How to Roadtrip Through Yellowstone and Grand Teton In 4 Days
This itinerary assumes that you kind of know of what's around Yellowstone and Grand Teton, but you're unsure what path to take to see these places. It also assumes you're the "get up and go" kind of traveler and want to squeeze as much as possible in as little time. I did this trip in September in and it couldn't have been more perfect, so this is just my suggestion!
Day 1: Bozeman to West Yellowstone
Click the image for the Google Maps link!
Bozeman arrival time: ~1-2pm
Start your day flying into Bozeman, Montana, and after eating some lunch, drive down to West Yellowstone City in Wyoming, through the Yellowstone National Park, where you will visit the first two locations of the trip. We chose West Yellowstone as our homebase since the lodging within the park is super expensive and we only planned this trip 2 months prior to it. Overall it turned just fine.
Stop 1: Mammoth Hot Springs (30 min - 1 hour)
- NPS website link with tons of details.
Stop 2: Norris Geyser Basin (as long as you like until Sunset)
This place will leave you in awe. You'll see your first geysers of the trip, and tons of them. I highly recommend walking the Porcelain trail and seeing the Steamboat Geyser, since you may get lucky and see it erupt. During my trip, we arrived there around ~40 minutes before sunset, and the golden hour light made everything look spectacular.
Day 2: Lower Loop Trip (starting and ending in West Yellowstone)
This part of the trip will vary wildly depending on how many Bison or how much traffic you run into. I started this at around 9am and got back to the city after completing the whole loop 30 mins after sunset.
Part 1 of the drive in the morning to lunch
After having lunch at Lake Yellowstone Hotel (or on the road) you complete the whole loop with more stops along the way.
Some caveats for me are that (1) I went during COVID periods and we found parking everywhere we went with barely any waiting, (2) and for Old Faithful, we got parking within 10 mins, saw it erupting from 200 ft away, ran to it, saw the rest of the eruption, said "huh pretty neat" to each other, and went back to the car after grabbing some hot chocolate.
The key points here are:
The key points here are:
- Expect to have traffic along the road due to wildlife sightings. This is part of the experience, and you shouldn't feel rushed. One of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing Bison doing their thing.
- All these ocations have around < .5 - 1 mile of hiking each, with more hiking available at Ice Lake (and other trails along the loop) if you like. Bring bear spray if going to other trails if possible!
- on Ice Lake, you can basically hike until you reach the lake and come back out. It should be < 1 mile to get to the lake, and there's an amazing grassy area in front of the lake with barely anyone around. Do look at the GPS / map to make sure you're coming out the right way since there's various super long backpacking trails around there.
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, near Inspiration Point
- Skip out on Old Faithful if you haven't made it to that location past 12:30pm. It's the most touristy place in the park by far after Inspiration Point. I highly recommend Inspiration Point instead of Old Faithful if you ever need to make that choice. Even though Inspiration Point is also super touristy, the view really is killer and the photos do not do it justice.
- Aim to make it to Canyon Village by 4-4:30pm -- note the sunset and sunrise times when you go.
- Do stop on any interesting turnouts you see, In my experience we had plenty of time to even stop and watch the sunset at some of these turnouts. There's some beautiful turnouts along the road by grassy plains and rivers.
Grand Prismatic Spring
Day 3: West Yellowstone to Jackson Hole (and Grand Teton)
It's a bit of driving, but most of these spots (except Taggart Lake) have little to no hiking and are on the side of the road.
For this part of the trip, start off driving to Lewis Lake. To find it look at your GPS and just stop in any of the turnouts once you see you're next to the lake. The turnouts are within 50ft of the actual lakeshore along this path and there should be 2-3+ of them on the right side of the road going south.
After Lewis lake, you can stop at Colter Bay for some food (albeit somewhat pricey), and continue on to the next turnouts at Oxbow Bend, Snake River, and Schwabacher Landing. In some of these it may be useful to have binoculars to observe the wildlife. An alternative here is to potentially rent a kayak at Colter Bay if you want to pack the day further or you're early enough in the day still.
After Lewis lake, you can stop at Colter Bay for some food (albeit somewhat pricey), and continue on to the next turnouts at Oxbow Bend, Snake River, and Schwabacher Landing. In some of these it may be useful to have binoculars to observe the wildlife. An alternative here is to potentially rent a kayak at Colter Bay if you want to pack the day further or you're early enough in the day still.
The views near Oxbow Bend and Schwabacher Landing
The key place you won't want to miss is hiking Taggart Lake. It boasts a beautiful lake hidden in the mountain ~2 miles one-way from the parking lot, and is an awesome refreshing swim if you can handle the cold glacial water. Make sure to do the Taggart lake trail loop counter-clockwise, as you'll see views of the giant teton mountains along the way. Once you're at the lake, if you want to fit in more hiking, you could also opt for including Bradley Lake to your hike (though I didn't do it during my trip). Bring bear spray and/or make noise as you hike in case there's any bears.
You'll want to stay somewhere in Jackson Hole for the night to prep for the next day.
You'll want to stay somewhere in Jackson Hole for the night to prep for the next day.
Day 4: Grand Teton's Cascade Canyon and Mormon Row
Cascade Canyon
This part is pretty flexible. You can choose to do other hikes, but this one was memorable for me since we spotted 1 moose and 2 black bears along the Cascade Canyon trail. We started this hike at around 11am and didn't have a big issue finding parking nor getting ferry access (though be advised this may not be the case everytime so make a plan B).
I highly recommend taking the ferry there and back via Jenny Lake so you have more time hiking in the canyon. You also don't need to do the whole Cascade Canyon trail -- you can opt for hiking 2 miles into it and back out. You'll just have to decide when to turn back along the trail. More details on the trail and ferry here.
I highly recommend taking the ferry there and back via Jenny Lake so you have more time hiking in the canyon. You also don't need to do the whole Cascade Canyon trail -- you can opt for hiking 2 miles into it and back out. You'll just have to decide when to turn back along the trail. More details on the trail and ferry here.
Mormon Row Historic District
After the hike, don't miss visiting Mormon Row, not necessarily because of the barns, but because you may spot a giant herd of bison roaming around the area. If you don't see any, you can at least learn a bit more about the history of Jackson Hole (and the drive and views across the endless fields are pretty relaxing).
Moose Wilson Road
Drive down the Moose Wilson road after your hike (or after Mormon Row) since it's a common area to see wildlife along the road. If you're hungry, you can stop by Calico Italian restaurant, which is an amazing (somewhat high-end) restaurant with a great outdoor area.
Day 5: Go back home
I don't recommend trying to cram the flight back on Day 4, and I'm adding a day 5 here even though it's a 4 day itinerary since on this day you're just flying out.
A potential airport to fly out of from Jackson Hole is Idaho Falls, since it's only 1 hour and 49 minutes away.
A potential airport to fly out of from Jackson Hole is Idaho Falls, since it's only 1 hour and 49 minutes away.