Wyoming’s Hidden Gems Worth the Drive
Remarkable destinations that offer the same wild grandeur—with far fewer crowds.
There’s a reason millions of people make their way to Grand Teton National Park every year. The abrupt rise of those peaks from the valley floor, the mirror-still lakes, the sense that the land here is doing something extraordinary—it’s hard to shake. But Wyoming is a vast state, and the qualities that make the Tetons so magnetic—dramatic geology, solitary wilderness, wildlife at every turn—show up in places far less traveled.
The destinations below each carry that same quiet power, but are all within two hours from Jackson.
Green River Lakes & Squaretop Mountain
Distance from Grand Teton: 105 miles | about 2.5 hours
Best compared to: The Teton Range skyline
If what moves you about the Tetons is the improbable verticality—peaks that seem to erupt from flat ground with no warning—then Green River Lakes will stop you in your tracks. Tucked into the southern Wind River Range, the trailhead here frames Squaretop Mountain in a way that rivals any viewpoint in the national park. The road in is gravel and takes its time, which is part of the point. Expect wildlife, expect solitude, and expect to stay longer than you planned.
Fremont Lake
Distance from Grand Teton: 89 miles | about 2 hours
Best compared to: Jackson Lake
Just four miles outside of Pinedale, Fremont Lake is Wyoming’s second largest natural lake—twelve miles long, a mile wide at its broadest, and 610 feet deep. The Wind River Range rises behind it like a painted backdrop. Boating, sailing, water skiing, and fishing all happen here, and the overlook at the top of Skyline Drive rewards anyone willing to make the climb. It has the scale of Jackson Lake with a fraction of the foot traffic.
Wind River Range
Distance from Grand Teton: 96.5 miles | about 2 hours (Elkhart Park Trailhead)
Best compared to: Teton backcountry
Ask serious backcountry hikers where they’d rather be—the Tetons or the Winds—and the conversation gets complicated fast. The Wind River Range holds two of Wyoming’s most celebrated backpacking routes: Titcomb Basin, accessible from Elkhart Park outside of Pinedale, and Cirque of the Towers, reached via the Big Sandy Trailhead near Boulder. Both routes reward the effort with alpine scenery that belongs on any serious Wyoming itinerary.
Periodic Intermittent Spring
Distance from Grand Teton: 79 miles | about 1 hour 45 minutes
Best compared to: Hidden Falls
Hidden Falls is lovely. But there’s something more unusual happening near Afton, about two hours south of Jackson. The Periodic Intermittent Spring—one of only a handful of springs like it in the world—stops and restarts its flow on a cycle of roughly eighteen minutes, from late August through May. A short 1.5-mile hike gets you there. It’s the kind of place that makes you think differently about what the land is capable of.
Cottonwood Lake
Distance from Grand Teton: 88.5 miles | about 2 hours
Best compared to: Jenny Lake
Set in the Salt River Mountains near Star Valley, Cottonwood Lake has the same reflective stillness that makes Jenny Lake so easy to fall for. Fishing, small-craft boating, camping, and trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding are all available here. The access road is gravel, which helps keep the crowds thin. Come for a morning and stay through the afternoon; the light on the water in the late hours is worth the drive on its own.
World’s Largest Antler Arch, Afton
Distance from Jackson: 69 miles | about 1.5 hours
Best compared to: Jackson Town Square antler arches
Jackson’s antler arches have become something of a civic symbol. Afton’s version has them beat on scale. The Star Valley town’s arch spans the entire width of the main road through downtown and is constructed from more than 3,000 elk antlers, earning it the title of the world’s largest. It’s a quick stop on the way to or from Star Valley and worth pausing for—a piece of genuine Wyoming character that tends to surprise people who haven’t seen it before.
National Bighorn Sheep Center, Dubois
Distance from Jackson: 85 miles | about 1.5 hours
Best compared to: National Elk Refuge
The drive from Jackson to Dubois along the Wind River is one of the more underappreciated routes in the region. The National Bighorn Sheep Center in Dubois is a fitting destination at the end of it—an interactive, nonprofit museum dedicated to bighorn sheep conservation, with real opportunities to spot the animals in the wild nearby. For anyone who has spent time at the National Elk Refuge and wants more of that experience with a different species, this is the logical next chapter.
Wyoming has more room than most people realize.
The Tetons will always draw the crowds, and for good reason. But if you’ve been here before—or if you’re the kind of traveler who turns down unmarked roads just to see where they go—these destinations are waiting. The gravel roads are longer, the parking lots are emptier, and the views hold up just fine.
