Grand Teton isn’t as prone to crowding.
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here’s been a lot of discussion about National Parks since the spring of 2025, when headline after headlined rolled out about the Trump Administration’s plan to cut staffing at the National Park Service (NPS).
While the cuts seesawed back and forth after a succession of legal battles, by the end of August, the New York Times had reported that more than 90 parks—more than one-fifth of the 433 overseen by the NPS—have experienced strain from understaffing, leaving fees uncollected, garbage piled up, and educational programming for school students slashed.
But that leaves a significant number of parks relatively unscathed. The New York Times highlights many of the country’s most popular parks, such as Glacier National Park, Zion National Park, and Grand Canyon National Park, in a critical situation due to staffing and funding cuts, leaving many travelers planning visits to a National Park this summer confused. Would the park they planned to visit be one of the affected, or would it be business as usual? And how could they know in advance of their visit?
I visited Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyoming, over the Labor Day weekend and found the conditions quite manageable.
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“I wouldn’t say there’s been any noticeable impact because of staffing,” Jedidiah, my guide with Jackson Hole Wildlife Safaris, observed as we motored the few miles to the park from the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole in a resort-branded Rivian electric SUV. In just minutes, we slowed for a pair of cars pulled over on the side of the road, watching a black bear feasting on some berry bushes.
We stopped for a brief moment, careful not to hold up any motorists behind us, and Jedidiah gently admonished a pair of tourists who had gotten out of their car for a photo.
“It’s not like there are signs every hundred yards telling you to stay in your car if you see wildlife,” I mused sarcastically as we continued up the road. Just a few minutes later, we encountered a park vehicle with volunteer staffers, which Jedidiah alerted that there was the beginning of a small traffic buildup on account of the bear. The volunteers, he said, would generally break up the traffic jams, directing traffic to keep moving, rather than clogging up the roads to view wildlife.
The worker at the fee station at the park’s entrance also said it was business as usual. “There might have been a cut or two among the administrative staff,” she said. “But the seasonal workers are all here.”
Wyoming News says staffing in the park is on par with previous years, and some workgroups have even slightly more workers than they did last year.
“Grand Teton isn’t as prone to crowding,” Jedidiah noted as we drove on, noting that parks like Yellowstone, to the immediate north, have their banner attractions that visitors flock to, but much of the park is unvisited. Grand Teton, by comparison, doesn’t have the big-ticket views or attractions like Old Faithful, which means visitors tend to spread out more across the park.
In fact, we didn’t really run into crowds of any significant size except for two areas: Mormon Row, where there’s a popular “postcard” photo spot of the Grand Teton mountain peaks with historic barns in the foreground, and some of the viewing pullouts near Jenny Lake. Otherwise, the park was about as trafficked as one might expect for a holiday weekend. With a packed breakfast provided by the Four Seasons nestled in the back (the coffee was welcome with a 6:30 AM start—the hotel’s plush beds are particularly difficult to leave at that hour) we tracked the sunrise over the valley, spotting a mama bison grooming her “red dog” calf among a herd, a pair of bull moose rutting while a disinterested cow looked on, and a handful of other black bears gorging on berries in preparation for their winter naps.
The wildlife safaris are one of the more popular excursions on offer at the Four Seasons, located at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort , a ski area just next to the park entrance. Even here, the holiday weekend crowds aren’t overwhelming, and there’s plenty of space aboard the tram ride up to the 10,450 elevation Top of the World, where even in the summer the ski chalet proffers hot chocolate and waffles.
The Takeaway
While the NPS has been affected by funding and staffing cuts, the impacts vary widely among the individual parks, which are still in need of visitors and largely supported by entrance fees in addition to government funding. The best resource for planning park visits is the NPS website, which will note closures and openings of park facilities, give information about fee stations and crowding, and trail conditions before a visit.
