Sublime Beauty at the Snake River Headwaters

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.

 

Google Map view of Grassy Lake Campsite Group 3

We camped in the third "group" of sites, in our case, two spots, in late October 2015.  Below us was a majestic, sweeping bend of the Snake River, with open flats and brushy meadows giving way to talus slopes on the mountainsides across the way.  A few quaking aspen still boasted golden leaves, enhancing the beauty of the scene.

It snowed off and on all night and in the morning, we found tracks from two bears all around our a-frame camper and torn tree bark a few feet away.  We weren't bothered overnight and never heard a thing.  One set of tracks was fairly large, suggesting a large black bear.  Wish we'd seen them but in the morning, they had moved on.

West of the campsites, the Grassy Lake Road continues on to Ashton, Idaho.  Be wary of making the trip; the good gravel surface deteriorates at the forest boundary not far beyond the campsites, and continues as a narrow, rough gravel road for thirty-six miles, then another twelve miles to Ashton.  Total driving time is about three hours.