For most travelers, the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway is just a highway between Yellowstone National Park's South Entrance and Grand Teton National Park. There a few scenic pulloffs and unpaved access roads into the Bridger-Teton and Targhee national forests, but few visitors tarry as they focused on the well-known destinations in the two national parks.
But tucked off a gravel Grassy Lake Road on the west side of the parkway, a few miles beyond the Flagg Ranch concessionaire campground and cabins, are twenty rustic, first-come, first-served campsites, many of which are sited on a terrace just above the young Snake River which rises just a few miles northeast. The sites are free and open until the road is closed by heavy snow. Each has a fire ring, picnic table, bear boxes and bear-proof trash containers, and each cluster has a modern design vault toilet.
