National Parks Road Trip: Grand Teton to Yellowstone to Glacier

In the Northern Rockies, you’ll come across young mountains, a steaming supervolcano, and fast-melting glaciers. With a weeklong road trip, you can see all of them by stitching together three national parks: Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier.

In each park, aim for three activities: tour a visitor center, drive a scenic road, and tackle a trail. For a 24/7 adventure, stay overnight in National Historic Landmark lodges (but keep in mind, reservations will have to be made a year in advance). For last minute road trippers, roll the dice and snag a cancelled reservation, or stay in border towns surrounding the parks.

wildflowers in Grand Teton National Park
Start this epic road trip in Grand Teton National Park. Photo © nreflect.

Grand Teton National Park

From Jackson, Wyoming, launch your road trip in Grand Teton National Park. Here, the young mountains truly show their age, with rugged horns that tower above Jackson Hole.

To let your senses attune to the sounds, sights, and feel of the Tetons, start at the visitor center at Lawrence S. Rockefeller Preserve. Extend your exploration of the 1,106-acre refuge by hiking to Phelps Lake. A two-mile gentle walk leads you to the lake; a seven-mile trail loops around it.

road leading to snow-dusted mountains
Drive along Teton Park Road to see beautiful views of Grand Teton. Photo © Becky Lomax.

Afterwards, drive Teton Park Road, stopping to stare up at the sky-scraping 13,776-foot Grand Teton. For a reflection view from Jenny Lake Overlook, take a short detour onto Jenny Lake Drive. To absorb the Tetons by sunset, overnight at historic Jackson Lake Lodge, where the full sweep of the toothy peaks lines the horizon above the water.

Yellowstone National Park

On the next day, head north through John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway to enter Yellowstone National Park. Its landscape perches over a hot spot of magma that makes geysers blow, mud pots bubble, fumaroles steam, and hot springs boil.

steam wafting from grand prismatic spring
Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone is a sight to behold. Photo © Becky Lomax.

Driving counterclockwise, circle Lower Grand Loop Road to embark on multiple short walks to geothermals. Tour the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center to learn about this active landscape, and watch Old Faithful Geyser erupt. Take in the multi-hued splendor of Grand Prismatic Spring in Midway Geyser Basin and the creamy colors of Porcelain Basin in Norris Geyser Basin. Looping eastward into Hayden Valley, you’ll steer into a couple bison traffic jams before ending the day with a stay at the historic Lake Hotel.

After catching the morning sunrise on Yellowstone Lake, reverse your route through Hayden Valley to look for trumpeter swans and moose. At the valley’s north end, take North Rim Drive to hike into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Drop the half-mile of switchbacks down to Brink of the Lower Falls, where water plunging over the lip mesmerizes with its power. Afterwards, stop at Lookout Point to take in the full sight of the 308-foot falls and depth of the canyon.

blue sky over a road leading toward the mountains in Yellowstone
The road through Lamar Valley. Photo © htrnr/iStock.

Going north, drive the curvy mountain road over Dunraven Pass to see wolves in Lamar Valley, nicknamed America’s Serengeti. Then, take in the travertine colors of Mammoth Hot Springs and elk on the lawns before tucking into a nearby cabin for the night.

Glacier National Park

To leap to Glacier National Park, plan for seven hours of driving north through Montana. Going west on I-90 and north on I-15, aim for historic Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier for two nights. Bring binoculars for watching grizzly bears from the deck.

In the morning, take in the pink alpenglow on the jagged Continental Divide. Hop on the first tour boat to hike to fast-melting Grinnell Glacier. The 7.5-mile round-trip trail climbs into an icy basin harboring one of the last glaciers in the park.

clouds over Grinnell Lake
View of Grinnell Lake from the Grinnell Glacier Trail. Photo © Jean Marie Biele/iStock.

For your road trip finale, drive the dramatic Going-to-the-Sun Road across Logan Pass. The route cuts through cliffs, under waterfalls, and past mountain goats. At the summit, tour the tiny visitor center and walk the boardwalk among wildflower meadows. It’s a top-of-the-world experience you won’t forget.

Becky Lomax

About the Author

As a professional travel writer, Andrew Hempstead spends as much time as possible on the road, traveling incognito, experiencing the many and varied delights of each destination just as his readers do. He looks forward to spending every second summer at home in the Canadian Rockies, traveling mountain highways and hiking trails, exploring new places, and updating old favorites.

Since the early 1990s, Andrew has authored and updated more than 60 guidebooks, and supplied content for regional and national clients like Expedia and KLM. His photography has appeared in a wide variety of media, ranging from international golf magazines to a Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum.
Andrew and his wife, Dianne, own Summerthought Publishing, a Canadian regional publisher of nonfiction books. He is a member of The Diners Club World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy. Andrew has also spoken on travel writing to a national audience and has contributed to a university-level travel writing textbook. He and his family live in Banff, Alberta.

Becky Lomax was three years old when her parents first took her to stay with friends who worked as rangers at Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park. During college, Becky worked two summers in the historic Glacier Park Lodge, an easy hop to Two Medicine. She spent her days off hiking, backpacking, and climbing throughout the park.

After teaching high school writing and speech outside Seattle, she and her husband moved to Whitefish for quick access to Glacier. She worked in the park for a decade as a hiking and backpacking guide, leading many first-time visitors to Gunsight Pass, Fifty Mountain, and Iceberg Lake. She also served on staff at Granite Park Chalet, spotting wolverines and bagging nearby peaks in her off time.

Today, Becky maintains her strong link with Glacier by using her full-time writing career as an excuse to keep hiking in the park. In magazine stories, she lauds the park’s trails, historic lodges, scenic drives, wildlife, and wildflowers. She tags along with biologists in the field to radio-collar bighorn sheep and grizzly bears. She also treks annually to Grinnell Glacier to write about how climate change is melting the park’s ice fields.

Becky serves as the western writer for On the Snow, a website that provides snow reports for ski resorts. She also writes stories for regional newspapers and national magazines such as Smithsonian and Backpacker, and is the author of the bestselling Moon USA National Parks.

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