People Ask About Hiking In Grand Teton: Here Are Your Options…
This would be our most popular tour, but Grand Teton National Park doesn’t issue Guided Hiking permits. Like every other tour operator our permit limits us to short walks within a half-mile of a trailhead. But there are options.
- If you want to do a bunch of short walks in the Grand Teton National Park, we recommend our Full Day Wildlife Safari. This tour has plenty of time to stroll around various stops, and of course all our tours are private, so you can do what you like within the rules and time. Even on short walks our guides carry bear spray.
- We are able to offer day hiking in Yellowstone National Park. You can do this as a single day trip from Jackson or to incorporate it in one of our multi-day tours.
- You can do a guided hike in the National Forest or private land outside the park, but generally the best hikes are inside the Park. After all, that is the one of the reasons the we have National Parks to protect the most scenic landscapes we have. You can do guided alpine climbing in the park, which involves hiking into the mountain you want to climb.
- Do your own hike. Many of our Clients ask us about the great hikes in the Park. Here is our list, followed by former guide, Evan Matthew’s blog post about his four favorites.
Short Hikes
- Moose Ponds. 1.5 miles round trip/120ft total elevation gain. A good place to see moose from a relatively safe distance.
This photo of a moose in Moose Ponds was taken at 135m zoom on a camera. Looking through one of our Vortex Spotting scopes it would feel much closer.
- Jenny Lake Loop. 7m/450ft. A perfect “flat” hike, the 450ft is the cumulative up and down, that can be made as long as you want it.
- Mormon Row in Winter. 1-2m/2oft. In winter the road to Mormon Row is closed, but there is well packed trail up to the barns from the parking lot at the closure. Micro-spikes might be handy.
The Outhouse at Mormon Row in winter.
- Taggart Lake. 3.5m/420ft. One of our favorite short hikes. Great with kids.
Taggart Lake in summer with the Tetons rising above it.
Taggart Lake is a fun snowshoe in winter
- Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point from Sting Lake. 6.2m/700ft. The best way to get to Hidden Falls, without having to wait in line for the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake. Trust us in summer the line for the return trip can get long. For a fun variation continue past Inspiration Point and take the less-crowded horse trail down to the lake.
The switchbacks between Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point.
Middle Distance Hikes
- Phelps Lake Jumping Rock from Death Canyon Trailhead. 5.6m/1,000ft. This is a fun one on a hot summer day, but bring your bear spray; the trail from the overlook to the lake is a favorite haunt for the park’s black bears. Jumping off the rock or driving to the trailhead will push you out of your comfort zone. Great for teenagers.
Teenagers jumping into Phelps Lake.
- Cascade Canyon. 10m/1,200ft. This is an extension of the Inspiration Point hike, that is relatively flat once you get into the canyon.
The trail in Cascade Canyon.
- Blacktail Butte. 6m/2,100 ft. This trail involves some climbing, but the views of the Tetons are spectacular.
Long Distance Hikes
- Garnet Canyon from Lupine Meadows. 7.7m/2,300ft. If you want to get some vertical this is a great place to start. Before the meadow the trail gets lost in a fell field of large boulders. Turning around at this point still makes for a great hike.
A black bear and her cub on the trail from Lupine Meadows. Hikers should stay at least 100ft from bears. Although, these bears didn’t seem to care, bears are unpredictable, especially a sow with cubs to protect.
Before the boulder pile you still get a great view of the Middle Teton from the Garnet Canyon trail.
To get to the Garnet Canyon Meadows you have to negotiate this jumble of large boulders.
Above the boulder pile Garnet Canyon is a meadow of wildflowers in summer.
- Amphitheater and Surprise Lakes from Lupine Meadows. 10m/3,000ft. This hike involves more vertical than Garnet Canyon.
- Table Mountain. 11m/4,100ft. This is on the Idaho side of Teton Pass, while not strictly in the Park, Table Mountain is on the Park’s western boundary. It’s a great hike with a spectacular view that has two options; short and steep and longer and not so steep, or do it as a loop.
Table Mountain is the bump on the ridge to the right of the Grand Teton.
Marathons, Missions and Scrambles.
This is Jackson. There is always someone doing something that visitors think is crazy, as a matter of routine.
- Static Peak. 17m/6,000ft. If you want a long lung buster of a summit, that is pretty much all on-trail this is the hike for you.
- Paintbrush Divide, Solitude Lake and Cascade Canyon. 20m/4,100ft. This can be done as an out and back to Solitude Lake or the full circuit up Paintbrush Canyon.
Looking down Paintbrush Canyon towards Jackson Lake.
Lake Solitude is every bit as cold as this woman is anticipating. Grand Teton in the background.
- Disappointment Peak. 13.5m, 5,300ft. This is a Class 4 Scramble above Amphitheater Lake. If you don’t know what a Class 4 scramble is then this is not for you. If you have a head for heights it is one of the best views in the Park, but if you fall at the crux point you might not see another. (We are not joking. You can pay for a climbing guide to take you up there.)
The hard part of climbing Disappointment Peak. You have to squeeze behind a chock stone and then pull an exposed climbing move up to the left.
Middle Teton and its Glacier from Disappointment Peak.
- Middle or South Teton. 16m/7, 200ft. Yes, you can get up the lesser Tetons without a climbing harness and ropes. Both are Class 3 Scrambles, but above the saddle between the peaks you need to be able to navigate by yourself and accept the risk of rock fall from above (wear a helmet). Once you leave the trail in Garnet Meadows, getting to the Saddle is a brutal slog over talus. These are a late summer hikes unless you have experience with, and the equipment for, traveling on snow.
A hiker begins the steep descent down the SW Couloir on Middle Teton. Iceberg Lake is in the background.
The Middle (hidden) and Grand Tetons from the summit of South Teton.