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Major Road Closures Coming to Grand Teton National Park: What to Know

Starting today, a crucial section of Grand Teton National Park‘s main drive, Teton Park Road, will begin closing for two-hour increments.

According to the northwestern Wyoming park, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Upper Snake Field Office requires the temporarily closing Teton Park Road. The road will close across the Jackson Lake Dam within Grand Teton National Park on an intermittent basis as a result of their work.

BOR’s project requires crane work on the dam, and will set and move the bulkhead gate atop it. BOR will also inspect and perform maintenance work across Jackson Lake Dam. During closures, Grand Teton visitors will not be able to make a through-trip on Teton Park Road, their media release states.

Grand Teton National Park’s Teton park Road Closure Schedule

  • Closures begin October 11 and run through Oct. 29
  • Closures will take place Monday through Friday between 9 AM and 4 PM
  • Each closure will last up to two hours at a time
  • Teton Park Road will remain open in the evenings and weekends

The biggest caveat from these closures will be the inability for visitors to access the northern part of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park to the north. If this is part of your travel plans, Grand Teton National Park recommends taking U.S. Highway 89/191/287.

Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) work on Jackson Lake Dam. (Photo Credit: Grand Teton, NPS media release)

“Variable message boards advising visitors of the closures will be operational 24 hours in advance,’ the park cites. Boards will be staged at Jackson Lake Junction and near Signal Mountain Lodge. In addition, the park is bringing in flaggers to alert visitors of hard closures north of Jackson Lake Dam and south of Catholic Bay Picnic Area.

Please keep in mind that the schedule above may change or delay due to weather conditions or other extenuating circumstanes.

Grand Teton also Closing Areas for 2022 Grizzly Bear Capture

In addition, Grand Teton National Park will close certain areas for this year’s conservational grizzly bear capture.

An adult grizzly bear (brown bear subspecies) forages in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. (Photo credit: NPS Photo/C. Adams)

“As part of ongoing efforts required under the Endangered Species Act to monitor the population of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, park biologists in cooperation with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) will conduct capture operations within Grand Teton,” GRTE announced last week.

Captures began within the national park October 3, and efforts will last throughout the month until November 1. The Yellowstone National Park grizzly capture is currently underway and will overlap until Oct. 28, 2022, as well.

For more on these closures, see our Grand Teton National Park Grizzly Bear Research Trapping update next.