Romantic Road Trips - Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and the Tetons

Let’s face it, it’s been a tough year for couples. No matter how strong your connection might be, months and months of close contact in quarantine will have made it hard to keep the spark alive. Since whirlwind getaways to faraway places are off the table for the moment, we’ve distilled our vast wealth of vanlife knowledge with you in mind, bringing you America’s most romantic road trips – guaranteed to give that flame a bit of fresh air and room to grow.

In part two of Romantic Road Trips we introduce you to Jackson Hole and its two incredible National Parks. These buffalo-laden plains and towering blue peaks were the inspiration for Moterra. Consequently, for this place in particular our vans are purpose built machines. Cruise in style and comfort in one of our vans or bring your own ride Either way, this guide will get you where you need to go.

Start: Jackson Hole

For some, romance goes hand in hand with relaxation – cocktails full of tropical fruit, beach chairs and turquoise waves. For others, it comes with adrenaline and adventure, that exhilarating feeling of watching the person you love venture outside their comfort zone, embrace a challenge, and show you new aspects of what they can do. If that sounds more like you, we think you should start your adventure in Jackson.

Grab a van at our flagship location right in the classic wild west town of Jackson and hit the road. Cruise through vast open plains under the mighty gaze of the mountains towards Teton Village and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. With biking, hiking, paragliding and more on offer, you could pull the van over here for at least a couple days. But don’t stay too long. Just a few miles farther north waits the unparalleled Grand Teton National Park.

Explore: Grand Teton National Park

The Tetons are famous for their dramatically jagged appearance and intimidatingly steep terrain, so finding a challenge won’t be hard. Try hiking up to Solitude Lake or taking a scramble up the Middle Teton for a long day or explore friendlier terrain around Phelps, Jenny, or Leigh lakes. Whether you are looking to canoe, fish, hike, climb, or even fly, you will find it hard not to meet your nature quota during your time here. Campsites are available on a reservation basis all over the park but adventurous campers can also leave the park at night and search for dispersed campsites in the vast National Forest land just outside its borders.

Experience: Yellowstone National Park

Once you’ve hiked your legs to the bone, make your way north on the Moose-Wilson road and through the National Park until you reach another one, even more well recognized than the last. Get ready for geysers, brilliant and deadly volcanic pools, and wildlife like bears, bison, and elk. That’s right, you’re in Yellowstone, the first National Park in the world and still arguably its most famous.

Access to Yellowstone’s beauty comes in the form of a two-loop ring road that brings visitors to all of the most scenic and outlandish sights in the park, from the deadly rainbow waters of the Grand Prismatic pool, to Old Faithful’s reliably magnificent daily shows, to the outlandish spires and turgid, thundering waterfalls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. If you only have time for a short trip, this road can be driven in a day. To be honest, though, that’s really nowhere close to enough. Yellowstone invariably rewards the adventurous with new perspectives and secret corners unknown to the masses.

Return: to Jackson

Spend a few days wandering from campsite to campsite, sleeping under a blanket of stars. Visiting this place in style with the comfort and bear protection of a Moterra van, you won’t want to leave. Still, as you start the smooth cruise back to town on 191, let your mind wander to creature comforts. The fine dining and luxurious accommodations of Jackson await. Pass through open fields of bison, elk, moose, and pronghorn, making your sunny way back to civilization. Breathe in, breathe out. Now doesn’t that feel better?