travel from Utah into Grand Teton area

We will be staying overnight in Price, Utah and need some advice about where to break our journey as we go onto the Grand Tetons. Neither Green River nor Rock Springs sound very appealing, but we do not know how far we could realistically expect to travel for a place to stay. We are used to travelling long distances but personally I don%26#39;t really like spending long days just sitting in a car (my husband on the other hand is difficult to extract from behind the steering wheel :))Is Pinedale too far?

We do not need a fancy hotel but we would like to stay in some town where we can get a nice meal in the evening.

travel from Utah into Grand Teton area

I had three questions,,,first why stay in Price and second, why go to Rock Springs and third, are you heading all the way to the Teton Park or will you be stopping in Jackson?

From Price to Jackson will be about 8 hrs give or take depending on which road you take and there are many options. You may consider just driving straight there. Pinedale is a nice town-beautiful views of the Wind River Mts, though it is just a couple hours more to Jackson, so don%26#39;t know that I would stop.

Oh, just figured out you may be heading through Vernal...well, that would work, but your only options for lodging are very limited...Rock Springs isn%26#39;t bad-not great, and you would find more food options there than Green river...We usually end up at Mcdonalds for a quick lunch there...so can%26#39;t give you other restaurants.

You might consider I-15 to Brigham City then over on 89 to Logan and Bear Lake....Stop in Garden City.

travel from Utah into Grand Teton area

Dinosaur Nat. Mon near Vernal is an interesting stop for a break. About a couple hours. From there to Green River, WY is another couple hours. But taking the one hour longer route of UT-44 %26amp; WY-530 passes along some very spectacular scenery. Green River to Pinedale is another two hours. So seven hours plus stop time every couple hours to break up the drive. Jackson would be an hours and a half more.

Another option if not going all the way to Jackson might be to divert after Flaming Gorge on UT-43/WY-414 to I-80 at Ft. Bridger (very interesting and worth a stop) and then stay a night in Evanston. From there the next day you can run up the state line via US-30 and US-89 to Jackson (or altenrately go through Kemmerer and swing past the fossil beds to connect to US-30. About four hours drive time. Nice feature along the way is the canyon on the Snake River between Alpine and Hoback Jct. Very scenic up through the Salt River valley along the Salt River Range.

Thanks very much for these ideas - I would not have thought of these things until you both made your susggestions :) so that is rally helpful!

I%26#39;m not really committed to any particular route to get to the Tetons and YNP. I guess we want the best combination of jaw dropping scenery, places suitable to stop for a short walk and a look see on the way and comfy lodgings and a decent meal at the end of the day. Usually we would just drive along whatever looked the most interesting road and take our chances with finding a bed for the night, but it seems that a lot of places are already booked out (we are travelling in June) and I for one do not fancy sleeping in a car (again).

I should add the reason we are %26#39;starting%26#39; from Price is because we will have travelled up from Mexican Hat stopping at lots of places on the way. Price seemed the best option for overnighting with plenty of meal choices in the town.

Yes, Price is a resonable stopping place on US-191 if you plan on lots of stops along the way, like Canyonlands NP. Not a lot of miles. Do be sure to lock down accomodations. This not only relieves the risk of finding nothing available but also allows less stress or feeling that you have to rush the sightseeing in order to get to a town early enough to avoid sell outs. June starts to be the really busy part of family vacation (holiday) season in the U.S. due to schools letting out for several months early in the month. Then things really get busy towards month end with the big July 4th Independence Day holiday which is on a weekend this year making the week before and after extra busy.

I%26#39;ve checked TA for hotels in Evanston and there is a fairly good selection with availability. For restaurants TA had no listings but here is a link via Yahoo:

http://local.yahoo.com/WY/Evanston/Food+Dining/Restaurants/Restaurants

In June I suspect that the Salt River Valley part of US-89 will be very lush green and the Snake River canyon flowing pretty good. Also, Flaming Gorge would certainly qualify as jaw dropping and if vegetation is still green should contrast well with the colorful rocks.

If early in June there should also still be a fair number of Antelope around with babies. Mostly just standing along the road. Drive carefully through because while not near the 20,000 kangaroos hits per year in Australia there are many antelope (and deer and moose and buffalo) collisions in Wyoming...proably close to 5,000 including un-reported incidents. Pinedale is an especially frequent area but the animals are everywhere.