Adventures by Disney Wyoming: A Trip Recap Worth Reading (Part 1 of 2)
I have now taken three Adventures by Disney trips. I plan them with clients regularly. And I still came home from Wyoming thinking: I did not fully know what I was walking into.
That's meant as the highest possible compliment.
Here's the moment I keep coming back to.
It's the last full day of the trip. My daughter Allison and I are on horseback at Brooks Lake Lodge, winding through mountain terrain so beautiful it almost feels fictional. Her horse is Eddie. Mine is Thema. Our ABD guide Jen is riding alongside us when the sky opens up and it starts to rain. Not a drizzle. An actual rainstorm, up in the mountains, in the middle of a horseback ride.
And neither of us minded even a little bit.
That's what Adventures by Disney Wyoming does to you. It puts you so far inside an experience that the rain just becomes part of the story.
The Trip at a Glance
Adventures by Disney's Wyoming itinerary is a seven-day journey through three distinct destinations: Jackson Hole, Yellowstone National Park, and Brooks Lake Lodge in the Shoshone National Forest. Our group was 29 travelers across 8 families, guided by two of the best humans ABD (Adventures by Disney) has ever put in front of a group. Jen and Eileen handled everything with warmth, humor, and the kind of calm competence that makes a 29-person group through two national parks feel completely effortless.
My husband Tom, and our two teens, 14 and 16, were along for the adventure.
Jackson Hole: Getting the Lay of the Land
We flew into JAC, Jackson Hole Airport, which holds the distinction of being the only commercial airport located inside a National Park. No flights land after 11pm, which tells you something about the spirit of the place before you've even collected your luggage.
Jackson Hole is not one town. It's a cluster of towns sitting in a valley, which is actually the literal definition of a "hole" in frontier geography. Worth knowing before someone asks and you want to sound informed.
Our orientation day in Jackson was handled through a guided tour I scheduled (before the ABD started) with a local guide named Dave, and this approach I cannot recommend enough. Getting a knowledgeable local perspective on day one, set the tone for the entire trip. We knew where we were, what we were looking at, and where to go. That kind of orientation pays dividends for days.
The Wort Hotel served as our home base for the first three nights, and it earned every bit of the praise I'd heard about it. Great location, genuinely walkable to town, housekeeping twice a day, and rooms that actually had enough space to not feel like they were living on top of each other. I'd stay there again without hesitation.
A few Jackson Hole notes worth tucking away: Cowboy Coffee opens at 6am and the line builds fast. The huckleberry muffin is non-negotiable. Lunch at Hatch (Mexican) was a hit. Stillwater Brewery has incredible views of SnowKing Mountain.
The rafting itself was about an hour on the water, Class II-III rapids, and yes — you will get wet. Pack accordingly. Sunglasses with a strap holder are your friends. So are swim shirts.
Into Yellowstone
The drive from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone is stunning and winding and worth having motion sickness medication on hand if motion sickness is any kind of concern for your family. I started taking it the day before and stayed consistent throughout the Yellowstone portion of the trip. Two others in our group of 29 did get carsick on the longer stretches, so I'll call that a genuine practical tip rather than an overreaction.
Our first Old Faithful eruption happened at 5:15pm, which felt perfectly timed in the way that only ABD seems to consistently pull off.
We stayed at Old Faithful Inn for one night, which is a genuinely iconic property with history worth appreciating. The main lodge was built in 1903, and our wing was added around 1929. I'll be fully honest with you here: it was a rough night's sleep in summer. No air conditioning, just a fan, and July temperatures that did not cooperate. The Inn is worth seeing and experiencing once. I would not stay there again in summer specifically.
More Yellowstone honesty incoming in Part 2. Stay with me.
Brooks Lake Lodge: The Heart of the Trip
If Jackson Hole is the arrival and Yellowstone is the spectacle, Brooks Lake Lodge is the soul of this entire adventure. And I say that having not fully understood what it was before we got there.
Brooks Lake Lodge sits in the Shoshone National Forest, tucked into a landscape so remote and beautiful it genuinely stops conversation when you first see it. ABD rents out the entire property, which means for the duration of your stay, every person on that ranch is part of your group. No room keys needed. No strangers at the next table. Just your 29 travelers and the most spectacular mountain views I've seen in person.
This is where Frog entered my life.
Frog is a 20-year-old horse. He is stubborn, unhurried, and completely unbothered by the world around him. He is also, I discovered, hiding something remarkable: a natural marking on his shoulder in the shape of a hidden Mickey. On an Adventures by Disney trip. I could not have scripted it.
The horseback riding at Brooks Lake was one of the active options, and we took advantage of the experience both days. Both trails were beautiful in completely different ways. The first was a clear-sky morning with views that made you understand immediately why people choose to live in Wyoming. The second was the one that ended in a rainstorm, Allison on Eddie, me on Thema, Jen (one of our ABD guides) riding alongside us, nobody rushing, nobody upset, just finishing the ride the way it was meant to be finished.
The archery session with instructors Isaac and George deserves its own paragraph. What was scheduled as a standard afternoon activity ran a full 90 minutes because nobody in our group wanted to put down a bow. That is the Brooks Lake effect. Activities that were supposed to be items on an itinerary became experiences nobody wanted to leave.
The farewell dinner that closed out our time at the lodge was warm and unhurried and exactly the right ending to that chapter of the trip.
What the Trip Felt Like Overall
Seven days. Three properties. Two national parks. Twenty-nine travelers who arrived as strangers and left as something closer to friends.
We would return to Jackson Hole. The Wort Hotel is already on my list for a return visit. We would return to Brooks Lake Lodge in a heartbeat, and I find myself genuinely curious what it looks like in winter.
Coming up in Part 2: my honest hot takes on Yellowstone, who this trip is actually built for (and who might want to think twice), practical tips I wish I'd had before we left, and the age conversation.
