Grand Teton National Park is so beautiful with the alpine mountains reflecting onto all the bodies of water around it. The colors are different shades of blues, greens, and browns and make for some truly awesome photos! Grand Teton has over 200-miles of trails to hike, walk, or bike, or you can raft down the Snake River. There is definitely something for everyone to see at Grand Teton NPS.
Grand Teton National Park
We spent just one day here and wish we had more time because there is so much to see. If you only have one day to see Grand Teton NPS, then you may want to plan ahead. Check out the NPS website or download the app to find the perfect hikes, drives, or sight-seeing tours. We found the “Behind the Lens” driving tour on the National Park Service app that could be completed in our limited time. This tour is a great way to see many important and popular sights at Grand Teton, but we recommend following it in the reverse order. When we got to our final destination at Jenny Lake & Inspiration Point, it was so overcrowded and too late in the day that we couldn't do the boat ride or hike to Inspiration Point.
Highway 89/126/191
The beginning of our tour to see Grand Teton NPS started on this road. This highway is technically outside the park and leads just outside Moose to Jackson Lake Junction. It runs parallel (in a roundabout way) to Teton Park Road. There are many sights, overlooks, and spots to visit along this road and you get a wider view of the mountains from here. Highly recommend this road, if only for the views along the drive.
View along the highway.
Teton Park Road
The Teton Park Road is a paved road that follows the base of the Teton Range from Moose to Jackson Lake Junction. It is 20-miles long and has many sights, overlooks, and pullouts along it. This is an extremely popular road to travel so I recommend starting early as parking along the road will become quite crowded.
Schwabacher Landing
Schwabacher Landing is a great place to get the perfect photo of the Teton Mountain Range reflecting in the Snake River. There is a meandering dirt trail that follows along the river to a beaver dam and the views from there are simply amazing. We also found quite a bit of wildlife such as ground squirrels, turtles, and fish. And caught a duck doing a long landing in the river. Check out the snow-capped peaks reflecting in the water.
Schwabacher Landing
Snake River Overlook
Another spot on the tour to see Grand Teton NPS is the Snake River Overlook. This is where Ansel Adams photographed the famous view of the Teton Mountain Range and the Snake River. This popular spot is just off Teton Park Road and it has plenty of parking. Try to recreate Ansel Adam's photo like I did below. What do you think? The land around the Snake River has grown in the years since the photo but it is still a magnificent place!
Snake River Overlook: My Version of Ansel Adams Photo
Oxbow Bend Turnout
This stop is a great place to view wildlife because the animals come to the bend in the Snake River to eat. You may spy moose, beaver, large birds, otters, and many other animals…if you get here early! This is yet another place to capture those reflection pictures because of the awesome views of the Teton Mountains reflecting in the Snake River.
Oxbow Bend Overlook
Jackson Lake Overlook
Another beautiful overlook…are you seeing that Grand Teton NPS is full of awe-inspiring views? This is a stop along the eastern shore of Jackson Lake on the John D. Rockefeller Highway. From here you can view the Teton Mountain Range all around the lake. You can also get a bite to eat at nearby Colter Bay.
Colter Bay has a variety of things to do. There are restaurants with delicious food, a visitor center, camp store, gift shop, and a place to rent water equipment. You can also moor your boat here but I imagine it's pricy to rent dock space. And did I mention the views from the shore? Amazing!
Jackson Lake
Signal Mountain Summit Road
This narrow, winding road goes up 800 feet and has the most beautiful panoramic views of the Teton Range and Jackson Hole. The road is 5-miles long and due to the narrowness, trailers and RVs are not allowed on it. If you have a bigger vehicle, be aware that this is usually a very popular drive and parking is limited and there is very little space to turn around in. When you get to the top, a small walk will take you to an overlook with 360-degree views of the area. Beautiful wildflowers, rivers, mountains, and so much more can be seen here. The drive up and down is also magnificent.
Signal Mountain Summit Road
Jenny Lake Overlook & Inspiration Point
Our last stop of the day was at Jenny Lake and Inspiration Point which happens to be the most popular destination to see in Grand Teton NPS. Despite planning ahead, we did not know this. We realized as we pulled into the parking lot that we may have made an error in judgment by ending the drive here. We drove around the parking lot a few times looking for a spot. When we finally found one, we headed to the Jenny Lake Visitor Center to find out about the boat ride to Inspiration Point.
Jenny Lake
There are two ways to get to Inspiration Point. You can hike 6-miles roundtrip or you can take the shuttle boat across the lake. It was too late in the day for us to complete the hike and the line for the boat was extremely long. We still had a 2-hour drive back to our RV park so we decided to visit Inspiration Point on our next visit in the future. We did have time for a walk along the multi-purpose trail from the Visitor Center to the Lupin Meadows. It's a very nice, paved trail for hiking, walking, and biking and has many different trails leading off of it.
Grand Teton National Park
Go to Grand Teton NPS!
Whether you have a day or a week to visit, this magnificent national park is the place to go. The beautiful views, hiking, biking, and much more are worth taking the time to see Grand Teton NPS.
Wasatch
Oct 19, 2021 at 22:53
Generally good advice for a one day visit, but we have spent months vacationing in or near the Tetons, and here are some points where I disagree: 1] there are 3 roads leading to Teton NP. It appears they came from the south. That’s the worst option. South from Yellowstone is best.
2] Our must see view points are Oxbow Bend (recommend in the Tip) and Mt Moran Overlook
3] Best view of Jackson Lake is from the restaurant in the Jackson Lake Lodge.