Hi there!
So there are 2 national parks in Wyoming.
They are among the best places to visit in Wyoming!
And, the good news is that they are located near one another!
So this can make for a pretty convenient Wyoming national parks road trip.
I did a road trip to Wyoming national parks in September and October 2021.
I spent 3 days in Wyoming national parks!
Where to go for a Wyoming national parks road trip
What are the best national parks in Wyoming?
These are the only 2 national parks in Wyoming, and both are pretty great!
1. Grand Teton National Park
Wyoming is home to tons of mountain ranges.
The most famous mountain range in Wyoming that’s in a national park is the Teton Range.
It’s Grand Teton National Park!
As a part of your Grand Teton National Park itinerary, you must do the Grand Teton scenic loop drive for tons of mountain views!
2. Yellowstone National Park
Wyoming is home to a supervolcano: the Yellowstone supervolcano.
As a result there are a ton of thermal features to explore in Wyoming.
It’s Yellowstone National Park!
This is the most popular national park in Wyoming.
As part of your Yellowstone National Park itinerary, you must see the famous geyser eruption and the famous colorful hot spring!
And if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll see a buffalo roaming in front of steaming thermal activity?! (Like… at black sand basin?!)
How many days do you need in Grand Teton and Yellowstone?
Is 3 days in Grand Teton and Yellowstone enough?!
Of course the more time you have in Grand Teton and Yellowstone, the better! Yellowstone is especially big, and you could spend several days there alone.
But with this 3 day Grand Teton and Yellowstone itinerary, you’ll get a taste for many of the things that make make Grand Teton and Yellowstone famous and special!
So in that sense, 3 days can actually be a perfect amount of time to spend in Grand Teton and Yellowstone… and you could actually even condense this into a 2 day Grand Teton and Yellowstone itinerary.
You won’t be able to see it all, but it’s very possible to see a LOT of things that will WOW you in just 2 or 3 days!
More below about how to spend your days in Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park!
🌋⛰
Side note!
Plan more of your trip to Yellowstone and beyond:
- Easy-going one day in Yellowstone National Park
- Best places to visit in Wyoming with VIEWS!
- Driving from Devils Tower to Yellowstone
- Driving from Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone
- Driving from Chicago to Yellowstone
- Best places to visit in South Dakota with VIEWS!
Save the Yellowstone video playlist to watch on youtube later!
You can have a perfect one day in Yellowstone driving from the west entrance and following the road down south... or entering from the south entrance and following the road up north aka driving from Grand Teton to Yellowstone!
👆 Explore the Grand Teton National Park map on google maps!
Also note: If you are using google maps to plan driving directions through Grand Teton National Park and it's showing you no driving directions exist, it is probably because of a closed road in the winter! If you are planning ahead for your spring or summer Wyoming national parks road trip, adjust the departure date (default is "leave now") to a random date in the summer!
How to spend 3 days in Grand Teton and Yellowstone
There are many different ways to spend your days in Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park depending on your time and interests.
Here is one way to spend 3 days in Grand Teton and Yellowstone… basically the way I did it!
Driving to Grand Teton National Park
In Wyoming, I was driving to Grand Teton National Park from Devils Tower. It’s quite reasonable to do this drive in one day, but I did the drive from Devils Tower to Grand Teton over several days.
Whether you spend one day or more, if you are driving this route to get to Grand Teton National Park, you will drive through the Wyoming national forests of Shoshone National Forest and Bridger-Teton National Forest.
For reference on a map, these Wyoming national forests are basically from Dubois WY to Moran WY. For a bigger Wyoming town to reference, you can also look to drive from Riverton WY to Moran WY. (map)
Grand Teton National Park has many entry stations, and the Moran entry station is one of them.
If you are looking to load up on grocery store food and supplies, then there is a Walmart in Riverton. You’ll also find chain hotels in Riverton if you’re looking for a spot to break up your drive.
👆 Driving through Shoshone National Forest on the way to Grand Teton National Park… and then onwards to Yellowstone National Park!
👆 Along the main road through Shoshone National Forest, you will find a road that leads to Brooks Lake!
👆 Driving through Bridger-Teton National Forest on the way to Grand Teton National Park… and then onwards to Yellowstone National Park!
See more about getting to Grand Teton and Yellowstone: Driving from Devils Tower to Grand Teton National Park
And now…
Grand Teton and Yellowstone itinerary ideas!
I spent the night before going to Grand Teton National Park in Moran WY, a smaller gateway town of Grand Teton National Park.
Day 1: Grand Teton National Park
It’s one full day in Grand Teton National Park!
I started off driving part of the Grand Teton scenic loop along Teton Park Road and Jenny Lake Scenic Drive on the way to a trailhead to start hiking.
The 42-mile Grand Teton Scenic Loop Drive is THE scenic drive in Grand Teton National Park.
👆 Driving the Teton Park Road on the Grand Teton Scenic Loop Drive in Grand Teton National Park.
👆 Driving the Jenny Lake Scenic Drive in Grand Teton National Park.
This was a big hiking day in Grand Teton National Park.
From the Lupine Meadows trailhead, I ended up hiking to Delta Lake, Surprise Lake, and Amphitheater Lake.
This turned into something like a 12 mile round trip hike.
👆 You can hike to Delta Lake, Surprise Lake, and Amphitheater Lake from the Lupine Meadows trailhead.
Alternative for your Grand Teton and Yellowstone itinerary
If you are not into doing a long day hike in Grand Teton National Park, you can do the Grand Teton Scenic Loop Drive in the morning along with maybe a shorter Grand Teton hike, and then you can move on to Yellowstone National by the afternoon to do more things there!
You also don’t need to drive the full 42 miles for the drive to be worth it.
Teton Park Road, which is a part of the scenic loop drive, can be a worthy drive on its own.
And then you may also want to go to the Mormon Row historic district, as this is the location of the iconic barn with the backdrop of the Teton mountains. It has also been said to be the most photographed barn in America.
See more for planning your Grand Teton and Yellowstone itinerary:
- How to spend one day in Grand Teton National Park
- 42-mile Grand Teton scenic loop drive
- Wyoming hikes with amazing views
Day 2: Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park
This day was basically a few hours in Grand Teton National Park and a few hours in Yellowstone National Park.
Grand Teton and Yellowstone are directly connected by road.
So first in Grand Teton National Park, I did the rest of the Grand Teton scenic loop drive that I didn’t do the day before.
And then I did a shorter hike to another mountain lake with views of the Teton Range.
That was a hike to Taggart Lake which is around a 4 mile round trip hike. You might give yourself around 2 hours to complete this hike.
You can do this as your shorter Grand Teton hike if you’re looking for that.
👆 You can hike to Taggart Lake from the Taggart Lake trailhead.
Then it was onwards to Yellowstone National Park!
When coming from Grand Teton National Park, the West Thumb Geyser Basin in Yellowstone can be a perfect first stop.
This is located on the southern side of Yellowstone (aka the Grand Teton side) so it will basically be the first “big” stop you’ll come across where you can see what Yellowstone is known for! (That’s thermal features.)
This also allows you to not only see Yellowstone Lake, but you’ll do a walk along the lake too!
The popular Yellowstone attractions are the following day!
I spent 2 nights in West Yellowstone MT, a popular gateway town of Yellowstone National Park.
See more for planning your Grand Teton and Yellowstone itinerary:
Day 3: Yellowstone National Park
It’s one full day in Yellowstone National Park!
I wasn’t all that interested in a jam-packed day, so this was a mostly easy-going one day in Yellowstone National Park.
The theme of the day was the thermal features that Yellowstone is known for! I saw tons of thermal features including hot springs, bubbling mudpots, and steam vents (aka fumaroles).
The most famous hot spring in Yellowstone is the Grand Prismatic Spring.
The one important thing to note for the Grand Prismatic Spring is that it will look the best during the day on a sunny day.
If you go later in the evening when the sun has mostly gone down, you won’t see the bright colors at its best.
So if you’re driving to Yellowstone in the afternoon, try to get here earlier rather than later!
The most famous geyser eruption in Yellowstone is the Old Faithful geyser.
You have a very good chance of seeing this geyser erupt because its eruptions are predictable and the National Park Service will even tell you when the next geyser eruption is predicted. It usually erupts every 1.5 hours.
When you arrive, you can go to the Old Faithful visitor center and there will be a time listed for the next Old Faithful geyser eruption.
There are also smaller less popular geysers (like the Clepsydra Geyser!) that you can see erupting throughout Yellowstone.
And as it goes in Yellowstone, your timing will be off and you will likely pass by a bunch of geysers and maybe even wait around hoping that they will erupt when you’re there… and they don’t erupt. 😜
Yellowstone National Park is also known for buffalo.
I didn’t go to the areas of Yellowstone that are best known for buffalo sightings. (That is Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley.)
While I did not go to Lamar Valley or Hayden Valley, I still did see buffalo several times in different areas of the park, including right in front of an erupting geyser in Black Sand Basin!
But if you want to increase your chances of seeing buffalo, you’ll want to add the places that are best known for wildlife sightings to your itinerary!
See more for planning your Grand Teton and Yellowstone itinerary:
Hotels near Grand Teton and Yellowstone
Hotels near Grand Teton National Park
Hotels near Grand Teton National Park are expensive.
The popular gateway town near Grand Teton National Park is Jackson WY.
I stayed in Moran WY which is also near Grand Teton National Park, but it’s not much of a town.
I was very happy to be able to find a place to stay for $115 a night including taxes and fees. It was a budget room at the Hatchet Resort. It was quite literally on the border of Bridger-Teton National Forest.
The room was small, the walls were thin, and it was a shared bathroom. They actually call it a hostel room because of the shared bathroom. It gave me a place to stay for “cheap” near Grand Teton National Park so I didn’t mind though.
But, keep this in mind if you are thinking about staying here! This is basically just a spot to rest your head!
Hotels near Yellowstone National Park
Hotels near Yellowstone National Park are very expensive. I really do not like paying $250 a night for a hotel. (And this is somewhat “off-season.”)
I guess because it was off-season I was able to find a hotel for “only” $221 a night with taxes and fees for a same-day booking in West Yellowstone MT at Days Inn.
But you are better off booking early if you’ll be traveling in Wyoming in the summer!
West Yellowstone is in Montana located right outside of Yellowstone National Park, and this is a popular gateway town with many chain hotels.
The vast majority of Yellowstone National Park is in Wyoming, but there is a very small portion of land that is also in the neighboring states of Montana and Idaho.
Where to go after Grand Teton and Yellowstone?!
West Yellowstone MT is a perfect location to start your drive to Craters of the Moon National Monument where you will find lava fields and caves!
This is a drive to Idaho. If you are interested in this, be sure to see about driving from Yellowstone to Craters of the Moon to stop off to see some waterfalls!
And those are some ideas for your Grand Teton and Yellowstone itinerary!
Make it into an extended national parks road trip to Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and beyond!
- Best things to do in Grand Teton National Park
- Best things to do in Yellowstone National Park
- Best places to visit in Wyoming
- Things to do in Devils Tower National Monument (Wyoming)
- Drive from Mount Rushmore National Memorial to Yellowstone National Park (South Dakota into Wyoming)
- Yellowstone to Craters of the Moon National Monument (Wyoming to Idaho)
- Things to do in Craters of the Moon (lava fields and caves)
- Things to do in Badlands National Park (South Dakota)
- Camping in Badlands National Park
- Things to do in Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota)
- Best places to visit in South Dakota with VIEWS! (2 national parks)
- South Dakota camping trip
HAPPY PLANNING YOUR GRAND TETON AND YELLOWSTONE ITINERARY!