Road Duchess' One Day Guide to the Grand Tetons National Park
- Cassandra Richerson
- Aug 11, 2023
- 3 min read
The perfect one day itinerary!
Grand Teton National Park is fairly large but nothing compared to Yellowstone just north of it. You would probably want to do at least a couple days in the park, but if you had only one you could still have a stellar day. Let me start by saying the Tetons are stunning! If you have never been I highly recommend making your way, you will NOT be disappointed.
Starting from the town of Jackson, WY which is just a few miles south of the park, you will head in to the park. Moose Junction is where you'll turn in and there is a great visitor center there called the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center. It's awesome and you'll def want to stop here. Check out this quick vid for a glimpse to what it looks like!
Once you're done with the visitor center with your maps and info (and if you're anything like us, tons of souvenirs) in hand you'll make your way back to your car and head up to the Colter Bay Village. Go into the visitor center and Indian Arts Museum. Once you're done with that have a picnic lunch on the shore of Jackson Lake. There are plenty of picnic tables to choose from. Stick your feet in the water (or don't) but do enjoy the views. Seriously one of the most scenic picnics we've had to date.
After your picnic is packed safely in your vehicle (remember bear safety!), put your hiking boots on and hit the Lakeshore Trail. It's about 2.5 miles and will take a little less than an hour to complete. It's easy and scenic and the perfect way to walk off lunch before getting in the car again.
Upon completion of your hike, make your way back to your vehicle and head back south towards the Jenny Lake scenic drive. It is one way for vehicular traffic so you will enter in the north entrance to begin. About halfway you will come to the lookout. This is a great place to stop and enjoy the scenery, take some pics, stretch your legs a bit. If you have time and energy and want to do another hike the popular Hidden Falls hike is a great option. It's about a 5 mile loop and is moderately challenging. If you prefer to cut some of that hiking off you can take the Jenny Lake Boat Shuttle but it's usually a long line (1-2 hrs wait there and back) there is also a $20 fee pp to consider in your budget.
The Jenny Lake Visitor Center is a central hub to the park. I recommend stopping here for a snack at the shop, we enjoyed some huckleberry ice cream. This was the busiest visitor center in the park by far but had a lot of amenities and is a great place to rest up for a bit if you did the hidden falls trail especially.
After Jenny Lake you have a couple options depending on what you want to see. If you want expansive sunset views of the valley (and the range to an extent but a lot of it is blocked by trees) head up to Signal Mountain and you will have an excellent view of the entire valley. Take a drink of your choice and some snacks and enjoy a little evening picnic to round off the day. If you want to see the iconic barns head south to Mormon Row where you can see all of them and photograph to your hearts content. It's also a beautiful view of the range at sunset.
After your long day in the park you have two options for the drive back into Jackson (assuming you're staying there of course). One way is the way you came in, the main road. The other one (which I recommend) is a narrow windy road that takes you thru Teton Village before heading back to Jackson. This road called the Moose-Wilson Rd is aptly named because we saw several moose including a mama and her calf on this road, like right next to the road. It's a great drive and perfect for some evening wildlife viewing. We saw more wildlife here than anywhere else in the park and it's only about 15 min longer than taking the main valley road.
We have loved our time in the Tetons. All in all we'll do about 4 days total in the park spread out over 2 weeks time. The beauty of being a nomad is that we can extend our stay to what best accommodates our needs and preferences. There are a ton of amazing boondocking sites near the Tetons, maybe I'll do a separate post on that if anyone is interested? Comment below!
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