Grand Teton
National Park

Established in 1929, Grand Teton National Park includes the Teton Range and the northern part of the valley known as Jackson Hole with the Snake River running the length of the Park. The centerpiece of the Park is Jackson Lake. Park fauna includes moose, bears, cougars, bison, pronghorn, big horn sheep, eagles, owls,  trout, and many others. 

The Park-to-Park Tour will visit Grand Teton for parts of four days. Planned highlights include, sunrise at Signal Mountain, exploring the Laurence S. Rockefeller Preserve, visiting the “big four” man-made attractions (including John Moulton Barn pictured above), hiking near Jenny lake, horseback riding, and a rafting trip on the Snake River. 

Read our blog post on Grand Teton

Itinerary

We are presenting our itinerary as we lived it. Not the plan, but rather what we were actually able to accomplish. Naturally there are some missed goals and some serendipitous surprises. We always rolled with the punches and made the best out of our time in the national parks. Below we have included some notes that explain how the itinerary changed from what we had in mind. 

It’s important to know that these plans were made to suit the abilities and interests of two young girls aged 9 and 11. We feel confident that any family on their “Every Kid Outdoors Summer” (4th grade) could handle this itinerary. For hikes, we have listed the distance, elevation gain, and time that we tracked, which may differ from published (or actual) measurements. 

Day 1

Morning & Afternoon

  • Driving from Rocky Mountain National Park

Evening

  • Sunset photos and wildlife viewing from US-191

  • Overnight at Gros Ventre Campground

Day 2

Morning

  • Hike: Phelps Lake (7.0 miles, 627 feet, 4 hours)

Afternoon

  • Lunch in Jackson

  • Mormon Row / John Moulton Barn

  • Glacier View Turnout

  • Schwabacher Landing

  • Snake River Overlook

Evening

  • Dinner at camp

  • Overnight at Colter Bay Campground

Day 3 

Morning   

  • Jenny Lake Visitor Center

  • Jenny Lake Shuttle

  • Hidden Falls

  • Inspiration Point (Lunch)

Afternoon

  • Hike: Cascade Canyon (6.6 miles, 900 feet, 5 hours)

  • Return via Jenny Lake Shuttle

 Evening

  • Laundry

  • Dinner at camp

  • Overnight at Colter Bay

Day 4  

Morning   

  • Horseback ride from Colter Bay Village Corals

  • Lunch on Jackson Lake at Colter Bay swimming beach

Afternoon 

  • Depart for Yellowstone

Notes

The main deterrent to maintaining our Grand Teton itinerary was smoke from wild fires that obscured the views. There are so many famous view points in along the eastern part of the park that offer amazing vistas of the Teton Range. We stopped at many of them, and while they were beautiful in their own right, they weren’t always the visages we were seeking. That allowed us a bit more time on day 2 to explore Jackson. 

We also had designs on renting a boat on Lake Jackson. Two things stood in our way. The first was time, and the second was limited boating options because of local drought conditions.  Otherwise, we pretty much followed our plan at Grand Teton.

 

< Previous National Park

Next National Park >