Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton doesn't foothill its way up to the good part. The range rises directly from the valley floor with nothing to soften the transition — the highest peaks top 13,000 feet straight out of a valley that sits around 6,800 feet at Jenny Lake, one of the starkest mountain walls in the Lower 48. The park pairs that skyline with some of the most reliable wildlife-watching in the Rockies — moose in the willow flats, elk on the valley floor, both black and grizzly bears present — and it's also one of the easiest big mountain landscapes in the country to actually reach: Jackson Hole Airport is the only commercial airport located within a U.S. national park.

Peak season is July and August — warm days, full wildflower bloom, and the busiest trailheads and parking lots of the year. September is the park's other high point: aspen turning gold, elk bugling on the valley floor, and noticeably thinner crowds than midsummer. June is a good middle ground for the lower lakeshore trails, but the high passes — Paintbrush Divide among them — often hold snow into July, so don't plan a big alpine loop that early without checking current conditions. Winter (November–March) turns the valley into a different kind of destination: the park's own trails go quiet under snow while Jackson Hole's ski resorts carry the tourism season instead.

Two roads run the length of the valley on either side of the Snake River: US-89/191/26 along the east side links the entrances and gateway towns directly, while the Teton Park Road hugs the base of the range on the west side, closer to the mountains and the main trailheads (Taggart Lake, Jenny Lake, Signal Mountain). Moose-Wilson Road is the slow, scenic back way between Moose and Teton Village — narrow, partly unpaved, and closed to RVs and trailers longer than 23.3 ft (280 in). All three have seasonal margins that shift from year to year with plowing and construction — nps.gov/grte is the only source worth trusting for exact dates on a given trip. Inside the Jenny Lake corridor, the optional shuttle boat (see the note below) is the other way to get around — privately run, not part of the park's own transit.

Grand Teton has gone cashless: as of May 1, 2026, entrance stations accept only electronic payment — bring a card, not bills. The standard 7-day pass is $35 per vehicle ($30 motorcycle, $20 per person on foot or bike). Since January 1, 2026, non-US residents aged 16 and older also owe an additional $100 nonresident fee per person, on top of the regular entrance fee, unless covered by an annual or America the Beautiful pass.

Unlike Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Teton runs no timed-entry or vehicle reservation system for the 2026 season — nothing on the park's own fees or FAQ pages mentions one, and there's no Recreation.gov step to enter by car. The one reservation that does matter here is for backcountry camping: a permit is required for any night spent outside a campground, a third of sites (plus all group sites) can be booked in advance starting January 10 on Recreation.gov, and it's first-come, first-served rather than a lottery. The rest are held for walk-up requests at a park permit office no more than a day ahead.

Most of the park's best-known day hikes share one starting point: the Jenny Lake area on the west side of the valley. From there, trails fan out to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point — a short, steep climb to an overlook — and further on into Cascade Canyon beneath the Cathedral Group of peaks. A privately run shuttle boat crosses the lake and can cut miles off any of the three; the distances curated on this site are the ones that hold if you walk the shore instead, so a shoulder-season visitor who finds the boat not running still gets the honest number, not the shortcut. Taggart Lake and the String Lake Loop, on the south and north ends of the same corridor, are shorter, flatter, and don't depend on the boat at all. For a full day, the Paintbrush Canyon–Cascade Canyon Loop climbs over Paintbrush Divide above 10,700 ft — spectacular, genuinely strenuous, and best left until the divide has lost its snowpack, typically not before July.

The Teton Range is one of the youngest mountain ranges in the Rockies, built from some of the oldest rock in North America: gneiss dated to 2.7 billion years old makes up much of the range, intruded by granite that began forming around 2.5 billion years ago. The rock is almost incomprehensibly old; the mountain shape wearing it is almost the opposite — geologically speaking, barely out of adolescence.

That shape comes from the Teton Fault, a normal fault running roughly 40 miles (70 km) north–south along the range's eastern base. Movement on it has simultaneously lifted the Tetons and dropped the valley floor of Jackson Hole, and the two together now add up to more than 6,900 feet of relief — most of the visible wall of the range is the fault's doing. Around 775 million years ago, an earlier period of regional stretching cracked the range's core rock and filled the cracks with basaltic magma; one of the resulting diabase dikes, cutting across the face of Mount Moran, is 150 feet wide — enough rock, in the park's own words, to fill Jenny Lake three times over if it were ever melted back down.

The fault is still active. NPS geologists put its maximum earthquake potential at magnitude 7.0–7.5, based on evidence of three major ruptures roughly 5,900, 8,000 and 10,000 years ago — each one moving the ground about 10 feet in a single event (2–3 ft up on the range side, 4–6 ft down on the valley side). Over the fault's full 10-million-year history, that adds up to an estimated 25,000-plus feet of total offset — far more than the range's current relief, because erosion has been cutting the peaks down for the same 10 million years.

The Jenny Lake corridor is the easiest place to bring kids: String Lake has a genuine swimming beach with warm shallows by midsummer, Taggart Lake is a manageable there-and-back with a real payoff at the end, and the shuttle boat (when it's running) turns Hidden Falls into a short outing for smaller legs. None of the trails curated on this site are stroller-friendly — expect dirt, roots and lakeshore rock even on the easiest ones — so a framed carrier is the more realistic option below trail-walking age. Ranger-led programs run out of the Jenny Lake, Colter Bay and Craig Thomas visitor centers through the summer; check whichever is closest to where you're staying.

Grand Teton's pet policy is strict and applies park-wide: pets are prohibited on every trail, in the backcountry, on the shores, and swimming in park waters, full stop — there's no "day hike with the dog" option here. What's left is developed campgrounds, picnic areas, turnouts, and the roads themselves (on a 6-ft leash, kept within 30 ft of the roadway). The one real exception is oddly specific: pets may ride along in boats on Jackson Lake — the only water in the park where that's allowed.

Plan for veterinary care before you need it, not during it. Jackson has no overnight or emergency animal hospital — the town's clinic, VCA Spring Creek Animal Care Hospital, keeps standard daytime hours and refers after-hours emergencies onward. The nearest true 24-hour veterinary ER is Viking Veterinary Hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho — about 90 miles away, over Teton Pass, a drive that gets meaningfully harder in winter weather. For boarding, VCA Happy Tails Pet Resort shares Spring Creek's building and front desk in Jackson.

Moose are the signature sighting — willow flats near Jackson Lake and the shoreline around String and Jenny Lakes are reliable spots — alongside elk on the valley floor and both black and grizzly bears, which the park's own trail pages note are seen on trails and in developed areas around Jenny Lake, not just deep backcountry. Carry bear spray and know how to use it; this is grizzly country, not a hypothetical. Higher up, Cascade Canyon's alpine reaches are pika habitat — small, vocal, and active in the boulder fields well above the lake corridor. Whatever you see, the rule is the same everywhere in the park: view from a vehicle or a safe distance, and never approach for a photo.

Fishing is regulated under Wyoming state law, not a separate NPS permit system like nearby Yellowstone — a Wyoming fishing license is required, purchasable in the park at Flagg Ranch, Colter Bay Marina or Signal Mountain Lodge, or online in advance. The Snake River's native cutthroat trout carry a seasonal protection: any cutthroat caught in the Snake River between November 1 and March 31 must be released immediately. General creel limits run six trout a day in lakes (no more than three cutthroat, at most one over 12 inches) and three trout a day in streams (at most one over 16 inches, at most one cutthroat over 12 inches) — check the current regulations before keeping anything, since these are exactly the kind of numbers that get revised season to season.

None of the trails curated on this site are paved or wheelchair-accessible — this is a natural-surface trail system throughout, with roots, rock and lakeshore gravel even on the shortest options. The Jenny Lake shuttle boat is privately operated, not run by the park — call the concessioner ahead for current accessibility accommodations before counting on it. Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center at Moose, and the visitor centers at Jenny Lake and Colter Bay, are standard accessible buildings with accessible parking and restrooms.

Bears are the headline risk, and a real one: both grizzly and black bears are common enough that the park's own pages say to expect them on trails and in developed areas around Jenny Lake, not just deep backcountry. Carry bear spray, know how to use it before you need it, and store food properly at every campsite and trailhead, every time.

Cold water is the quieter risk. The Snake River and the park's lakes are snowmelt-fed and stay dangerously cold well into summer — currents that look calm on the surface can be much faster underneath, and cold water saps swimming strength within minutes. Keep children within reach at the water's edge and treat wet rock as slippery, always.

Afternoon thunderstorms build fast over the range in summer, especially July and August — start early, get off exposed ridgelines and summits (Paintbrush Divide included) by early afternoon, and don't wait for the first thunderclap to turn around. Cell coverage is unreliable to absent on the trail corridors — download maps and tell someone your plan before you lose signal in town.

7 trails, each with its own page — distance, elevation gain, water and restroom data where the park publishes it. Taggart Lake is the first in the table above.

Paintbrush Canyon–Cascade Canyon Loop — 4,480 ft of gain over 19.9 miles. Gain is what decides how hard a day feels; the mileage on its own is the number that misleads people.

Grand Teton National Park grades D on our A–D pet-policy scale. Dogs are restricted to paved roads, campgrounds and parking areas — almost no trails. Leashes (6 ft max) are required everywhere.

Our age-rated trails here start at 5+, and 5 of them suit kids 8 and under.

Jackson Hole Airport (JAC) — the only commercial airport located within a U.S. national park.

Yes — 3 official National Park Service webcams are embedded on this page, so you can see the conditions before you drive.