We camped at the campground. The place is huge, but you can still have some privacy. Bear warnings... read more
We camped at the campground. The place is huge, but you can still have some privacy. Bear warnings... read more
Highly recommend the cruises on the lake! Close up views of Mt Moran & other peaks, well maintained... read more
We took our kids, grand and great grandkids to the Tetons and Yellowstone and found a great place, Colter Bay Village. A great place to stay, the breakfast trail/wagon ride was fantastic with the only negative being you had to wait until 7:00-7:30 am for coffee. The store has a great deli and gift shop.
We have started at the cabins at Colter Bay 4 times over the past 15 years. The cabins are historic (they are real cabins that were moved and the updated with a heater and plumbing--they tend to be very dark too) and have a lot of rustic charm. This is not made up rustic charm, this is actual rustic charm. That includes critters. In our times at Colter Bay, we have had chipmunks, bats, and mice. This time it was a mouse who we killed with a trap. We came back from a ranger talk and the little guy was dead next to the bed. It should be noted that this is typical. My wife spent two hours doing computer work in the cabin office (they have WiFi there) and reported a stream of folks coming in with critter stories. So why stay at Colter Bay cabins? The location is wonderful. Nestled near the lake, you can easily walk to to the bay or to the store, restaurants, ranger talks and such. There are also some nice hiking trails right at Colter Bay. The longer trail was closed when we were there due to Grizzly Bear activity, but we saw two Trumpeter Swans on the shorter trail. When you stay at Colter Bay, you also can use the nice outdoor pool at Jackson Lake Lodge a few miles down the road. It is a unique pool atmosphere with a nice food and drink service, but when we were there is was closed for the first day due to a filter problem. We went there two days later and it had been refilled with ice cold Tetons water. I was determined to swim though, and swam until I could not feel my fingers and then decided I should get out. But back to Colter Bay cabins. I am only rating them Average because over the years they have gotten more expensive and the service has gone down a bit. One day they forgot to do the housekeeping. GTLC knocked $5.00 off the bill. Maybe they usually offer a bigger credit, but in our case they had to take the cost of the mouse trap into account.
This is actually a great spot if you wish to take a camp, even better if you wish to hike, and if you head to the marina, you will have opportunity to rent kayaks and boats to go out on the water. Actually, I'm sure the water activities are the best highlight of the village, so make sure you do one of them. The backdrop is absolutely gorgeous in this location. I like to think of it as a better alternate to staying in actual Jackson Hole, which is great and all, but I like the woods. I was day dreaming looking at those snow capped mountains. You should head to the Information center before doing any of the activities mentioned, get some information, buy some quick things here and then head out.
I will certainly be back!
We visited Colter Bay Village for a number of reasons. We like the displays at the Visitors' Center. We used the laudromat to wash and dry our clothes on our three week driving vacation. We ate lunch along the lake one day and, best of all, we enjoyed delicious cinnamon rolls from the general store. They were delish! There are two restaurants, campgrounds, shower facilities and cabins here as well. The parking is plentiful, too. Great spot for families.
Colter Bay Village is in the middle of Colter Bay Marina where you can rent canoes and small motorboats. There is also a marina for owned boats traveling Jackson Lake. There is a cute general store, a campground, RV park, historic cabins and rustic tent cabins. A restaurant and café are also located in the village.
We did a number of the activities out of Colter Bay. Book ahead of time!
1. We did the "guided lake fishing tour" - which is going out on a small boat with a guide. The boat seats five guests. You book by the hour (we did four hours). The experience was fantastic - there are very few boats permitted on the lake so it's very special to be out on the lake in this beautiful wilderness feeling somewhat "alone". The guides come equipped with lines, flies, fish finding sonar, etc. and know the lake well. We caught nine fish - our guide's record for this trip was 12 and he said this was higher than normal. It was a lot of fun - highly recommend.
2. Scenic Lake Cruise on Jackson Lake - I don't recommend this one. The boat is covered so you end up peering through dirty windows. If you sit in the back two rows, the windows are smaller. The captain and assistant were nice and told us some interesting things about the area but they had about 15 minutes of information and 90 minutes to kill so it got a bit painful at times. There was an open area of the boat in the back that seats 10-11 people which passengers rotated through so that they could have unobstructed views and really feel like they were out on the water. Overall, an ok but not great experience - I wouldn't do it again.
3. Horseback riding/wagon ride - five of our group went on the wagon ride, four on horseback. We did the one that came with breakfast. It was very enjoyable - a beautiful way to see a bit of the park and appreciate nature at a slower pace! The food was surprisingly good and they even lit a fire during the breakfast break. If you have dreams of cantering on a horse and feeling you are a cowboy, this is not the trip for you - the horses are on auto pilot and it is a very slow walk. Definitely intended for people who have never been on a horse before. I'm a novice so I very much enjoyed it and felt they did a great job keeping everyone safe and enjoying the trip. But if you actually know how to ride a horse, this is not the trip for you.
Overall, I thought the activities at Colter Bay were great!
Oh - one more note - we wanted to do the guided river fishing on the Snake River - two per boat plus a guide - a full day trip meandering down the river. It's three times more expensive than the lake fishing. I was incredibly grateful that Baker at the reservations desk is a very honest and good guy and he told me that they had been letting water out of the dam and the water in the river was too high and fishing conditions were bad. He told me not to book the river fishing. We ended up having a great time on the lake fishing tour and it would have been really disappointing to spend a lot of money and not had a good time on the river fishing so huge thank you to Baker!