Dirt In My Shoes

Trip Itineraries and Hiking Guides for America's National Parks

Grand Teton Trip Report

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Jenny Lake Shuttle Boat Ride at Grand Teton National Park | Dirt In My Shoes

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Podcast Episode Overview

This Grand Teton trip report is less about checklists and more about the pull of a place that gets passed down. On this visit, we brought our extended family — parents, siblings, and our four-month-old niece — back to Colter Bay for a summer built around making memories. 

During our stay, we adventured to String Lake, saw a rutting buffalo crossing at Elk Ranch Flats, and had a little detour that was unexpected, but proved to be one of the best parts of the trip. 

It’s different from our usual trip report, but we can’t think of any better way to spend time at Grand Teton National Park than with the people we love most!

In this episode, we cover:

  • A rundown of Grand Teton’s 2026 construction projects, from the new Moose entrance station to the Taggart Lake and Mormon Row parking lot overhauls
  • Why these construction delays will carry into next summer, too
  • What makes Grand Teton a multi-generational, legacy park for us
  • Our day at String Lake doing nothing but relaxing on the water
  • The rutting buffalo sighting at Elk Ranch Flats and the hike to Moose Ponds
  • Ash’s Jenny Lake “walk of shame” — and the insider timing trick that usually keeps it from happening

Your task for today: Do you have a legacy park — a place your family keeps returning to, generation after generation? Tell us over on the @DirtInMyShoes Facebook or Instagram page. If you don’t have one yet, let us know which park you want to claim as yours!

Planning your own Grand Teton adventure?

Grand Teton Trip Report

There’s a stretch of road just past the Moose entrance where Grand Teton National Park comes into full view all at once. No matter how many times you’ve seen it, it will absolutely take your breath away…every single time.

That’s the moment we chase every time we come back to this park, and this summer, we got to chase it with three generations of our family in tow. It was truly such a special trip for us, and we can’t think of any better way to kick off our Grand Teton Trip Report than this!

Grand Teton National Park views

Grand Teton Construction Updates: Know Before You Go

If you’re planning a trip to Grand Teton any time soon, you’re unfortunately going to run into construction. The park has been encouraging visitors to use the Moran entrance instead of Moose where possible since nearly every major project this year is clustered around the south end of the park.

Here’s what’s currently in progress:

  • Moose-Wilson Road Realignment: Crews are rerouting the road so it feeds into Moose after the entrance station instead of before it, which should finally fix any entrance headaches. 
  • A Brand-New Moose Entrance Station: Replacing the old, tiny building that’s been there for decades.
  • Maynard’s Ferry Work: A smaller, out-of-the-way project most visitors won’t notice.
  • Continued Moose-Wilson Road Construction: Includes the Death Canyon Road and Death Canyon Trailhead, which is closed for the season while a new one is built.
  • A New Mormon Row Parking Lot and Walking Paths: To replace the current free-for-all parking situation
  • Taggart Lake Trailhead Improvements: To include a bigger parking lot and a temporary trail detour.

The road construction page has the most current status of all of these. We recommend checking it close to your trip since there’s bound to be some kind of shift during the season. 

Head’s up: These are multi-year projects, so if you’re visiting in 2027, expect a lot of this same construction to still be underway! 

A Grand Teton Trip Report Built Around Family, Not a Checklist

Most of our trip reports are packed with hour-by-hour plans, because that’s genuinely how we like to travel here. But this one was different. 

Grand Teton is a legacy park for both of our families. We each grew up coming here, it’s where I worked my very first ranger job, and for years my grandma was the one who organized big extended-family trips here. 

When she passed, those group trips paused for a while. This time, my parents picked the tradition back up, and we brought my brand-new niece to the Tetons at four months old, continuing a family habit of getting our kids here before they can even walk.

If you’ve got a place like this in your own life, it’s worth protecting that tradition, even if it means slowing down and doing less than you normally would on a trip.

Where We Stayed at Grand Teton

For this trip, our whole extended family stayed together at the Colter Bay tent cabins, which we hadn’t actually done before. We’re normally in the regular cabins or camping with our travel trailer. 

The tent cabins are rustic — two log walls, two canvas walls, and bunk beds that fold down from the wall on chains, with no ladder to get to the top bunk. 

We loved having a shared gathering space between our family’s cabins, and even with a few spider-related nerves (you can hear John’s real-time commentary on that in the episode!), everyone agreed it was one of the best family reunions we’ve had here.

A Full Day at String Lake

One of our best days of the whole trip was doing basically nothing at String Lake. We set up our Camp Chef to make pancakes at the picnic area, claimed a spot on the beach, and stayed there the entire day — floating, paddleboarding on a blow-up board big enough for the whole group, and taking turns holding our tiny niece in the shallow water near shore. 

String Lake has some of the best swimming in the park, and it’s a great option if your group wants mountain views without needing to hike for them.

String Lake at Grand Teton National Park

INSIDER TIP:
If you’re traveling with a big group and want a full day of low-effort fun, String Lake is perfect. It works for a mixed group of hikers and non-hikers more than almost anywhere else in the park — you get real Teton views without asking anyone to lace up boots.

Buffalo at Elk Ranch Flats and the Hike to Moose Ponds

We also got our family out on a hike to Moose Ponds, along the south shore of Jenny Lake — a spot that almost always has moose hanging out. This time, no moose showed up, but we did see a bear tucked into the trees along the same trail, and we caught a herd of buffalo rutting and crossing the road at Elk Ranch Flats.

It was a great payoff after a quiet wildlife trip otherwise.

Grand Teton National Park views

Visiting Jenny Lake? Get There Early!

For the first time ever, we did not get a parking spot at Jenny Lake. 

We got a slower start than usual with a big group, and by the time we arrived, the lot was full, and we had to park along the road and walk in.

INSIDER TIP: 
Arrive at Jenny Lake early, before the entrance lines and parking lot fill up, and everything downstream gets easier too — you get right onto one of the first shuttle boats, you don’t fight the return-boat line later in the day, and your whole visit moves faster. Showing up late can stack up delays on things like the entrance line, parking, the boat line, and the return boat line.

But this time, we got lucky with a pleasant surprise. Because of the wait, we skipped the shuttle boat across to Hidden Falls this time and just enjoyed the walk instead — which honestly was a nice change of pace, even if it wasn’t the plan.

Jenny Lake at Grand Teton National Park

The Best Part of Any Legacy Trip

What made this Grand Teton trip different from others is that it wasn’t really about the itinerary at all. It was about picking a place that means something to your family and coming back to it again and again, and letting your traditions bend slightly to fit whoever you’re traveling with that year. 

Some of the best travel days aren’t the ones with the fullest schedule — they’re the ones where you finally let yourself just sit at the lake and enjoy each other’s company!

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

While You’re in the Area:

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