Spring

It’s recommended you pack layers no matter what activity you’re doing in Jackson Hole (this is also true year-round). In the spring especially, you want multiple layers to get through any day. You might wear a puffy jacket to keep warm on your morning walk to the coffee shop, but then in the afternoon you want to change into a T-shirt and shorts to keep cool. A rain jacket is a good idea too; May is, on average, the rainiest month of the year.

What to Pack by Season

Wildlife watching is particularly rewarding in the spring, when many animals come out of hibernation or migrate between their summer and winter grounds. Spring can be the best time for “brown pow” on low-elevation mountain biking trails. Road biking Grand Teton National Park’s Inner Park Loop Road before it opens to cars on May 1 is one of locals’ favorite things of the year. On a sunny day, there might be hundreds of cyclists, rollerbladers, joggers, walkers, even pogo stick-ers enjoying this tradition (it’s been an annual thing since the 1970s); the most experienced pack a picnic lunch. The Snake River usually crests the first week of June, making whitewater rafting and paddling extra exciting. Hikers can see the season’s first wildflowers on low-elevation hiking trails starting in mid-April.

Spring Activities 

Almost all hotels and motels are open in March, April, and May. To give their staff time to recharge before the busy summer season, some restaurants and stores may close for a few weeks during part of April or early May, but they don’t all typically close at the same time.

The Inner Park Loop Road in Grand Teton National Park is closed to cars until May 1 but opens to non-motorized traffic, including bicycles, between late March and mid-April. Many forest service roads are closed until the winter’s snow has melted and are no longer muddy, usually in late May or early June. Campgrounds don’t open until late April.

While April and May days get into the 50s and 60s, the average nighttime temperatures in both these months is around freezing. Most developed campgrounds and dispersed camping areas in the Bridge-Teton National Forest aren’t open until mid-May. Their opening depends on the amount of winter snowfall. In Grand Teton National Park, the first campground opens in late April and sleeping overnight in vehicles is not allowed in pullouts, parking areas, picnic grounds, or any place other than a designated campground. Overnight parking at trailheads is permitted, but only with a backcountry camping permit.

It’s always important to store food and other attractants in a way that prevents bears from getting at them. This is especially important in the spring, when bears emerge from hibernation and are more ravenous than usual.

The first sign of spring in Jackson Hole isn’t budding leaves or blooming flowers but bears coming out of hibernation. The first such bear is usually spotted in March, when the valley is still buried beneath several feet of snow. Spring as most people know it — no snow, leaves budding, temperatures warm enough for shorts and flip-flops, the first flowers blooming — doesn’t usually arrive in Jackson Hole until early May. And this is only at the valley’s lower elevation. Above 10,000 feet, where there’s more snow to melt and temperatures are cooler than in the valley, spring can last into early July.