Jenny Lake Campground — Hotel in Jackson

There is no debating that Jenny Lake is well located for most of the best hikes in Grand Teton and that the campsites at this location are more spacious and private than at the other campgrounds at the park. But, these positives are well outweighed by the check-in process and camphost (at least in August 2019) such that Signal Mountain is a preferable option. Here is how the inept check-in process works. To try and get a site, prepare to line up around 7 or 7:30am depending on the day of the week. At 8am, the camp host will appear. But, she will claim to have no clue how many spots are available even though current occupants have either paid for another night or they haven't and have either flipped their occupancy tag to open or they haven't. The camp host will then SLOWLY work her way through the line of cars, refusing to provide useful information to those trying to figure out if it is worth spending another hour in line. Around 9 o'clock, the camp host will magically know exactly how many spots she had from the get go, incidentally having carried just the right number camp spot tags with her all along. To those out of luck, the camp host will make a series of sem-snide remarks from which one might infer that she took pleasure in watching you needless wait in line for over an hour when she could have just counted the number of free spots in the campground, counted the number of cars in line, and told everyone who couldn't get a spot to turn around at 8am. But, hey, that would take a little brain power and thoughtfulness....||||To sum it up, if you want to spend two hours in line to maybe get a spot at the modestly better Jenny Lake Campground, be my guest. Alternatively, in those two hours, you could go up the road a little bit, snag a site at Signal Mountain (potentially with a view of Jackson Lake), pitch your tent, and get to the trailhead. But, if your heart is really set on Jenny Lake, when you get there between 7 and 7:30, do yourself a favor and go walk around the campsite, count the sites with an "open" tag on them, count the number of cars in line, and rely on the camp host for nothing as she is either too lazy, inept, or power hungry to do...

The campground was nice, but the real fun and adventure came from visiting Jenny Lake., a beautiful lake surrounded by gorgeous mountains, incredible waterfalls, and the natural beauty of nature that hasn't been disturbed by man. We experienced a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. There are some manmade hiking trails, and if you want, you can set out on your own hike, but they warn you that you are on your own and recommend taking a bear spray and extra water.

Well, we headed out to hike around the Lake, and I'm thinking the chances of seeing a bear are slim to none, and I didn't take the warning seriously. We were only about a half-mile into the hike when we come across a Mama bear about 350 lbs with two cubs. I couldn't believe it. I watched mama bear walk at least 20 to 30 yards ahead of us before walking in just a little closer to get a video of the two cubs playing in a pine grove. After just a few minutes at most, I look to my left, and not more than 10 feet from me stood mama bear. She was all puffed up, shoulders up, and was definitely going to charge me. I could smell her. She was so close, and I was TERRIFIED, but luckily I did not panic; I put my arms up to make myself look as big as possible and started yelling, “get out, get away, go bear, get out of here” as I slowly backed away. I watched as she lowered her shoulders, turned her head towards her cubs, and eventually began to walk off. It was both exciting and terrifying. Definitely a once in a lifetime adventure, or so I thought.

Amazingly about another mile and a half into our hike, we walked right up onto a second bear. This one was a bit smaller, probably about 250 lbs, but it was startling as I could have reached out and touched it. I immediately put my arms out to my side and slowly backed away, saying, “bear, bear, bear.” As we stood back, it began to head away from us and up the mountain. And then, to our surprise, my daughter spotted two cubs about 20 yards further up. We took pictures, watched them for a while (from a safe distance) then continued with our hike. We hiked about 4 to 5 miles; it was so beautiful and the most exciting adventure...

Campground is decent for national park. Park rangers and wildlife management were very polite and easy to work with. Campground has lots of rules and bathrooms are centrally located to all 61 sites and should be noted can take up to 8-10 minutes to get to. Our main issue came with the camp host from Alabama. This man clearly has no customer service experience and was completely rude and inconsiderate. He pulled up to us and began yelling and scolding us for having two vehicles at our spot. Fair, we’ll move the vehicle. He then began searching through our belongings in my truck bed (no warrant) and scolding us for Having red solo cups and water containers not secured inside the bear box on site (keep in mind we were cooking bacon and burger on the fire at this time). This fine specimen of a camp host only stopped searching through my belonging upon letting him know he needs a warrant to search my stuff. He then attacked us for other things he made up on the spot and things that the rangers did not care one ounce about as they passed our camp site many times in our 3 day visit. This specimen who I never caught his name is on a power trip and should not be managing anything in regards to other people recreating. Overall would not stay here again as the BLM and national Forrest sites near by offer more freedom and no draconian camp hosts running around with nothing better to do. I do understand camp hosts are in low supply but in my opinion it would be better to do without a host than this...