So you want to drive from Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone National Park as part of your great Wyoming national parks road trip! Show
Grand Teton and Yellowstone are connected!Since Grand Teton and Yellowstone are connected, it can be perfect to make it a Grand Teton and Yellowstone kind of trip! It is basically a direct route that connects Grand Teton in the south to Yellowstone in the north. So it is a simple drive!
MAP: Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone National ParkExplore the map.
For reference points: Grand Teton: Jenny Lake is a pretty central and popular spot along the popular road in Grand Teton National Park. This main road is Teton Park Road that’s a part of the 42-mile Grand Teton scenic loop drive.
Yellowstone: Old Faithful geyser is a pretty central and popular spot along the popular road in Yellowstone National Park. You can see the geyser erupt from ground level, and you can also see it from the Old Faithful geyser overlook. (The most popular spots in Yellowstone are the reliably predictable geyser eruption and the very colorful hot spring. From Jenny Lake in Grand Teton to Old Faithful in Yellowstone is around a 2 hour drive. To get to the popular Yellowstone gateway town to stay in of West Yellowstone MT (aka good town to look for hotels), it’s about an additional hour continuing in the same direction. So from Old Faithful to West Yellowstone MT is around a 1 hour drive. This means that to get from Grand Teton National Park to West Yellowstone MT by driving through Yellowstone National Park might be around a 3 hour drive. Although ultimately it will depend on where in Grand Teton National Park you’re coming from and how much traffic you encounter in the national parks. See more: Things to see while driving through Grand Teton National ParkAlso for reference, Jackson WY to West Yellowstone MT is around a 2.5 hour drive if you do NOT drive through Yellowstone National Park. If you do drive through Yellowstone National Park, then Jackson to West Yellowstone is at minimum around a 3 hour drive. Continue the drive onwards to Idaho: Yellowstone to Craters of the Moon National Monument. See more about things to do in Craters of the Moon… including wild caving on your own through lava tubes! If you’ll be driving across Wyoming to get to Grand Teton National Park, then also see the best hikes in Wyoming.
Are you driving from the east to Grand Teton and Yellowstone?See more things to do on your way to Grand Teton and Yellowstone:
Download offline maps before you go!It’s quite possible that you will have minimal data as you are driving from Grand Teton to Yellowstone. It will be best to download offline google maps for Wyoming of the Grand Teton area and Yellowstone area before you go! This is free. If you will be hiking in Wyoming, I recommend also the free mapsme app. You will need to also download the Wyoming map there. See more about hiking in Wyoming (and that app).
More below about making the drive from Grand Teton to Yellowstone!
🌋 Side note!
I have a lot of 30-90 second Yellowstone videos. A few of them might be on this page. If you can't see the video directly above, it might be because you have an ad blocker. 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! 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!
Things to do when you’re driving from Grand Teton to Yellowstone
1. Grand Teton National Park
The Potholes Turnout in Grand Teton National Park can be the perfect last stop on Teton Park Road!
See more about Grand Teton National Park:
Or, if you have already seen all of Grand Teton National Park that you want to on the previous day and you’re ready to get to Yellowstone… start the drive north to Yellowstone!
👆 Road from Grand Teton to Yellowstone: You will pass by Jackson Lake and Colter Bay.
2. John Rockefeller Parkway
You can drive from Grand Teton to Yellowstone directly!The John Rockefeller Memorial Parkway is the road that connects Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone National Park. This means that it is a direct drive from Grand Teton to Yellowstone!
👆 Why is it called the John D Rockefeller Jr Memorial Highway? John Rockefeller is credited for being a big part of expanding Grand Teton National Park.
3. Welcome to Yellowstone National Park!
When driving the road that connects Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone National Park, you’ll be entering from Yellowstone’s south entrance.
If you will be visiting Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and one more national park within a year that has a similarly priced national park entry fee, then it will be worth it to get the annual national park pass. As long as the entry booth is staffed, you can buy this when you arrive at your first national park. Now, you have arrived in Yellowstone and you’ll be driving through Yellowstone National Park!
👆 You will pass a number of signs indicating the Continental Divide.
4. West Thumb Geyser Basin Trail
The first “big” stop you will come across will be the West Thumb Geyser Basin. This can be a perfect first stop to make in Yellowstone! This is one of the many thermal basins in Yellowstone where you can see hot springs and geysers. You will see hot springs, and if you’re lucky you may see a small geyser erupting. This also makes for a nice lakeside walk along Yellowstone Lake.
After you have finished up walking around the West Thumb geyser basin, next you can make a slight detour to drive along Yellowstone Lake for a bit before turning around to continue your drive towards Old Faithful. This is not the direction of Old Faithful, but it’s a great scenic drive!
5. Old Faithful GeyserThe next major stop you may want to make is at the Old Faithful Geyser. This is one of the most popular spots in Yellowstone and it’s one of the best things to do in Yellowstone. Once you arrive at the Old Faithful Geyser parking lot, you’ll want to head to the visitor center to see when the next geyser eruption is predicted.
The most popular spot to watch the geyser is from the observation boardwalk that is right in front of the geyser.
You can also hike up to the Observation Point to see the geyser from above. You just want to make sure you give yourself enough time to get there before the next eruption!
See more about this Yellowstone stop: Old Faithful geyser overlook
The Old Faithful area is a rather large area, and you can also walk around the Upper Geyser Basin area to see if you can catch other geysers erupting too. There are several geysers near the Old Faithful Geyser that the National Park Service provides prediction times for. Note the PLUS or MINUS number! The geyser prediction time can be plus or minus 10 minutes or it can be plus or minus 2 hours!
If you have brought along your bikes for your Wyoming national parks road trip, this is a good area to make use of them! There is a paved path where you can ride up and down past geysers. See the geyser biking route. You can also rent a bike at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. And then once you’ve finished up at Old Faithful, you can keep driving north where you will find a couple more smaller thermal basins. Depending on how much time and daylight you have left, you may consider skipping one or both of these.
Black Sand Basin Trail
See more about this Yellowstone stop: Black Sand Basin
Biscuit Basin Trail
See more about this Yellowstone stop: Biscuit Basin
6. Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook Trail
And then if you continue driving north, you will see a sign for the Fairy Falls trailhead. This is where you will find the trail to the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook, which is another icon in Yellowstone National Park that you may very likely want to make time for. Towards the end of the trail, this becomes a steep hike. You will get to see the colorful Grand Prismatic Spring from above.
But, if you got a late start in starting your drive to Yellowstone AND you will be spending a full day in Yellowstone the next day, then you are better off waiting for the next day to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. That’s because to see the Grand Prismatic Spring at its best (aka bright colors!), you will want to see it when the sun is high and shining onto it. That’s when it will look its best. If you visit it towards sunset, it won’t look as bright and colorful. But of course, if sunset is your only chance to see the Grand Prismatic Spring, well then, you’ll want to see it anyway! It is a Yellowstone icon after all. If you start your drive towards Yellowstone in the morning, you can make it to the Grand Prismatic Spring to see its bright colors! … if it’s a day with the sun out!
See more about this Yellowstone stop: Grand Prismatic Spring overlook
If you want to see the Grand Prismatic Spring from ground level, that is just a little bit further up the road to the north, along the Midway Geyer Basin trail.
And then you can continue your drive further north to see more smaller thermal basins.
Firehole Lake DriveThermal spots along Firehole Lake Drive for example:
Fountain Paint Pots TrailThermal spots along Fountain Paint Pot Trail for example:
“Big” town to stay in near Yellowstone National Park: West Yellowstone MTAnd then from here, it can be perfect to drive onwards for a stay in West Yellowstone MT. This is one of the popular gateway towns for Yellowstone National Park. Can you drive through Yellowstone to Grand Tetons?Memorial Parkway connects Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. The parkway provides a natural link between the parks and tours many features that are iconic of both areas.
Can you do Yellowstone and Grand Tetons a day?If you want to see two parks in one trip – Yellowstone and Grand Teton – two days is an absolute minimum. This will allow you to see just the main highlights of each National Park. We recommend at least 4-6 days in the area: 3-4 days in Yellowstone and 1-2 days in Grand Teton.
How long does it take to get from Yellowstone to Grand Teton?How long is the drive from Yellowstone National Park to Grand Teton National Park? The total driving time is 1 hour, 16 minutes.
Which is better Tetons or Yellowstone?Attractions & Things to Do
those in Grand Teton National Park is that Yellowstone is more about sightseeing, often from the roadside or your vehicle. There are just so many amazing things to see in Yellowstone, and so little time to see them! Grand Teton, on the other hand, is more about doing and interacting.
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How far is grand tetons from yellowstone
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