Jackson Hole & Yellowstone Itinerary

What our family of 5 loved (and didn't) on our 6-day visit to the area

My family and I just returned from six days in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park. Below, I’m sharing our itinerary and views on what we loved (and didn’t).

Day 1 - Checking out Jackson / then Teton Village

We landed into Jackson Airport around noon on a Wednesday in late-July.

The airport is awesome. It’s small, not super-crowded, and stunningly beautiful, set beside the Teton Mountains.

Really easy in and out. We rented a car and were out of there in 15 minutes, no hassle.

We drove to Jackson which is the main city in the area and sits at the base of Snow King mountain, only about 15-20 minutes from the airport.

Jackson was really cool. Has the feeling of an old-school town straight out of a Western movie. Lots of shops, galleries, and restaurants.

It’s definitely pretty touristy and expensive though. Lots of people walking around in cowboy hats and boots, but you kind of get the feeling that half of them are from Long Island.

Still, a very enjoyable experience walking around and checking the town out. We hit (tourist staple) Jackson Drug for lunch (bad food, great milkshakes) for our first meal.

After milling around Jackson for a while (btw: Jackson is the city, Jackson Hole is the 80-mile valley that Jackson sits in), we headed to Teton Village where we were staying for 3 nights. About a 20 minute drive from Jackson.

We rented a ski condo via VRBO at Teton Village. This is at the base of the very beautiful Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

We loved our condo. Didn’t have A/C as it’s clearly built for the insanely cold winter, but that was mostly fine. Our first night, we needed to open all the windows wide to get some cooler air to sleep in.

After checking into our condo, we hit the Teton Village pool. It was small and a little crowded but set against a backdrop of the mountains, it was pretty beautiful, and it kept my kids entertained.

After that, we grabbed dinner at Spur in Teton Village. It was your basic American fare / hotel restaurant but with prices way jacked up. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Day 2: Hiked Jenny Lake / Lunch at Hatch / Dinner at Calico

We drove to Jenny Lake in Teton National Park to hike on the morning of Day 2. It was roughly a 45 minute drive.

Jenny Lake is known to be among the most beautiful places in the area and offers many hikes (including some easier ones).

We parked (kind of by accident) at the String Lake Trailhead. Turns out this was a good mistake because the Jenny Lake visitor center is a zoo. We had put in “Jenny Lake trailhead” into Apple Maps and it zoomed us right past the Jenny Lake visitor center… again, a good mistake.

We hiked from the String Lake parking area to the West Shore Boat Dock on Jenny Lake (across the lake from the visitor center). The views were stunning. It was somewhat challenging for my kids but not too bad. About a 1.5 mile hike each way. When we got to the boat landing, it was clear my 4-year-old was pretty gassed so he and my wife took the boat back to the visitor center.

My older two and I hiked back to String Lake and then drove to pick them up a few miles away. One thing to note: If you hike here (or really anywhere in the area), it’s best to carry bear spray. I didn’t really know this was a thing but our condo was stocked with it so I figured I better bring it. Apparently, it’s more hardcore than pepper spray but is VERY effective if you encounter a bear in the wild which you probably don’t want to do (at least too closely). We did not see any bears but a few hikers out on the trail had just seen one and told us to be careful. Btw, they recommend you don’t hike solo for this reason.

After the morning hike, we hit up Jackson again and went to the Mexican restaurant, Hatch. Really good Mexican food and reasonably priced for Jackson.

My kids were tired after this so we went back to Teton Village, chilled for a while and then spent a bit of time checking out Teton Village itself. It’s basically a high-end ski resort with some shops, restaurants and some (minor attractions). They have a bungee trampoline and a small climbing wall that my kids did which cost (I think) ~$18/kid. It wasn’t amazing but it kept my kids occupied.

That evening, we went to Calico which is between Teton Village and Jackson. It’s a super family friendly, chill restaurant with great food. They have a huge lawn that was full of kids and my kids were out there immediately getting involved in soccer and whiffle ball games. Get an outdoor table if you can and then chill and watch your kids play.

Day 3: Aerial Tram at Teton / Scenic River Tour / Rodeo

We packed a ton in on day three. We took the aerial tram from Teton Village to the top of mountain as soon as it opened (9am). At the top, there’s a tiny little restaurant called Corbet's Cabin that serves like 5 types of waffles. We ate ‘em all. My kids said they were the best waffles ever.

The tram ride was cool - about a 12-minute ride. And the top of the mountain had amazing views and some trails. It was cold up top, even in July! My kids were pretty freezing, so if you go up, be sure to wear pants and sweatshirts. We hiked the “Top of the World” trail a bit but my kids weren’t really up for anything crazy so we didn’t stay up there for too long.

For lunch, it was back to Jackson. We hit RoadHouse Brewing right on the square. We sat outside on the 2nd floor which is a great little view of Jackson while you eat. Loved the food. Had a great salad but they had elk and other solid local options.

Then it was time for our Scenic River Tour. There are multiple operators, we went through Dave Hansen, which was good. We walked there from downtown Jackson (note: there is a great free parking garage at 150 West Simpson Ave). We did this ~3-hour rafting trip down the Snake River instead of whitewater rafting because my 4-year-old is too young for the latter. Still, everyone loved it. It’s a pretty chill (and beautiful) ride and you see lots of wildlife. The highlight for us was spotting 20(!) bald eagles.

Then rodeo time. We hit the rodeo at 7pm which is at the fairground (also walkable from the parking garage I mentioned). It was indeed my “first rodeo” and it was interesting. A mix of tourists and locals. Lots of people totally decked out in cowboy hats etc. I definitely felt it was a true slice of Americana… We saw everything from the “princesses of the rodeo” - basically like teenage girls riding around on horseback with various flags, to mutton busters (little kids trying to ride sheep, WTF?), to actual cowboys getting thrown off the backs of horses. We ate some basic stuff like pizza and corn dogs and we only lasted about 1.5 hours before we were ready to get out of there. Not that it wasn’t fun, it's just that my kids were gassed and I was getting tired of sitting on the metal bleachers, plus I can only see some many dudes get thrown off horses.

Day 4: Headed up to Yellowstone

We drove up to Yellowstone (South Entrance) the next morning. Btw, Persephone Bakery, close to Teton Village, has good to-go breakfast even if it’s a bit fancy/expensive.

It was about 1.5 hours to get up into Yellowstone. Note: You need to go through Grand Teton National Park to get there so if you already paid $35 for a pass like we did (to get into Jenny Lake), save it as you'll need it.

We downloaded and paid ~$20 for the GuideAlong app. It uses GPS to see where you are and then a guide tells you where you should stop and what you should look at. It’s pretty good (I don’t know how it works since we lost cell signals in Yellowstone) but it also got a little annoying and my kids kept asking us to turn it off.

We hit up the West Thumb Basin (~30 mins from the South Entrance) which was pretty cool to see. A bunch of hot springs next to a massive lake. Cool views and cool to see the thermal features.

Then after that, we went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This place was pretty stunning and there are lots of places to stop and get out of car to view it. We started at Lookout Point. It was cool but just a quick warning that you have to walk down a long, steep trail to get to the viewing point. A lot of people were absolutely sucking wind on the way back up. I was impressed that my 4-year-old did it but I had to hold his hand the whole way for fear of him falling off a cliff.

After that, we hit up the Grand Canyon village for lunch. It was okay. It’s basically a huge cafeteria with super basic food. It was fine and probably the only option unless you brought a picnic.

After this, my kids were pretty spent so we ended up driving to our hotel (The Old Faithful Inn) and skipped about a billion sites and geysers along the way.

Note: I’m not someone who feels like he needs to see every attraction just to check some box so some people might think we missed most of Yellowstone (which we probably did!) but I’m more interested in having a fun, quasi-relaxing vacation than being the billionth person to take pics of some hot spring.

Okay, off my soapbox, The Old Faithful Inn actually exceeded my expectations. First of all, we got to see Old Faithful (which is literally just outside the inn) erupt. It goes off roughly every 90 minutes, so if you’re staying there, no big deal if you just miss it, you’ll have another chance. Usually a big crowd (maybe like 200 people) gathers around to see it erupt but there’s a boardwalk and benches so it’s pretty comfortable.

That night, we ate dinner at the Old Faithful Inn (pretty much the only option). Like the inn, the place is big and rustic. Everyone in my family was able to find something they liked though and there’s little ice cream place right off the main inn lobby that we hit up before going to bed early. Tip: Book dinner here WAY in advance. If you don't have reservations, you're kind of out of luck.

Day 5: Checking out Yellowstone (with a professional).

Day 5 started at 5am. We had to be out by 5:30am as we had a private wildlife tour with (Yellowstone Wild) starting at 7am and meeting at Mammoth Springs (~1.5 hour drive from the Old Faithful Inn).

First of all, while it was freezing cold, the drive through Yellowstone at this early hour was stunningly beautiful. Rivers, lakes, steaming hot springs, mountains, cliffs, ravines, valleys, plains…. I mean, just beautiful.

Anyhow, we met our guide in Mammoth which is a cute little village in Yellowstone, and after she gave us some coffee, hot chocolate and scones from the back of the van, we were off.

We spent the next ~5 hours with our guide Aleksa seeing wildlife all around the park including in Lamar Valley and lots of other places that I forget the names of.

My kids loved it! We saw elk, deer, all kinds of birds, and TONS of bison. We got stuck in a few “bison jams” which is pretty common apparently. Our guide also knew where some of Yellowstone’s only wolves have a den and she set us up with telescopes in the middle of a plain and set it up so that we could see a mother wolf playing with her cubs. It was truly awesome. She packed us a picnic and we chilled and had lunch next to some bison before heading back to Mammoth. This was probably the highlight our our trip.

After that, we quickly walked around Mammoth Springs but my kids were gassed again so we decided to head back to the hotel. After chilling for a while, we hiked up to the top of a small mountain (hill?) that has an awesome view of Old Faithful, which was even cooler to watch erupt from up there.

Then, it was dinner again at the Old Faithful Inn and ice cream out on the 2nd floor deck to watch the sunset, mountains and a still-steaming Old Faithful. Some really special family time. Everyone loved this day.

Day 6: Back to Jackson / Snow King Mountain / More Milkshakes

The next morning, we thought about seeing more geysers but my kids really didn’t care about that, they wanted to go to Snow King mountain.

So we drove back to Jackson (~2.5 hours) and checked into a hotel in the city (Spring Hill Suites, good location walkable to everything, and literally right next to that parking garage I mentioned earlier).

We went back to Roadhouse Brewing for lunch and sat in the exact same table. Just as good the 2nd time. Then we walked (~15 min) to Snow King mountain.

Here, they have an “alpine slide” and a “cowboy coaster” which are basically rides that go down what is normally a ski mountain. I had read reviews that basically said this place was fun for kids but pretty disorganized. Anyhow, that was exactly our experience. My kids loved it and the rides were fun (my wife and I went on them, too) but the place was kind of expensive and run by a bunch of teenagers so it felt like kind of a sh$tshow…. That said, the kids were very thankful to go.

After that, we walked around Jackson for a while and then hit up Snake River Brewing for dinner. I had a bison burger as my final Jackson meal (good, not great) and the brewery was pretty cool and right next door to our hotel. Finally, we hit up Jackson Drug again for some parting milkshakes because why not?

The next morning it was back to the airport and back home. Again, pretty seamless going through the airport.

And that was our trip. We didn't see every site but we had a really awesome time and it's a vacation I'm sure we're going to be talking about for years.

My main takeaways/tips:

• Stay at least some time in Teton Village

• Hike Jenny Lake

• Don't lose your pass once you pay to get into Grand Teton National Park or Yellowstone

• Make sure you have bear spray for hikes

• Use the free parking garage in Jackson

• Get a private guide for at least one day in Yellowstone

• Stay at the Old Faithful Inn

Hope this was helpful. Bookmark it or share with a friend if you're planning on heading out to Jackson Hole and/or Yellowstone.

Thanks for reading.

Greg