Grand Teton National Park + Jackson, Wyoming Photo Diary + Travel Guide

A bit late but I’m back with the final National Park of our most recent journey. After spending a few days at Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park we headed to Grand Teton National Park and Jackson, Wyoming.
I’ll admit, I did not even really realize where Grand Teton was until I saw a map, but since it is just south of Yellowstone we knew we had to go. I can’t really play favorites since all the parks are different, but Grand Teton is full of lakes and I absolutely love being on bodies of water. Bonus points if it’s a crystal clear lake. And double bonus points if it’s an amazing glacial lake you have to hike to.

Grand Teton is smaller than both Yellowstone and Glacier, but because of it’s proximity Jackson, WY and the surrounding areas you could EASILY spend a week there. There are paved biking trails, boat rentals, kayak rentals and more for the summer. And in the winter… I mean Jackson Hole is one of the top ski resorts in the country. It is an area I absolutely want to return to one day. Hopefully more than one (summer trip and winter trip haha).

We visited Grand Teton National Park from Tuesday, September 29th through Thursday, October 1st. We flew out of Jackson on Friday, October 2nd, but stayed in town that morning and didn’t head back into the park. The weather was absolutely amazing. I wore shorts part of the time and we had clear blue skies, which was quite the relief after our time in Glacier NP.

For accommodations – our rental was actually on the other side of the Teton Range, in Alta, WY. About 5 miles from Driggs, ID. We chose it for the amazing wall of windows and so we could watch the sun rise over the mountains! We also took full advantage of the ability to do laundry because neither of our previous rentals had that. This is the link if you’re interested!

Anyway, let’s dive in:
As I shared, Grand Teton is directly south of Yellowstone, so on our final half day at Yellowstone we drove to Grand Teton through the park. Even though they are literally NEXT to each other, they’re still so different (which is amazing). I had heard great things about Teton from a few friends so I was pumped. Not to mention one of our first views was yellow + orange foilage by Jackson Lake.

Day 1 in Grand Teton:

Day 1:
– enter park via North Entrance
– Jackson Lake + Jackson Lake Overlook
– drive along Jackson Lake south
– Jenny Lake – briefly explore
– FIND FOOD. Teton Thai for the win!
– head to rental (on other side of Teton Range – just outside Driggs, ID)

Funny story about our sign photo. We’re all standing there deciding if we prop the phone on a water bottle or ask a stranger during COVID to take a photo. While we’re bumbling, an older man walks up and goes “I know you want your photo taken, I got this!” So he takes “two for good measure.” We say thank you, take their photo and head back to the car. Guess what I got? A one second video 🙂 So here’s a screenshot of that video haha.

Jackson Lake was our first stop, and you can rent kayaks here and I am so sad we didn’t. Look at that water! As you drive further south in the park you run into the Teton Range. As you can see, the day we drove in the skies were blue and clouds were really awesome- almost gliding through the mountains. Straight up the Tetons ARE BEAUTIFUL.
Jenny Lake was also absolutely amazing. Like I said, I could’ve spent over a week hiking to mountain lakes and eating Teton Thai and I would’ve been the happiest.

One thing I enjoyed (and all the parks do this well) is having all different types of trails so more people can enjoy the parks. I get that not everyone wants to hike 16 miles. And the National Parks do a stellar job of making a lot of views accessible to different people. We looked at hikes from 2 to 20 miles so there is definitely variety.
Teton is different than some of other parks because Teton Village is right there, as well as Jackson right outside it. We had the best cell service as this park, as well as restaurant options (#bless). Plus, it was the only park we visited this year where I saw people running, walking, rollerblading and biking on flat paved paths throughout.

Day 2 in Grand Teton:

– Hike to Delta Lake via Lupine Meadows Access
– visit our favorite grocery store in Driggs, ID (haha)

We really only had time for one larger hike in Grand Teton. We wanted to do the hike to Lake Solitude, which is about 16 miles long BUT you usually take a boat across Jenny Lake to do so. If you don’t take the boat, you’re round trip is more like 20 miles. Due to COVID the boats at Jenny Lake had significantly shorter hours (10am-4pm) so we physically couldn’t hike it quick enough to make those times.
Instead we ended up doing a non-National Park sanctioned hike to Delta Lake (it is still super popular) and our round trip ended up being closer to 8.5/9.0 miles. Delta Lake had some significant elevation gain on the way up!

Delta Lake is an absolutely STUNNING glacial lake. Plus, you get views of Jenny Lake, Bradley Lake and Taggart Lake on the way up. To get there you start taking the park sanctioned trails from Lupine Meadows toward Surprise Lake + Amphitheater Lake, but then veer off to the right during that trail. It’s “marked” with rock piles haha. BUT Artur had downloaded a trail map and it showed where to turn. Plus, plenty of other people were hiking it and happy to direct us 🙂

The hike up required some scrambling over rocks which was fun, and we truly could not have asked for a better day. I started the hike in leggings and had to change into shorts about 1.5 miles in. All these photos are unedited from my iPhone, so in person this is even more stunning. It wild, because the part of the lake without sun was still frozen on top, and we literally saw people jump in to the other side!
Delta Lake is at about 9,000ish feet elevation. I think we gained about 2,500 feet on the 4 miles up.

Day 3 in Grand Teton:

– watched the sun rise (over the Teton Range) then left our AirBnB for the final time
– bagels by the water on the way in at Pearl Street Bagels
– started at the Laurance S Rockfeller preserve
– easy “hike” to Phelps Lake
– headed into Jackson, stayed at a hotel there for final night
– late lunch at Merry Piglets
– walked around and checked out shops
– ice cream for dinner because #adulting

Our final full day of the trip started with watching the sunrise over the Tetons before packing up and heading out of the rental. We stopped to get bagels at Pearl Street Bagel on our way in to the park, and they have the cutest area in the back with picnic tables on a river. Bagels with a view.

By day 9 of the trip we were all starting to get a bit tired (definitely happened on our PNW adventure as well) so our final day was lower key. We did a very easy “hike” – more of a glorified walk – from the preserve to Phelps Lake. There is a 7 mile trail that goes around the lake, but we hung out there and explored for a while and didn’t really feel the need to do the whole trail. I think our round trip from the preserve to the lake and back was just over 3 miles.

If you can’t tell, I am completely obsessed with all of the lakes at Grand Teton. And we didn’t even see them all.

Our final night before flying out we stayed in a hotel in downtown Jackson to make life easier, so after Phelps Lake we were starving (what’s new?) we checked into the hotel, dropped our bags and headed out to find food. Plenty of restaurants had good reviews, and I really wanted to try this high end Mediterranean place, but they weren’t open at 3pm so we ended up eating a delicious feast from the Merry Piglets, a local Mexican spot. From there Artur headed back to the hotel because he had meetings, and Brendan and I wandered through Jackson. It’s not large, so we took our time strolling, popped in and out of stores, and learned more about real estate in Jackson (welcome to my life haha).

Jackson is a big vacation area + ski spot. (Jackson Hole resort) but it’s also out in Wyoming near the Idaho border, so we couldn’t figure out why homes were SO expensive. Turns out, 97% of the land in Teton County is federal and state protected land, and of that 3% left, the Jackson Hole Land Trust protects 25,000 acres of it. Therefore – only about 2% of land is available for development. Apparently in the summer some of the workers will camp out there because it’s so expensive. Not necessarily relevant to the park, but interesting information nonetheless!

Lastly, I wish I had a dinner recommendation for you but I’m going to be honest – we had ice cream for dinner. YEP. Moo’s Gourmet Ice Cream. It was bomb, would do it again.

Anyway, Grand Teton and Jackson were amazing. I hope to be able to return multiple times in the future. Our country is SO STINKING beautiful. If you’ve ever thought about heading out to Montana, Idaho or Wyoming – DO IT. You won’t regret. As always, if you’re still here thanks for reading! Hopefully this blog post can be helpful to you!

Lastly, if you’re a national park fan like myself and able to, consider donating to The National Park Fund, or a specific park yourself. We want to be able to keep these parks preserved and available to all 🙂

I made a $75 donation tonight because I’m so grateful we have them.

xo, Maddy

Planning a National Park trip? Make sure to pin this post for later.

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