A Highlight Near Jackson Hole


     In the past couple years, I've camped at quite a few random locations that I've found on freecampsites.net. The most beautiful one I've come across so far is along Granite Creek Road in Bridger-Teton National Forest between Jackson and Pinedale, Wyoming. This nine mile long road boasts multiple attractions that make it a lovely and cheap destination. About an hour from Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole, it's an ideal spot to camp if visiting the park.

Camping Out

     I camped here the week after Labor Day, so my experience may differ a bit from what visitors might experience during the middle of summer. Online, many people mentioned that the dirt road was a perpetual cloud of dust due to a relatively high amount of traffic back and forth. This wasn't my experience at all though. Also mentioned online, the road had apparently been washed out at some point and wasn't easily passable for many vehicles. Again, this wasn't my experience. The road must have been fixed up since then. The majority of the road was no problem for my two-wheel drive Equinox.
     Along Granite Creek Road, there are numerous dispersed camping spots, albeit mostly used by RVs and trailers. We stayed in a tent, though, with no issues. Many of the sites are near the creek and have splendid mountain views. Coming through at around 6:30pm, we had no problem snatching up a breathtaking spot. Only a handful of other people were in the camping areas. Probably the biggest obstacle about finding a spot was the abundance of cows wandering around. We had to work around a few cow piles in the site we picked. I was afraid they might walk right to the tent!
     If dispersed camping isn't for you, there's actually a campground near the end of the road for a fee. It has pretty nice sites as well, but is really only worth the fee if you have a fear of using the bathroom outside.

Granite Hot Springs

     The coolest feature of this area is it's hot spring. The pool is only open from 10am to 6pm at this time of year unfortunately. We weren't able to go in the evening, but we showed up at the pool promptly at 10am the next morning. It was more developed than I had expected. There's an $8 fee for adults and $5 for kids, but well worth it. The spring feeds hot water into the pool, so closer to
the spring is hotter and farther away is cooler. Closest to the spring is just short of hot tub temperatures, with the rest of the pool being around the temperature of bath water. It was a lovely soak on a chilly morning. Arriving right at opening time, only a couple other people were at the pool. We heard talk of a small spring in the creek, but did not follow up on what we heard. If you visit, perhaps ask the attendant about any other springs in the area.

Limitless Attractions

     Did I mention there is a waterfall along this road? Some trails as well? trail information.
Granite Creek Falls lies near the road close to the pool. Trails start at a few different points, so watch for signage and review 
     If traveling through the Grand Teton area, Granite Creek is a perfect boondocking area to hang out in. During the day, relax at the pool, take in the views, or check out the trails. At night, enjoy nothing but the sound of the creek and a view of the Milky Way overhead.




More information about the springs
More information about the road
Location: Bondurant, WY, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve

Image
     Now that the school year has started, I'm pretty confined to the northern Illinois area most of the time. With that said, I still need to get my hiking and nature fix! I have found that there are plenty of forest preserves in my area that are worth checking out. Many of these forest preserves I've never been to, so I'm starting a journey in which I will be visiting more of these places.     Navigating      Anyway, one popular spot that often comes up on my internet searches while looking for places to go is Waterfall Glen forest preserve in DuPage County. Basically, this park surrounds Argonne National Laboratory. I took I-55 to get there and it was only a few minutes off of the expressway. Columbus Day was a very busy day to visit, so I'm not positive if it is always a struggle to find good parking or if it was only because it was a fall holiday weekend. There were a lot of cars parked out on the street. The waterfall parking area was v...
Read more

Getting Around Acadia National Park

Image
     After visiting Provincetown (and Boston . . . I'll post about that another time), we headed toward Maine to one of the destinations that excited us most while planning our trip.      If you check out the map, you can see that Acadia is located on Mt. Desert Island, yet is still pretty easy to get to. These are the locations we visited during our two days in the park:      View the full map  here .       While you're driving in and throughout Acadia, you often drive in and out of National Park Service lands. Make sure you go get the park pass at the visitor center or Park Loop Road entrance to avoid getting in trouble!       Anyway, most of the main attractions in Acadia are located on the eastern part of the island. Most of these spots are located on a one-way Park Loop Road . This is slightly inconvenient, but there are some other ways to navigate using non-park roads or riding ...
Read more