Tip 1: Get to Grand Teton EARLY
We were driving up to Grand Teton from Fort Collins, so about a seven to eight hour drive. We left bright and early at about 6:30 AM because we knew we needed to get there early to get a campsite. All campsites at Grand Teton are first come first serve. There are many sites, with most at Culver Bay in the middle of the park. There is an online tool that shows when the campsites filled the days before and a week before.
Tip 2: If not there early enough, national forests allow you to park for the night
Unfortunately I looked when we were still about an hour out at 2 PM and it said that all campsites for the day were filled at 12:30, with some of the more popular ones like Jenny Lake filled at 7:30 AM. In the future I’d recommend arriving before noon or even 10 AM to guarantee a spot. A good plan would be to make reservations at Yellowstone for before or Jackson, Wyoming, South of the park seemed like a popular area to spend a night before heading in. Our backup plan for the night or another option to get to the park early was just pulling into National forest land for the night because it’s free and Grand Teton National Park is surrounded by it.
We just hoped they would still let us in since a lot of places have limited entry because of covid. We did get in at about 3 PM from the East Moran Entrance and headed south to the Signal Mountain Lodge area, stopping for pictures along the way.
Tip 3: Signal Lodge has great kayak launch and Grand Teton views
Our main goal was to kayak around Jackson Lake for awhile so we looked for a good launching spot. After traveling up the North side of the lake later in the day I can say with confidence that where we launched at the Signal Bay boat launch is the best spot. We were able to pull into the small lot, change into swimsuits in the bathroom and launch onto the lake. Also the South side of the lake has a much better view of Teton.
Tip 4: Bring a kayak!
It was a perfect day with no wind so the water was completely smooth, and there were very few other watercrafts about. The reflection of Grand Teton, the forests, and the sky on the calm water was magical. The best kayaking of my life. We headed across the lake to a little peninsula just North of Spalding Bay to tromp around a little and discovered some remote campsites that I would recommend highly to kayak or somehow hike to. It was a nice little meadow with flowers and the lake was all around with a great view of Grand Teton looming over.
Tip 5: Ask locals for advice
After kayaking back to the boat launch around the coast, we started to head North and figure out where we should spend the night. I had looked at freecampsites.net just as we were losing service heading in and thought our best option was in the national forest North between Teton and Yellowstone since we were heading to Yellowstone the next day (other options meant exiting the park through the Moran entrance, but then we would need to come back through it to get to Yellowstone). When we stopped in the Culver Bay store the cashier recommended parking North in the forest as well or, since we are just sleeping in our van, he said we could just park in the massive parking lot in the Culver Bay area and no one would mind. We opted for that because there were bathrooms right there (though when driving by the North forest on the John D Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Highway later, we did see some bathrooms by a big lot just off the road).
Also, the Culver Bay store had a massive amount of gift items, food, and outdoor equipment. Basically anything you could want while on a camping trip and more can be found there, though maybe for a slightly higher price.
Tip 6: Sunset dinner
Since we were staying around, we drove North on the Jackson Lake coast and had a sunset dinner in the most North picnic spot on the map, just North of Arizona island. It had a good view of the lake from a cliff above and a ladder that went down to the beach.
The next morning we had breakfast at a picnic table overlooking the Culver Bay marina where we met a guy who has had a boat there since 75’ after Vietnam. It isn’t a large marina so the waiting list must be enormous with people sticking around that long. After breakfast it was time to head North to Yellowstone!
To read about the whole road trip click here or to see other travel adventures click here.
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