Coming From Yellowstone
Grand Teton National Park is just south of Yellowstone National Park. However from Old Faithful in Yellowstone to the first sighting of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton, it’s about 1 hour 15 minutes depending on traffic and construction. Between the two National Parks is the John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Memorial Parkway and there are additional recreation and camping options along the parkway that are open seasonally. We camped in an Arizona Camper Van rental in Grand Teton National Park for three nights after camping in Yellowstone National Park for three nights. You can check out our Yellowstone Road Trip here.
Instead of starting in Yellowstone, you can work your way north after spending time in Grand Teton. Jackson, Wyoming is the closest town and the airport is technically within park boundaries. Additionally, Salt Lake City, UT is about 5 hours away by car.
Table of Contents
Grand Teton
Grand Teton National Park is special for many reasons! One of the coolest facts we learned was that the Teton Mountain range is the youngest in North America! It’s still very old compared to humans, but it’s the youngest or latest to shoot out the ground in the Rocky Mountain Range and overall youngest on the continent. The mountain range has no foothills on the east side in the National Park, and therefore they look extremely tall. There are many front country lakes in the park as well backcountry and alpine lakes. Climbers can even summit the Grand Teton, the tallest peak in the range. Additionally, besides the mountains, the Snake River is a large draw. Outfitters run guided trips down the river and a lot of different wildlife species call the water and ecosystem home.
How to Prepare
Preparing for Grand Teton was very similar to our preparation for Yellowstone. The climates are similar, although Grand Teton is a little warmer.
Maps & Info
We downloaded the park in the National Park Service mobile App so we had everything available for offline use. Additionally, we downloaded the area in Google Maps. Overall, Grand Teton National Park had better cellphone service coverage compared to Yellowstone
Clothing
Just like Yellowstone, the weather at Grand Teton can change quickly and forecasts more than a week out can continue to change. We found that the most accurate forecasts were only a couple days in advance. The time of year will definitely influence what to bring. However, there are some wardrobe pieces we highly recommend based on our experience in the spring. Overall, we brought multiple options because of the challenging weather predictability. We did bring our crampons, but never ended up using them. If we did more backcountry hikes they would have come in handy because the trails were still snow packed. Check out our full list of gear guides here.
- A true Rain Jacket with a waterproof rating
- A warm jacket like a down or “puffy” jacket
- Pants that can be converted to shorts
- Comfortable walking shoes or boots that can also get a little dirty
- Multiple layering options like short sleeve and long sleeve tops
- Lauren’s favorite tops from Patagonia: Short Sleeve | Long Sleeve
Food
There are plenty of food options in Jackson, WY, just 20 – 45 minutes south of the park depending on where you’re coming from. Additionally, there are restuarants within the park like Dornans and at the park lodges. We made campfire dutchoven soup one night at our campground and ate Mountain House Adventure Meals when we didn’t eat at a restuarant. Use OS24Q2 for 10% off Mountain House Meals (the last number changes depending on the quarter).
Travel
Grand Teton is not nearly as large as Yellowstone and because of that navigating the park isn’t as challenging or time consuming. There are two main north south roads through the park that you can see on all the maps. The 191/89 is the major highway traveling through the park. And just like most roads in the area, wildlife crossings are frequent. Please watch your speed and travel with caution.
Wildlife
Be Bear Aware! Grand Teton is known for it Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, and moose populations. These are all dangerous animals and should never be approached, fed, or instigated. In addition, you’ll most likely see bison in the fields and depending on the time of year hundreds to thousands of elk. There are also plenty of ravens, squirrels, and foxes. It’s highly encouraged to wear bear spray on you at all times, especially on hikes and backcountry. Additionally all campgrounds have bear boxes at their campsites and food should be kept there or in your vehicle with the windows up and doors locked.
Leave No Trace
Please remember to Leave No Trace when exploring. Pack out all trash and plan ahead. Check out our hiking tips for more information.
The 7 principles of Leave No Trace:
1) Plan ahead and prepare
2) Travel & camp on durable surfaces
3) Dispose of waste properly
4) Leave what you find
5) Minimize campfire impacts
6) Respect wildlife
7) Be considerate of others
Camping in Grand Teton
All campgrounds in Grand Teton are reserved in advance campgrounds and are available to book on recreation.gov. The earliest campgrounds can be reserved is 6 months in advance. Although there are campgrounds throughout the park they all open and close seasonally at different times. The Grand Teton National Park website has detailed information on each campground, when they open, and what each campground offers. The map below shows all of the different campgrounds within the park marked by the tent symbol.
Signal Mountain Campground
We camped at Signal Mountain Campground for 3 nights. There were a couple reasons behind why we chose Signal Mountain Campground. One, it was one of the few campgrounds open during our dates. Second, we were using a camper van so we needed a site with a driveway long enough for the van and that allowed camper vans. Third, we also liked the location of the campground! Signal Mountain Campground has 81 sites with 25 electric hook up sites, 1 RV site, and 4 tent only sites. All sites have fire rings, bear boxes, and picnic tables. There is cell phone service, flush toilets, a camp store, coin operated showers, trash/recycling, laundry, a restaurant near the lodge, and a gas station. We booked our site 6 months in advance.
During our mid May visit the campground still had a good amount of snow, but luckily we were in a camper van so it didn’t affect us too much other than trying to use the firepit to cook. Additionally, we noticed the full campground was not open yet. We had site 13 which was on a hill and one we might not pick if we had the choice again. However, a short walk from our site was Jackson Lake with a good view the Teton Mountain Range.
Grand Teton Itinerary
We visited Grand Teton in mid May after camping in Yellowstone. Prior to our trip we had created a list of things we wanted to do and see, as well as reservations for dinner and a river float. We tried our best to leave some flexibility in our schedule. Unfortunately, the weather did ruin some of our plans, but it gave us more reasons to come back. We highly recommend checking out the NPS brochure map to help plan. It has all of the viewpoints, lakes, and hikes we did labeled. The full loop drive around the park is beautiful too!
Wednesday
On Wednesday we drove from Yellowstone National Park to Grand Teton National Park and arrived in the early afternoon. We first checked out our campsite before we headed to the visitor center at Jenny Lake. On our way to the visitor center we decided to take the Jenny Lake scenic drive. There are pull outs a long the way. We got out and took some photos. It’s worth the quick stop! At the visitor center we asked the park ranger about the trail conditions and if the boat that shuttles people across the lake was operating. Unfortunately, the Jenny Lake boat shuttle wasn’t running because there was too much snow on the other side of the lake, which changed our plans we had for Thursday.
Taggart Lake
The ranger told us that Taggart Lake Trail was pretty much clear of snow and it was on our list to do, so we drove to the Taggart Lake Trailhead and hiked to the lake. The trail does fork and there is an option to hike out to Bradley Lake. Because of the time and our plans to make dinner, we decided not to hike to Bradley Lake. There was still some snow on the trail, especially in the shaded parts of the trail, but we didn’t need our crampons for it. However, we didn’t do the loop because there was a lot more snow on the other side (west side) of the loop. We hiked to the bridge and then turned around. Overall, we recorded about 3.5 miles out and back.
Thursday
Thursday was Lauren’s 30th birthday! We originally had planned to take the boat shuttle across Jenny Lake to do some hiking. The Jenny Lake shuttle helps eliminate 6 miles of hiking. However, since it wasn’t operating we weren’t sure that we wanted to add the additional miles to our hike, especially since we knew the trails were still pretty snow covered. Instead we started the morning by eating breakfast at the restaurant at the Signal Mountain Lodge next to Signal Campground and then drove out to some of the viewpoints that we had on our list: Oxbow Bend, Snake River Overlook, and Schwabacher Landing.
Oxbow Bend Turnout
Snake River Overlook
Schwabacher Landing
Mormon Row
Jenny Lake
After the viewpoints we went to Jenny Lake to hike around the lake even though we knew we didn’t want to hike too far. As we were leaving Jenny Lake we overheard that you could still take the shuttle across the lake, but they just wouldn’t drop you off. It would be a 30 minute scenic shuttle for the same price as taking the orginal shuttle. We decided to do it and are happy we did! Being on the water was incredible. Our boat captain and tour guide shared some fun facts about the lake, the mountains, and the area in general.
Dinner in Jackson
We decided we wanted to cap off Lauren’s birthday with a nice dinner in Jackson. We splurged and got a reservation in advance at Snake River Grill. The food was phenomenal!! We highly suggest getting reservations as far in advance as possible or get on the waiting list for reservations like we did. After dinner we watched the sunset back in Grand Teton National Park.
Friday
Before our trip we had a friend recommend we do a float down the Snake River. It looked like a great time so we booked our reservation for Friday, thinking this experience would be the perfect way to end our time in Grand Teton National Park. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for us. Friday ended up being and extremely windy day with high wind gusts exceeding 50 miles per hour at times. We had an afternoon reservation so we went about our day hoping the float tour would not get cancelled. Unfortunately, we got the dreaded call that our tour was cancelled and we did not get to float the Snake River. We were going to tour with Barker Ewing Scenic Tours Inc., but they aren’t the only excursion company.
String Lake
River Float Time
We were supposed to be floating the Snake River during this time, but because that was canceled we filled the time with some other activities. We drove to the Jackson Hole resort area on the Moose – Wilson Road. This was a scenic drive that is pretty narrow and winding at times. There are hikes to do starting from this road as well as the the Laurance S Rockefeller Preserve, which we plan to visit next time. Some of the hikes to other lakes and locations within the mountain range were closed due to bear activity. Once in Jackson we visited the famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar before heading back to the national park to eat dinner at Dornans. After dinner we set out to see wildlife at dusk!
Fossil Butte National Monument
Saturday & Sunday
That Saturday morning we left Grand Teton with the intention of driving about 10 hours to Kanab, Utah. On the way to Kanab we stopped at Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming about 3 hours from Grand Teton National Park. We always like to stop at National Monuments if we can! This one is known as America’s Aquarium in Stone and has one of the largest deposits of fossils and some of the best preserved in the country. Admittedly, this stop was way more interesting than we anticipated. We really enjoyed it!
On Sunday morning we were up early and started the final leg of our journey back to the Phoenix Area, about 5.5 hours from Kanab.
