Things to Do in Jackson Hole: A Local Guide

Ride the Aerial Tram to 10,450 feet on a clear morning and the Tetons close in around you. Big Red climbs 4,139 vertical feet out of Teton Village, and Grand Teton National Park starts a few miles up the road. In winter, roughly 8,000 elk gather on the National Elk Refuge. In summer, the Grand Teton Music Festival fills seven weeks with orchestral music. The four antler arches on Town Square stand year round, and moose graze the willow flats along the Snake River. The range here is as much a fixture of ordinary life as the arches downtown.

There is a lot to do in a valley this size, and it changes with the season. Here is what is worth your time, from the local team who live here year round.

Locals call it Big Red, and it is the fastest way to understand why Jackson Hole draws skiers and hikers from all over. The Aerial Tram climbs 4,139 vertical feet from Teton Village to the 10,450-foot summit of Rendezvous Mountain in about ten minutes, opening onto a full sweep of the Tetons, the valley floor, and the Gros Ventre Range beyond. It is the single view that sells people on the place.

At the top, Corbet’s Cabin serves the warm waffles that have become a ritual for skiers and hikers alike, and a network of trails fans out toward Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger-Teton National Forest. In summer you can ride up and hike down, or hike up and let the tram carry you back. The summer tram season runs from the middle of May into the first days of October. The Bridger Gondola offers a gentler climb to its own mid-mountain dining and trails, and for a quick lift without leaving town, the gondola on Snow King rises above Jackson itself in a few minutes.

By July the valley floor is warm and dry even while snow lingers on the high passes. Wildflowers push up through the sagebrush, the Snake River runs full with snowmelt, and the days are long enough for a wildlife drive at sunrise and a hike the same evening. Summer is when the list of things to do in Jackson Hole runs longest.

Hike in Grand Teton National Park

The classic introduction to hiking in Grand Teton National Park starts with a shuttle boat across Jenny Lake, then an easy walk of about a mile round trip to Hidden Falls, a hundred-foot cascade. Push another half mile up to Inspiration Point for the long view back over the lake, which makes 1.8 miles round trip in all.

Skip the boat and the walk to Hidden Falls along the shoreline becomes 4.9 miles round trip. The full Jenny Lake loop runs 7.1 miles and gains about 1,000 feet, a comfortable half day on gentle ground. You can also step off the top of the tram and walk through the high-country wildflowers instead.

Mountain Biking

The Cache Creek and Snow King trail systems, both a short pedal from Town Square, hold singletrack for every ability. Stronger riders head out to Teton Village for lift-served descents. In the shoulder seasons, fat bikes keep the Cache Creek trails and Snow King’s lower slopes rideable through the weeks when the rest of the valley turns to mud.

Wildlife and the Snake River

The valley is one of the great wildlife-watching corners of the Lower 48, and summer brings moose, pronghorn, and the occasional bear to the meadows and the river corridor that threads through Grand Teton National Park. A slow float down the Snake, guided or on your own, is the best low-effort way to see it.

Ski Jackson Hole’s Legendary Terrain

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort earned its name on steep, technical skiing, much of it reached only by the tram, and the mountain’s signature is Corbet’s Couloir, one of the most famous inbounds runs in North America. There is more here than the steeps. Beginners have their own ground at the base off Teewinot and Eagle’s Rest, and the Bridger Gondola opens a long run of intermediate and advanced terrain, so a mixed-ability group can split up for the morning and meet back at Corbet’s Cabin over a waffle and the day’s tall tales. The 2026/27 season opens on November 27 and runs into April.

Beyond the Slopes

Horse-drawn sleigh rides run daily onto the National Elk Refuge from the middle of December into early April, carrying you close enough to hear the herd. Roughly 8,000 elk winter on the refuge, one of the largest gatherings in North America. In town, the National Museum of Wildlife Art holds more than 5,000 catalogued works by over 550 artists, open daily through the summer and Tuesday to Sunday from November. Snow King, the town hill, adds tubing, the Cowboy Coaster, and a free bouldering park, and the shops and galleries around Town Square fill the hours between mountain days.

September is the valley’s quiet reward. The elk begin to bugle in the surrounding hills, and the aspens turn gold along the Cache Creek and Snake River corridors while the trails that felt busy in July empty out. The Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival returns for twelve days in the middle of the month. The fat bikes come back out as the trails soften, and the Aerial Tram runs to the start of October for a last set of high views before the lifts turn over to winter.

For a town this size, the calendar is unusually rich, and for a lot of visitors an event is the reason for the trip.

• Grand Teton Music Festival, seven weeks of orchestral and chamber concerts each summer under music director Sir Donald Runnicles, with free community and family programs alongside the ticketed orchestra series.
• Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, twelve days each September celebrating Western and wildlife art across the town’s galleries.
• Snow King summer concerts, held at the summit and reached by a short ride above town.
• Jackson Hole Rendezvous, which brings national touring acts to the base of the resort each spring.

Trappers once called mountain-ringed valleys “holes”, and the fur-trapping era of the 1820s and 1830s gave Jackson Hole its name long before the town of Jackson took shape. The valley’s best-known landmark is younger than that. In 1953 the local Rotary Club built the first of four elk antler arches on the southwest corner of Town Square, using antlers shed each spring by the herd that winters on the National Elk Refuge just north of town.

The other three followed between 1966 and 1969. All four were rebuilt over a nine-year project finished in 2015, and the new arches are expected to stand for about fifty years. The antlers are still gathered on the refuge each April by local Boy Scouts and auctioned on the square in May, a spectacle worth timing a spring trip around.

Palate, the restaurant inside the National Museum of Wildlife Art, serves lunch on a deck that looks straight out over the National Elk Refuge, which makes it the natural pairing for an afternoon among the galleries. Down in town, the streets around Town Square hold a dense run of restaurants, coffee bars, and Western saloons, nearly all of it within an easy walk of the hotels and vacation homes. An evening out here does not ask you to get in a car.

Jackson Hole is a rewarding place to bring children. Ride the Aerial Tram for the view and reward the climb with a waffle at Corbet’s Cabin at the top. Let them loose in the interactive Children’s Gallery and along the sculpture trail at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Pose for the family photo under an antler arch on Town Square. Snow King, an easy walk from downtown, has the Cowboy Coaster and a free bouldering park for the afternoons that need a little adrenaline. And in winter, a sleigh ride onto the National Elk Refuge is the low-key outing that lands with every age.

The START bus connects downtown Jackson with Teton Village, which makes a car-free day on the mountain easy to pull off. The town shuttles within Jackson are free, and the run out to Teton Village is three dollars each way. A rental car or a shuttle is worth having for trips into Grand Teton National Park, where trailheads like Jenny Lake and scenic routes such as the Moose-Wilson Road sit beyond the reach of the bus.

Ski season at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opens on November 27 and runs into April, and the Aerial Tram shifts to a summer sightseeing schedule from the middle of May into the first days of October. The high trails in Grand Teton National Park, including the route to Hidden Falls, are typically clear of snow by June and open into October. The National Elk Refuge sleigh rides run from the middle of December into early April, and the National Museum of Wildlife Art stays open through the year.

All of this runs more smoothly with someone local handling the details: the sleigh-ride booking before it fills, or the dinner table the week it seems impossible. When you are ready to settle on where to stay, browse our [Jackson Hole luxury vacation rentals](Jackson Hole luxury vacation rentals) and let our team take care of the rest.