I'm pretty sure which choice I'm going to select between the two options I have and I bet you can too.
OPTION #1 - Take the shorter 126-mile route which follows ID-33 up and over the 8431' Teton Pass before dropping down into Wyoming on WY-22. There are 10% grades along the route and several landslide areas.
Just last year in June a large section of the roadway was carried away by a mudslide. It was closed for just over a year and reopened in late June this year with the final work completed in early July. It is now expected to have a 75-year lifespan without any further repairs needed.
With 10% grades and recent mudslides I think I'll take a real close look at my other option.
OPTION #2 - Take the longer 191-mile scenic route through what's called Swan Valley in Idaho and Hoback Canyon in Wyoming. The bonus is most of the extra 65-miles of this route follows the Snake River through the Teton Mountain Range at much lower elevations and just 6% grades in a few places (both up and down).
The Snake River begins in Yellowstone National Park, flows completely across the state of Idaho (east to west), then creates the northeast border between Idaho and Oregon, before joining the Columbia River in Washington. After that, they both flow west into the Pacific Ocean.
While still in Idaho, just 14.5-miles before we crossed into Wyoming (which BTW was our 101st border crossing), we came upon a very large and thick earthen dam.
We waited until we crossed the border into Wyoming to fill up ROVER's tank and at $3.49 we saved $0.50 a gallon for our efforts. That's amounts to $15.00 when you pump 30-gallons into your tank.
I'm sure glad we were able to purchase gas just before entering and just after exiting from Idaho. The prices in Idaho were between $3.99 and $4.19 at all the stations we passed. Most were towards the higher price, so I guess that's just one more gripe I have about Idaho.
Once we made it out of the mountains we were just 13-miles from our next challenge, that would be negotiating the downtown urban traffic of Jackson, WY (pop. 10,760). The town is often called Jackson Hole, which is the name of the valley in which it is located.
Luckily the traffic was moving slow enough that I was able to spot a little sign at one of the intersections that read "Truck Route". My GPS wanted me to go another 3-blocks in the stop and go traffic, but I decided to take a chance and easily rolled though a few back streets that bypassed the famous 1934 Jackson Town Square with it's elk antlers arches on each of the four corners of the square.
After clearing the town limits of Jackson it was clear all the way to the pullout for the Grand Teton National Park Entrance Sign. We still had ROVER with us, but we pulled into the very busy pullout anyway.
There must have been 50 people standing in line to get their picture taken in front of the sign, so we settled for this photo of a very cloudy scene over the Grand Tetons (August 2025 at 2PM).
Two years ago when we first visited Grand Teton National Park we had reservations in three different campgrounds spread all over the park. Our first stop was to be here at Gros Ventre Campground, the southernmost campground in the park, but we had to cancel it to get some repair work done on ROVER.
We were able to keep the other two reservations and had an awesome 11-day visit, but I promised myself someday we would return to visit this campground. Well, today is the day!
Two years ago, when we had 11-days to explore the park, we drove the entire inside and outside loop of the park and pulled over into every one of the scenic pullouts we could find.
One of those pullouts is called Schwabacher Landing, and it's widely known that if you wish to see a moose in Grand Teton National Park, this is the place you want to be at sunrise. Two years ago we were here in the mid-afternoon with only a few dozen others, but of course there was no moose to be seen in the afternoon.
This time around we got up early, 5:30AM EARLY, were out of THE POD by 6:00AM, pulling off the Highway with 1-mile still to go to get to the small parking lot by 6:20AM, and sunrise isn't for another 7-minutes.
Well, we got about 3/4-mile down this 1-mile gravel road when we came to a complete stop. With 1/4-mile to go cars were just abandoned on the gravel road, blocking incoming traffic and making it difficult for anyone who wanted to turn around and leave, like we did.
There are 1320' in a 1/4-mile, and at a very generous 20' per car, it means there were potentionally 66 cars in front of us, plus another dozen or so that the parking lots holds, and figuring at least 2 people in each car puts it at more than 150 people out there trying to take the same photo of the moose.
That didn't sound like something we would enjoy, so we turned around and left. Just 12-miles up the road we were rewarded with literally crossing paths with a herd of bison (reportedly 450 head) and a smaller herd of wild horses (10 head). We pulled off the road and spent nearly 45-minutes watching the wildlife before moving on to something else.
SIGHTSEEING IN GRAND TETON
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A 6:45AM view of the Grand Teton Mountains from the Glacier View Turnout.
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This is all that's left of the shrinking Middle Teton Glacier...
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...and the nearby TeePee Glacier is all but gone.
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Only the Teton Glacier located between Grand Teton and Mount Owen is still visible.
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12-miles up the road we saw the bison herd in the same field we did 2-years ago.
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Something we didn't see 2-years ago were the wild horses in the field across the street.
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The 300lb. redish one was born this spring and the 600lb. darker ones are from last spring.
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This is the 12,610' Mount Moran which dominates the northern section of the Teton Range.There are several active glaciers on the mountain with Skillet Glacier clearly visible here.
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We also saw this American Bald Eagle very far away near the top of a tree.
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The Teton Range.
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It's 8:00AM and the clouds are allowing the sun to light up Grand Teton's 13,775' peak.
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This photo may look familiar, it's our Facebook Group's new cover photo.
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Outside of Grand Teton N.P. and inside the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkwayyou'll find eight FREE FCFS camping areas located off the Parkway and this is Site #1.
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This is Campsite #3, our favorite, with a view of the Snake River.
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A bridge view of Polecat Creek before it feeds into the Snake River downstream.
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Time to re-enter Grand Teton National Park while heading south.
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Fireweed will grow and blossom along the edge of the road until the first frost.
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There are only about 60 contiguous frost free days each year in Grand Teton National Park.
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Jackson Lake in the foreground with the Teton Range in the background.
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A closer look at the glaciers on Mount Moran.
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The controlled outflow of water from the Jackson Lake Dam.
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The mechanical pulleys used to raise and lower the gates of the dam.
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More glacier views from the Mount Moran Turnout.
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The rock debris that is left behind as the glacier receeds in called a moraine.
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This view is from the Jenny Lake Overlook.
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More glaciers of the Teton Range.
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Hidden Falls is a popular 5-mile RT hike up into the valley in the center of the photo.
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The view of the Grand Tetons at noon...
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...and 30-minutes later at 12:30PM.
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We stopped and talked to the owners of this custom built 2008 30' Airstream.Purchased "for cheap" as a totalled insurance claim in 2018 and by 2020
it was back on the road to stay. The trailer has 2-doors, unheard of for an Airstream.
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It also has a rooftop tent for the kids, with an indoor and outdoor ladder to access it.He didn't offer to show me the inside and I didn't ask.
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Four bike riders in the campground stopped at the campsite next to us.They started pointing and we started wondering.
This American Badger was playing peek-a-boo in the brush.
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I finally talked Tricia into going next door and taking some photos...
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Jackson is a tourist town, with dozens of places to eat within walking distance of Jackson Town Square. We decided to have Italian for lunch and the highest rated Italian Restaurant in town is called Hand Fire Pizza.
Classic Calzone was filled with mozzarella and ricotta cheese, sausage and pepperoni, plus some tomato sauce.
Tricia took home 3/4 of her pizza and 1/2 of the salad. I was only able to save 1/4 of my calzone, but if Tricia will share, I believe we can make another lunch out of the leftovers.
We were only 1/2 a block from the Jackson Town Square so we walked over to make sure the famous antler arches were still there. Yep! All four corners are still intact!
The price will set you back a little. With tip, our 1-scoop cup of ice cream with two spoons cost us $9.96, but it was delicious and a very healthy sized scoop it was! SORRY, no photo!
After a 2-block walk to get back to where we parked the truck, we drove to the south end of town and filled up with $3.48 gasoline at the Maverik Station. While pumping the gas I saw an advertisement for Honeydew flavored Mountain Dew. I've got to try me one of those and left the pump running while I hightailed it into the store.
They had 3-bottles left in the refrigerator case, but I only purchased one of them. There haven't been many flavors of Mountain Dew that I've disliked, but purchasing just one for now seemed like the right decision to make.
With all the in town necessities taken care of it's time to head back to the campground. Instead of taking the main highway out of town, like we did on the way into town, we're going to take the backroad into Grand Teton National Park.
If you take the aptly named Moose Wilson Road, named that because it connects the towns of Moose and Wilson. Not everyone knows about this Granite Canyon Entrance. The 20MPH speed limit on the 7-mile long road will give you time to enjoy the slower pace.
No trailers of any size are allowed on the road and large Class A Motorhomes are highly discouraged from using the entrance. The road is VERY narrow is places, with tight blind curves, and single lane bridges. Several times I came to a complete stop while oncoming traffic passed by us, not wanting to bang mirrors with the oncoming pickup trucks.
MORE SIGHTSEEING
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The Teton side view while approaching the town of Winston on WY-22.
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Here's the view just after passing through the Granite Canyon Entrance Station.
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We are back out on the main highway now on a bright and sunny 80°F day.
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We finally made it to the parking lot at Schwabacher Landing at 3:15PM.
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There were only about a dozen cars here and of course, no moose!
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There was however a rather large family of ducks to keep us entertained.
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This is the end of the trail where all the moose are sighted at 6:00AM.
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The other thing Schwabacher Landing is famous for is this "reflection" photograph.
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I'd say Tricia "nailed it" twice with these two.
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No trip to Grand Teton would be complete without a visit to see the barns on Mormon Row.
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This is the most famous, the 1908 Thomas Alva (T.A.) Moulton Barn.This is another early morning photo location with the Grand Tetons lit up in the background.
This backlit 4:00PM afternoon photo just doesn't do justice to the beauty of the scene.
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