Events & What’s Happening
Held in nearby Jackson Town Square, this annual event features elk antler auctions collected by Boy Scouts from the National Elk Refuge, live music, food vendors, and wildlife education booths.
💡Kids love watching the antler auction and learning about the elk refuge — arrive by 9am to snag a shaded spot on the square.
A special day celebrating the National Park Service Junior Ranger program with guided hikes, ranger-led activities, and badge ceremonies for kids throughout the park.
💡Pick up a Junior Ranger booklet at the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center early in your trip so kids can complete activities across multiple days.
A long-running western reenactment performed in Jackson Town Square multiple times per week throughout summer, featuring cowboy actors in dramatic Old West gunfight skits.
💡The loud gunshots can startle young toddlers — older kids aged 5 and up typically find it thrilling and fun.
A week-long celebration of Grand Teton's spectacular wildflower season featuring guided botanical hikes, photography workshops, and family-friendly nature walks led by local naturalists.
💡Sign up for the family nature walk session specifically — guides move at a kid-friendly pace and hand out wildflower identification cards children can keep.
A two-week celebration of visual arts, fine craft, and western culture featuring gallery walks, quick-draw competitions where artists paint live, and the iconic Western Design Conference.
💡The Quick Draw event on Town Square is completely free and mesmerizing for kids who love watching artists create paintings in under an hour.
Horse-drawn sleigh rides through the National Elk Refuge operated by the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation, giving families up-close views of thousands of wintering elk in their natural habitat.
💡Dress in more layers than you think you need — the sleigh is open air and temperatures drop quickly; mornings offer the best elk activity.
An end-of-season community ski race and celebration at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort marking the close of the ski season with costume contests, family races, and live music at the base.
💡Kids can enter the family race category regardless of skill level — the costume contest is a highlight and costumes can be rented in town.
Weekly outdoor farmers market at the base of Snow King Mountain featuring local produce, Wyoming-made goods, prepared foods, live music, and artisan crafts.
💡Kids love the prepared food stalls — arrive right at 8am when it opens for shorter lines and a relaxed atmosphere before the crowds arrive.
Sunday morning family-oriented guided nature programs led by Teton Science Schools naturalists, exploring ecology, wildlife tracking, and plant identification in and around Grand Teton National Park.
💡Programs are designed for ages 5 and up and limited in group size, so register online at least a week in advance to secure a spot.
Free weekly ranger-led interpretive programs for families at the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center covering topics like local wildlife, geology, Native American history, and park ecology.
💡Check the park's weekly program schedule at the visitor center upon arrival — topics rotate and some days include hands-on discovery tables for younger children.
When Teton Park Road closes to vehicles in winter, it becomes a popular groomed cross-country skiing and snowshoeing corridor inside Grand Teton National Park, with guided family sessions offered on weekends by park volunteers.
💡Snowshoe rentals are available at Dornans in Moose — kids' sizes are available and the flat road terrain is perfect for first-timers aged 4 and up.
Planning Your Visit
Neighborhoods & Areas
Local Tips for Families
- 💡The Jenny Lake ferry boat (operated by Teton Boating Company) cuts a 4-mile round-trip walk down to a 1-mile round trip to Hidden Falls — at $20/adult and $13/child round trip, it's worth every dollar for families with young kids and runs from mid-May through late September.
- 💡Dornan's Chuckwagon in Moose serves all-you-can-eat pancake breakfasts starting at 7am in summer — it's one of the only hot breakfast options inside park boundaries and fills up by 8:30am on weekends, so arrive early or plan a weekday visit.
- 💡The Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center in Moose opens at 8am and has a hands-on children's area with a touchable relief map of the Teton Range — spending 30 minutes here before hitting the trails gives kids enough context to recognize landmarks like Mount Moran and the Cathedral Group by sight.
- 💡Gros Ventre Campground, located 5 miles east of Moose, is the last campground in the park to fill each day and offers some of the best moose sightings at dawn along the Gros Ventre River — far better availability than Jenny Lake Campground, which books out months in advance on Recreation.gov.
- 💡The Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve Center near Phelps Lake (open 9am-5pm, summer only) limits parking to 50 cars total and has no cell service — arrive before 9:30am or you'll be turned away. The 2.4-mile Phelps Lake loop from this trailhead is one of the most manageable full-loop hikes for ages 5 and up in the entire park.
- 💡String Lake has a designated swimming area with a sandy entry point and is noticeably warmer than Jenny Lake because it's shallower — water temps reach 65-68°F by late July, making it the best swimming spot in the park for families with children.
- 💡The Jackson Hole & Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center in downtown Jackson (12 miles from Moose Entrance, free admission) has a standing-height grizzly bear mount and interactive wildlife exhibits — it's a worthwhile rainy-day backup that most visitors overlook in favor of driving straight into the park.
- 💡Wildlife sightings spike dramatically in the hour after sunrise along Antelope Flats Road and near Oxbow Bend — pack a thermos of coffee and drive this 5-mile loop between 6-8am before the tour buses arrive for a near-guaranteed bison and possible moose sighting.