annual Pass. The annual pass was $80, and admission to the park for one day was $35. Because we knew we were also going to Grand Teton, which would be another $35, we figured it would be worth it just to get the annual pass. That way, if we want to go to another national park within the year, we’ve already saved money.

Yellowstone was incredible. We were able to see the Mammoth Hot Springs, geothermal pools, and travertine terraces. We saw waterfalls, ponds, and rivers. We saw SO many bison. The bison were crossing the roads all over lol. They were RIGHT next to the car. It was so cool!! We also saw many elk, pronghorns, and big horn sheep. It was amazing. We ended up staying in Yellowstone for hours longer than we planned on. We absolutely loved it!

We left Yellowstone and started the 5.5 hour trek back to Jackson Hole. Because the roads in Yellowstone were closed, we had to drive back through Bozeman and then from Bozeman to Jackson Hole. If you can avoid doing this drive at night, AVOID IT!!!! The drive was PITCH BLACK, we didn’t have cell service for the majority of it, and the roads were empty. For part of the trip, we were driving on the side of a mountain in the total dark. It was terrifying, but we made it, and it was sooo worth it!

JACKSON HOLE

Jackson Hole was amazing! We stayed in Jackson Hole for 4 nights, and I wish we could’ve stayed even longer. If you want to just do a long weekend trip, this is definitely the kind of town you can do that in, though.

Here is what we did while in Jackson Hole:

  • Walked around Town Square: Jackson Hole has the CUTEST town square- I’m sure you’ve seen the famous antler arches that frame each of the 4 town square entrances. They have so many cute, local shops to wonder around in. Some of my favorites were Made and Roam. We also loved just sitting on one of the benches in Town Square and relaxing. It was extremely peaceful.
  • Drank Local Coffee: If you’ve looked at my Instagram lately, you’ll know that I FELL IN LOVE WITH Cowboy Coffee!!!! I am VERY picky with my coffee, and Cowboy Coffee absolutely won me over. I ended up buying some of their ground coffee to take home with me, and I have a Nespresso (aka I can’t use ground coffee lol). I plan on taking that ground coffee over to my parent’s and making myself a cup ASAP! If you’re reading this, Cowboy Coffee, PLEASE open a location closer to me!!!!! (lololol)
  • Got a Custom Hat Made: Going into this trip, I knew I wanted to buy a Western style hat while in Wyoming. I ended up getting one at Beaver Creek Hats & Leather, which is right on the town square!! They had SO many amazing options, but none of them were exactly what I wanted, so I had one custom sized and shaped!! I got to choose exactly how I wanted it to look, which was SO COOL. And, I got to watch them shape it! If you go there, ask for Cam. He was so helpful, patient, and answered alllll my questions about hat upkeep and cleaning. Plus, he shaped a GORGEOUS hat exactly how I wanted it!
  • Sleigh ride through the Elk Reserve: This was one of my absolute favorite things we did! These sleigh rides are available the whole winter season, and we actually did this the last day they were open till December (for us it was more of a wagon ride than a sleigh ride, though, since most of the snow was melted). The horses lead the sleigh through the elk reserve, giving the passengers a close up view of the elk. Our tour guide, Bridger, was well informed, was more than happy to answer any questions, gave us lots of interesting tidbits. If you are going to Jackson Hole during the summer when the sleigh rides aren’t available, the same people who do the sleigh rides do a covered wagon cookout and show, which I will definitely be doing when I eventually visit during the summer!!
  • Rendezvous Park: Rendezvous park runs along Snake River. It is STUNNING and so relaxing. The water literally glistens. People all around are fly fishing. Bring a picnic with you and eat next to the river! We didn’t do that, but wish we had.
  • Grand Teton National Park: This is obviously a must do while in Jackson Hole. Grand Teton is STUNNING!!! We had an amazing time just walking and driving around. We were able to see some more elk and moose while we were there! Like I said earlier, we bought a National Park annual pass while in Yellowstone, so we didn’t have to pay to enter Grand Teton. If you don’t have a pass, though, entry is $35. I will, say, though, going at the time of year we went, we didn’t get to see a lot of the things I wanted to see (like Jenny Lake, Mormon Row, and Menors Ferry Historic District). BUT it was still definitely worth it!
  • Million Dollar Cowboy Bar: The INFAMOUS Million Dollar Cowboy Bar- SO FUN! We went on a Saturday night when they had live music playing. We got free admission in by showing them our hotel key (one of the perks of our hotel lol). It was super lively, fun, and had great drinks!! However, it did close at 10pm, which I thought was kind of early. Turns out, though, that is because of Covid, and typically it closes later!
  • Went to Amazing Restaurants:

While in Jackson Hole, we stayed at the Wort Hotel. When I initially booked the trip, I was trying to decide between the Wort and another hotel because the Wort was a little more dated and rustic than I am used to. However, I am SO glad we stayed at the Wort. It had the absolute BEST location (about a block to town square), was super clean and nice, and really made me feel like I was embracing the western experience (lol). And it had the absolute BEST customer service. Our AC unit was making some noise, so Rick went to go let the front desk know. The sweet lady at the front desk ended up showing us 3 different, upgraded rooms (and offered to show us more), let us pick which of the 3 we wanted to stay in for the rest of our stay, and gave us a coupon so we could both have free breakfast in the restaurant downstairs. We have stayed in a lot of really nice hotels, and we’ve had many, many issues with our rooms (leaking windows, broken fireplaces, etc.). I can honestly say that we have NEVER gone to a hotel where the customer service was as good as it was at the Wort. Both Rick and I are extremely happy we stayed here and cannot wait to go back!

One thing I will say, is that, before the trip, I noticed that a lot of the nice hotels I saw online are in Teton Village. We ended up going to Teton Village to see what was there, and it was like a little resort town right next to a mountain with a bunch of people skiing around. Teton Village is definitely a place to stay for people who are super into winter sports (and I’m sure summer sports during the summer lol) and who are going to Jackson Hole mainly to participate in those sports. If you aren’t going to Jackson Hole for the sports, I would definitely recommend staying near Town Square.

WOULD I RECOMMEND GOING TO BOZEMAN AND JACKSON HOLE DURING THE OFF SEASON?

1,000 times YES! Like I said, we weren’t able to see quite a few things that I would’ve loved to see. However, because it was the off season, it wasn’t very crowded, which was SO nice!! We were able to see a lot of wildlife up close, which probably wouldn’t have been as possible if we hadn’t gone during off season. Also, the weather was GORGEOUS. Coming from somewhere that is hot and humid in March and April, the good weather was like a breath of fresh air (literally, lol). I was worried it would be really cold, but it wasn’t- it was perfect.

If you do plan to visit during the off season, just make sure you do your research! Make sure you look up the things you know you definitely want to do, and see if they’ll be available!! I know quite a few restaurants close for the off season, so make sure you look into that, too!

All in all (if you can’t already tell lol), I highly recommend Bozeman and Jackson!! This is honestly Rick and my favorite area we’ve ever been to in the US. Obviously, we haven’t been everywhere and there are SO many stunning places in this country, but out west just has something really special about it. I cannot wait to go back!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments or DM me on Instagram! Also, if you’re interested in seeing more of my Bozeman/Jackson Hole content, I have a story highlight on Instagram with lots of pictures/videos from our time there!

XX, Danielle

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Hi, I'm Danielle!! I live in New Orleans, Louisiana, with my husband, Rick, and my pup, Slate. I love to share my favorite things and different aspects of my life. Welcome to my page. I hope you enjoy it!

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