How To Spend 2 Days In Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton showcases everything a national park should have: stunning sunrise and sunset photo spots, scenic hikes, mountains and lakes, freely roaming wildlife, elevated viewpoints and a fantastic nearby town to use as a base. Trust us, it’s just as amazing as it sounds. And the best part is that planning a great itinerary for Grand Teton is so much easier than for nearby Yellowstone because it’s a lot smaller and easier to visit.

In this guide we walk you through the perfect 2 days in Grand Teton itinerary, based on our experiences.

Our Experience

Immediately after finishing a seriously action packed 4 days in Yellowstone itinerary in October 2019, we drove south for the Tetons. We were tired and running on fumes, but very excited to see what Grand Teton would bring. And it ended up being two of our all-time favorite days since we began traveling the world in 2018. The rugged snow capped Teton Mountains and picture-perfect glacial lakes instantly reenergized us, and we were ready to go.

We spent our two days exploring from dawn to dusk with our old but trusty Sony a-6000 camera. For us, Grand Teton is among the most visually spectacular landscapes in America, and we’ve seen a lot of the country. But our favorite thing about the Tetons was how calm, relaxing and peaceful it was. Especially after just leaving the Yellowstone theme park. We love Grand Teton, there’s just something extra special about it. Read more about us.

Park Information

• Website: nps.gov/grte
• Hours: All day, every day
• Fees: $35/vehicle
• Backcountry camping: Allowed with permit
• Accommodation: Cabins, lodges, campgrounds
• Annual visitors: ~3.5 million
• Peak season: July and August
• Airports: Jackson Hole, Salt Lake City
• Size: 310,000 million acres

Grand Teton is open year round, but the main visiting season is from the beginning of May to the end of October when most roads through the park are clear of snow. Entry to Grand Teton costs $35 for a 7-day pass, which covers a vehicle and all passengers. Alternatively, you can gain free entry with an America the Beautiful Pass.

Is 2 Days Enough Time In Grand Teton?

The first thing you need to decide is how many days you’ll spend in Grand Teton. It might depend on factors like how many days you have off work, your travel budget, how you want to split your time between Yellowstone and Grand Teton, or even what time of year you’re visiting because of availability or cost at hotels.

But to answer the question: based on our own experience we think 2 days is the perfect amount of time for a first visit to Grand Teton National Park.

Here’s the way we see it:

1 day – You absolutely can tick off the top attractions and sights in a day but it will be rushed, and you’ll only have one sunrise and sunset to enjoy. Later in the guide we’ll show you the best way to see Grand Teton in one day.

2 days – With two full days you can see everything at a slow and relaxing pace, watch two sunrises and two sunsets, and maybe even hike a longer trail because you have the time.

3 days – We love the Tetons but we easily saw everything in two days, so the only reason we’d stay longer would be to take on additional hikes. If you only have a few days available for your trip and you want to see Yellowstone too, stick to two days in Grand Teton.

Logistics

We’ll keep this short but it’s important to know how logistics at Grand Teton can impact your itinerary:

Airports – Jackson Hole Airport is located inside Grand Teton National Park, so it’s incredibly convenient. There aren’t a huge amount of direct flight routes but you could change through somewhere like Denver or Salt Lake City from your origin airport. Speaking of Salt Lake City, it’s also the closest major international airport to Grand Teton. Here are the closest airports to Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

Driving – Jackson WY is only 12 miles from Grand Teton. It has plenty of hotels and restaurants, and it’s easy to get into the park’s top sunrise photo spots like Mormon Row and Schwabacher Landing. Salt Lake City is 290 miles away, and West Thumb Geyser Basin in the far south of Yellowstone is just 45 miles from the north end of Teton Road.

Roads – The main road running through the park is open year round, but Teton Road is only open between the beginning of May and the end of October each year. If you visit Grand Teton between November and April, you can’t drive to Jenny Lake or Signal Mountain. Also, the road connecting Yellowstone to Grand Teton is only open between early May and the end of October.

• Grand Teton: Road openings and closures
• Yellowstone: Road openings and closures

Things You Can’t Miss In Grand Teton

The last thing we’ll talk about before getting into the itinerary examples is what you can’t miss when you visit Grand Teton for the first time. We always start by looking at things we want to see or do in a new place because it helps us create a more efficient itinerary.

Here’s what you can’t miss:

• Sunrise or sunset at Mormon Row
• Sunrise at Schwabacher Landing
• Snake River Overlook
• Oxbow Bend
• Signal Mountain Summit Road
• String Lake
• Jenny Lake
• Inspiration Point hike (moderate)
• Cascade Canyon hike (hard)
• Chapel of the Transfiguration

You might be wondering how it’s possible to fit all that into 2 days? Well, take it from us, it’s perfectly doable. In fact, you’ll easily see all those places at a relaxing pace if you follow our itinerary below.

2 Days In Grand Teton Itinerary

For the purposes of this main itinerary example, we’re going to assume you have two full days available for Grand Teton and that you’re staying at a hotel in Jackson, Wyoming. Afterwards we’ll show you a summarized version as though you’re coming down from Yellowstone or staying in accommodation around Colter Bay or Moran. Let’s begin!

Day 1

Check sunrise times at your Jackson hotel the night before beginning your first day. Grab a coffee in the hotel lobby, and don’t forget a packed lunch with plenty of snacks and fluids (which you should also sort out the day before). Hit the road and arrive at Mormon Row at least 30 minutes before sunrise. We think T.A. Moulton Barn is more photogenic, so we recommend driving straight to its small parking area on Gros Venture Road.

Getting up early might not sound like fun, but you’ll thank us when you’re looking at one of the most striking sunrise scenes in the US. When you’re ready, drive up to see John Moulton Homestead, then head north to Glacier View Turnout to enjoy amazing views of the Teton Range. Next up is Teton Point Overlook, followed by Snake River Overlook, Elk Ranch Flats and eventually Oxbow Bend. You could put any of these viewpoints on a postcard.

Turn onto Teton Park Road and grab lunch at Trapper Grill before heading up the twisting road to Signal Mountain. Start at the very top with far reaching views over flat plains, then make sure you park on the tight U-bend near the summit to walk a short way down to Jackson Point Overlook. Next, stop at all the turnouts as you head southeast before turning onto Jenny Lake Road.

Spend a few minutes walking around String Lake, then head down to Jenny Lake Overlook which is one of our favorite photo spots in the park. It’ll be getting later in the afternoon by now, so leave Jenny Lake for tomorrow and drive south so you can see the incredible view of mountains through a window inside the Chapel of the Transfiguration. We recommend finishing with sunset back at Mormon Row and then head back to Jackson for dinner and drinks.

Day 2

Get another early start, grab your snacks and fluids, then drive to Schwabacher Landing. Make sure you arrive at least 30 minutes before sunrise so you can find the perfect spot on the banks of the Snake River. This is the other unmissable sunrise spot in the park, and trust us when we tell you they’re both worth making the effort. After sunrise it’s time to spend the day around Jenny Lake.

Drive the other way back up Teton Park Road and pull into the large parking area next to Jenny Lake Visitor Center. Change into your hiking gear, and fill a day pack with snacks and water. You can either walk around the southwest side of Jenny Lake or take a shuttle boat to reach Inspiration Point, Hidden Falls and Cascade Canyon Trailhead. Taking the boat will save 2 miles of walking each way, and you pay for the shuttle right at the boat dock in person.

Once you arrive on the west side of Jenny Lake, hike up to see the 100 ft tall Hidden Falls cascade, then continue up to Inspiration Point for a wonderful elevated view. Are you a strong hiker? If so, you should continue hiking into Cascade Canyon because it has some of the best scenery in the park and you have a better chance of seeing wildlife.

After the hike (no matter how far you went), head back to the visitor center area. You can either relax on the shores, swim in the lake, do some stand up paddle-boarding or rent a kayak and take it out into the lake. There’s a high-end place to eat at Jenny Lake Lodge but it’s quite expensive, so you could always drive up to Trapper Grill again instead. After Jenny Lake, we recommend heading to your favorite viewpoint in the park for sunset before ending in Jackson.

Itinerary Map

Click or touch the map below to activate. Zoom in and out, move around the map and you’ll find icons for each of the places covered in our itinerary above. You can also click on the view larger map icon in the top right to expand the map, which makes it much easier to see.

Map key:

• Orange – Day 1 attractions
• Purple – Day 2 attractions

We know the map makes it look like day 1 has way more going on (technically it does!) but that’s because each place is easy to visit directly by car. Whereas the hike on day 2 will eat up a lot of your time.

What If You Enter From Yellowstone?

If you’re driving down from Yellowstone to enter Grand Teton (like we did), you’re going to have to adapt your itinerary. We recommend leaving Yellowstone by 10:00am at the latest so you have at least one and a half days in Grand Teton. Here’s how we would do 2 days in Grand Teton entering around midday from the north side:

Day 1

• Signal Mountain
• String Lake
• Jenny Lake Overlook
• Chapel of the Transfiguration
• Mormon Row sunset

Day 2

• Mormon Row or Schwabacher Landing sunrise
• Snake River Overlook
• Oxbow Bend
• Hike to Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point and Cascade Canyon
• Relax around Jenny Lake
• Sunset at Schwabacher Landing

One Day Grand Teton Itinerary

What should you prioritize on your itinerary if you only have one day in Grand Teton?

The answer depends entirely on how you prefer to travel. If you enjoy hiking, we don’t think you should cut the hike to Cascade Canyon because it’s pretty amazing. Whereas if you enjoy photography, you absolutely should not miss Mormon Row and Schwabacher Landing.

Here’s a summarized look at how we would try to cram in as much as possible into one full day in the park:

• Mormon Row sunrise
• Straight to Schwabacher Landing
• Snake River Overlook
• Oxbow Bend
• Drive up Signal Mountain
• Park at Jenny Lake
• Hike into Cascade Canyon
• Sunset at Mormon Row

That would a long but awesome day hitting the top viewpoints, best photo spots and major hiking trail. If you’re not a hiker, you can go slower and stop at more overlooks. If you’re not bothered about photography, sleep in and save your energy for the hike.

Where To Stay

The place you stay will have a bearing on how you plan your Grand Teton itinerary. If you choose to stay in a park lodge near Colter Bay or Moran, you’ll start and end your day north of the park. Whereas you’ll start and end your day south of the park if you stay at a hotel in Jackson or Teton Village.

Personally, we thought Jackson was a fantastic place to stay for visiting the Tetons. Jackson has a wide range of lodging options from budget to expensive and from private log cabins to swanky hotel rooms. We also liked having lots of options for breakfast and dinner. Plus, there were lots of grocery stores where we could buy supplies to take into the park for lunch.

Here are our top rated Jackson hotels:

• Cowboy Village Resort
• Elk Country Inn
• Wyoming Inn

Would you rather stay inside the park? Here are your options:

• Jackson Lake Lodge
• Colter Bay Village
• Signal Mountain Lodge
• Jenny Lake Lodge

And finally, here are our top recommendations for Teton Village:

• The Alpenhof
• Teton Mountain Lodge

Best Time To Visit Grand Teton

Grand Teton’s roads and hiking trails are all open in summer and fall. But July and August are the two busiest months in the park, so we think the second half of May, June, September and October are the best times of year to visit.

We visited Grand Teton in October and we have to say we think it could be the best month of all. We benefited from more hotel availability and cheaper prices, no lines for restaurants, later sunrises and earlier sunsets, subtle fall foliage colors, no traffic in the park and nobody else on hiking trails or at photo spots. It was like we had this incredible landscape almost to ourselves.

Personally, we would try to avoid July and August if possible because that’s when the park is overcrowded and hotels are most expensive. But we know families might have no other choice. Our best advice is to book your accommodation as far in advance as possible, no matter when you visit. And further, we also recommend booking restaurant reservations if you visit in the summer.

The Morgan Conclusion

What we like: Grand Teton is one of our personal favorite national parks. We love travel photography, so it’s like an adventure playground for us. But the thing we like most about Grand Teton is how easy it is to see the highlights in just two days. It’s not overwhelming like Yellowstone.

What we don’t like: There’s really not much we dislike about Grand Teton. We do know the park gets incredibly busy in July and August, and in those two months the park’s small size probably becomes a negative because the top attractions will be jam-packed. The roads will also bottleneck and parking will be an issue.

Is Grand Teton worth it? Yes, Grand Teton is definitely worth visiting! Everywhere you look is worthy of a magazine front cover. And it has a wide range of activities that are perfect for the whole family including photography, hiking, sunrises and sunsets, boating and camping.

More From Grand Teton

• Mormon Row sunrise photography
• Sunrise at Schwabacher Landing
• Where to stay in Jackson WY
• Visiting Yellowstone for the first time
• Mt Rushmore to Yellowstone and Grand Teton
• Salt Lake City to Yellowstone and Grand Teton

Want more Wyoming content? Head over to our Wyoming Travel Guides to explore Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park and beyond. 

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We hope our Grand Teton itinerary ideas help with planning your visit to Wyoming!

Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.

Happy Travels,

Mark and Kristen

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