Tetons via Salt Lake. Fly to Salt Lake (if you book early, you will save @$100 instead of flying to Jackson Hole). Rent a car in Salt Lake (you will save $100-200 v. Jackson Hole). Hang out around the great salt lake for a day or two (it is worth it). Drive up to the Tetons. Be sure to get camp site or back country reservations well in advance. If you aren't camping, there are youth hostels and a few dirt cheap hotels.
Guppy wrote:
One of several things:
1) You're lying
2) You don't know what a wolf is
3) You're extremely lucky
I spent all summer in Grand Teton National Park in 2010 and spent at least an hour out on the trails every single day. I saw two wolves on ONE occasion. No one else I talked to all summer ever saw a wolf (save for one occasion in which some were by the flats), and the people I knew who lived and worked in the area said you almost never see them. I saw plenty of black bears, grizzlies, fox, and coyotes, but wolves are a rare sight. Didn't see one during a full day in Yellowstone, nor did several other groups I talked to who had spent one or more days in yellowstone. I did see their tracks on the north side of two ocean lake though.
I've lived within 3 hours of YNP my entire life and have a strong interest in wildlife biology, so I'm quite positive what a wolf is. If you know where they're hanging out it's not hard to find them. They might not be as prevalent in GTNP (especially around the well-traveled trails), but there are established packs in practically every mountain range of SW Montana and Central Idaho, and less of a population to drive them away. I've seen wolves less than 10 miles from my house, including a solo animal in December and tracks last week. I don't consider myself lucky, but I do make an effort to get away from crowds and seek out wildlife.
Thanks for all the great responses. Reading all this gets me really excited about going even though it so far away. I originally mentioned the July-September thing, but really that's just because this is my first year out of school and I'm so used to only having vacation time in the summer. Now that I can take it whenever, it seems to make more sense to do it late September - October when it's just as nice and the crowds are less.
Also, never having been to these I was unsure about how much time you really spend in them because I know they vary greatly in size. So for a lot of these, it makes sense to try to visit a couple in one trip? And which would be best to combine in a trip (Teton/Yellowstone, Zion/Bryce, etc.)?Remember it's only my first year working so taking off more than a week at once isn't a great option, so the longer type of trips I'll have to put off until future years.
Any more advice/experience is greatly appreciated.
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Biggest, baddest, wildest, most remote nature you'll ever experience in a national park anywhere.
If you want to go to one of the parks in Arizona or Souther Utah, I would go in spring, not summer. It gets really hot in the summer in those places, because its a desert.
aeriplane wrote:
If you want to go to one of the parks in Arizona or Souther Utah, I would go in spring, not summer. It gets really hot in the summer in those places, because its a desert.
I'd go in the fall. Rain comes in the spring, and you're susceptible to flash floods in the Southern UT parks (Zion, Canyonlands, Bryce).