June 2015
There is a mythical place to stay when visiting the Tetons. A place with views so grand that they had to be seen to be believed. A place that all the cool kids talk about. And the best part? It is free to stay there. Oh, yes, could this be the holy grail of camping spots? It was a tough mission to find out, but we decided take on the task.
The Upper Teton View is the place of legends. OK, maybe not legends, but it is a pretty sweet place to camp for a bit. Located just outside the Grand Teton National Park on Forest Service land, the prime spots at Upper Teton View offer unrestricted views of the Teton mountains and the valley floor. Located up a slight hill and accessed via gravel roads, Upper Teton View turned out to be everything we had heard.
Upon arrival we found that the area was mainly vacant. As this is dispersed camping, rather than a developed campground, there aren’t defined campsites to use. Instead, there are areas you can plant your RV (or tent). The prime area, with unobstructed views of the Teton mountain range, was completely available. We positioned my house to get the best views out of the side and front windows. We then parked the Jeep in such a way as to “reserve” the area next to us for Dave and Kelly, who would be joining us the next day.
Dave and Kelly couldn’t get enough of us and were following in our footsteps. OK, maybe that wasn’t the case, but they were becoming regular camping buddies as this would be the third time we had been together. Being a nomad, you might see someone multiple times in a fairly short period of time, then you won’t see them for a year or more. Not sure when I will next run into Dave and Kelly as they were headed east as we headed west, but I am sure our paths will cross down the road.
For the last 2 nights of our 7 night stay, we were joined by Kate and Iain, which meant Kathy and I were surrounded by Airstreams. I had briefly met Kate and Iain during my 6 months in Austin but had never camped with them, so it was great to have them join our little group.
Upper Teton View was a great base for exploring Grand Teton National Park, the town of Jackson, and the surrounding area. It was all that we had hoped it would be, and other than the mosquitoes (not a problem other times of the year), it was a perfect spot to spend a week.
Never got tired of the view
Looks amazing. This may be the place we’ve heard of between Yellowstone and the Tetons. Do you have GPS coordinates by chance?
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It’s a lot closer to the Tetons, but might be the spot you have heard of. Do you guys use Campendium? (If not, you should! 😉 ). Here is the review page of it, including GPS coordinates. https://www.campendium.com/upper-teton-view
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Wondering about generator use here…were people topping off batteries, etc. or is everyone who heads here mostly self-sufficient with solar?
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Hey Derek! Great question! The group of 3 rigs I was with were all solar (but the other two have backup generators just in case). I don’t recall it being a particularly noisy place with other rigs running their generators, but it’s coming up on two years and I have a particularly crappy memory. 😳 Generally in places like this (as you may very well know) it’s a mixed bag. You’ll have the diehard solar people (cuz we like our peace and quiet) and you’ll have people who use generators. Hopefully the generator people don’t run them all day long and don’t have loud construction style generators. I hope that helps…
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Yes…it’s the fear of the solar people that makes me scared to try out places like this. Currently we would need to run a few hours to recharge every day, and I don’t want to bother others…but I also don’t want to miss out…but I also don’t want to drop the $$$ for a proper solar setup yet…
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As long as you have a quiet-ish generator it’s all good. At least you are aware, which is miles ahead of a lot of campers. If you have to run a generator then just make sure you are far enough away from others (this is not always possible, but usually is) that might be disturbed by it. No reason to not get out there and enjoy these places because there are some incredibly spectacular Boondocking spots out there. Beats the hell out of staying in a campground, I always say. ☺️
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