Grand Targhee Resort Review: Wyoming’s Best-Kept Powder Secret
Wyoming's deepest, quietest powder mountain, if you can survive the drive to get there.
9.0
Expert Terrain 
Tree Skiing 
Hidden Gem 
500+ Inches Snowfall
Table of Contents
Is Grand Targhee Resort Ski Resort Worth It ?
We added Grand Targhee onto the back half of our Jackson Hole trip, using our two free days on the Mountain Collective Pass, and it turned into one of the most memorable stops of the whole vacation, blizzard and all. Getting there from our hotel in Jackson meant driving over Teton Pass in the middle of an active storm, and what's normally about an hour took nearly three, with visibility dropping to almost nothing at points along the way. It was genuinely worth every white-knuckle minute. Grand Targhee delivered 24 inches of some of the deepest, lightest powder of our entire trip, and my wife, our older daughter, and our younger daughter all skied together through legendary tree runs the whole time, while I kept finding fresh lines well into our second day. The only real downside was logistics: without lodging or a town of our own right at the mountain, we were completely dependent on that Teton Pass drive each way.
Pros
- Some of the lightest, driest powder of any resort we've visited
- Legendary, widely spaced tree skiing suited to the whole family
- Essentially no lift lines even during an active storm
- Genuinely uncrowded compared to nearby Jackson Hole
- Two free days available on the Mountain Collective Pass
- Compact, easy-to-navigate mountain layout
Cons
- Difficult, potentially treacherous access via Teton Pass during storms
- No real town or extensive lodging options immediately at the base
- Limited dining compared to bigger destination resorts
- Isolated location, over 40 miles from Jackson by road
Terrain Breakdown
Beginner 10 %
- Shoshone lift and Papoose magic carpet serve a dedicated beginner zone
- Terrain is compact and easy for newer skiers to navigate
- Confident beginners can ride Dreamcatcher for scenic, gentle cruising
- Beginner terrain is limited relative to the mountain’s overall size
Intermediate 45 %
- Dreamcatcher accesses wide-open bowls and groomed intermediate terrain
- Sacajawea on Peaked Mountain offers additional groomers and glades
- Widely spaced trees throughout the resort suit intermediate tree skiing well
- Rolling Thunder offers standout Teton Range views on clear days
Advanced / 45 %
- Mary’s Nipple rewards a short hike with excellent bowl and glade terrain
- The Colter lift opened roughly 600 acres of former snowcat-only terrain
- Tighter trees off Sacajawea add real technical variety
- True expert terrain is limited compared to Jackson Hole, but deep snow makes up for it
Lifts & Wait Times
- Essentially no lift lines anywhere, even during our 24-inch storm cycle
- Six lifts total kept the mountain feeling calm and easy to navigate
- Late arrivals after our Teton Pass drive were never a problem thanks to short lines
Lodging
- We stayed at The Rockwell Inn back in the town of Jackson rather than at the resort, which meant a difficult Teton Pass drive each way during our storm. Grand Targhee does offer its own slopeside lodging directly at the base.
Food & Après
- Dining options directly at the resort are limited
- Simple, solid mountain fare rather than an extensive scene
- No real town nearby to supplement the base area’s options
Our Full Grand Targhee Resort Review: Wyoming’s Best-Kept Powder Secret
First Impressions: Why We Picked
We picked Grand Targhee mostly because our Mountain Collective Pass included two free days here, and because everyone we’d talked to in Jackson kept telling us Targhee gets even more snow than Jackson Hole itself. That reputation held up completely. Pulling into the small, quiet base area after our blizzard drive over Teton Pass felt like arriving somewhere genuinely off the beaten path, especially after the bigger scale and crowds of Jackson Hole earlier in our trip. Grand Targhee doesn’t try to be a full destination resort with a sprawling village; it’s built entirely around the skiing itself, and once we were actually on the mountain, that focus paid off immediately. We also went in already knowing the drive could be an issue in bad weather, though we didn’t expect our particular storm to make it quite as dramatic as it turned out to be.
Terrain Breakdown
Grand Targhee’s terrain is compact compared to Jackson Hole, but it’s built almost entirely around exactly the kind of tree skiing our whole family loves. My wife, our older daughter, and our younger daughter skied together nearly the entire two days, moving between the widely spaced glades off Dreamcatcher and the tighter trees over toward Sacajawea on Peaked Mountain. The lack of true expert terrain that some reviews mention never felt like a limitation for us; with 24 inches of fresh snow to work with, the intermediate-heavy glades and bowls were more than enough to keep everyone entertained and occasionally humbled. I found some of the best untracked lines of the whole vacation off the Colter lift, which opened up terrain that used to require a snowcat. We also appreciated how naturally the mountain splits between Fred’s Mountain and Peaked Mountain, which gave us an easy way to mentally divide our two days without ever feeling like we were repeating terrain. By the second afternoon, we’d developed a rhythm of a few laps on Dreamcatcher followed by a trip over to Sacajawea whenever we wanted a slightly different character of trees.
Snow Quality & Conditions
This was genuinely some of the best snow quality of our entire trip. Grand Targhee sits on the wet, west-facing side of the Tetons, and it shows: the 24 inches that fell during our two days stayed light and dry the whole time, never turning heavy or dense the way storms sometimes do elsewhere. The trees held the snow beautifully, and even by our second afternoon, we were still finding untouched pockets between runs. Combined with the resort’s naturally low skier traffic, the snow simply lasted longer here than almost anywhere else we’ve skied. We also noticed a real difference in how the snow behaved depending on aspect. The north-facing sections held their quality longest, staying cold and dry well after some of the west-facing runs had softened slightly in whatever sun broke through the storm. That’s a small detail, but it mattered for deciding where to point ourselves each time we unloaded a lift.
Lift System & Wait Times
With only six lifts total and a resort that sees far fewer visitors than Jackson Hole, lift lines were basically nonexistent, even during a fresh 24-inch storm cycle that would have created real backups at a bigger, more crowded resort. We never waited more than a couple of minutes anywhere, which let us maximize actual ski time despite arriving late both days after our long drive over the pass.
Crowds & Overall Vibe
Grand Targhee felt refreshingly uncrowded and unpretentious compared to Jackson Hole’s bigger scale and reputation. The base area is small and simple, more functional than resort-style, and the overall vibe leans heavily toward serious, laid-back skiers rather than a destination crowd. It’s the kind of place where the mountain itself is clearly the entire point, and after a few busier days at Jackson Hole, that quieter energy was a nice change of pace. Even arriving late both days after our pass drive, we never felt like we were missing out on much; the lack of crowds meant the mountain simply didn’t get skied out the way a bigger resort would have during the same storm.
Lodging & Base Area
This was the one real drawback of our two days at Grand Targhee. We stayed at The Rockwell Inn back in the town of Jackson rather than at the resort itself, which meant driving over Teton Pass each way, a genuinely difficult drive in blizzard conditions that took nearly three times longer than normal. Grand Targhee does have its own slopeside lodging, and staying there directly would have eliminated that drive entirely. Without a broader town or extensive lodging options immediately at the base, families need to plan carefully around either staying on-site or committing to the Teton Pass commute. In hindsight, given how much we ended up loving the skiing here, splitting our stay to include even one night directly at Grand Targhee would have made the whole visit considerably more relaxed.
Food & Après-Ski Scene
Dining options directly at Grand Targhee are limited, in keeping with the resort’s small, function-first base area. We didn’t spend much time exploring the on-mountain food scene given our late arrivals after the pass drive, but what we did try was solid, simple mountain fare rather than anything elaborate.
Kids Perspective
Sam, age 11: “Getting to Grand Targhee was honestly a little scary because the drive over the pass was so snowy that we could barely see anything for a while, but once we got there it was totally worth it. We skied together the whole time through these amazing trees, some wide apart and easy and some really tight and tricky. There was so much snow, 24 inches while we were there, that even on our second day we kept finding spots nobody had skied yet. There weren’t hardly any lines anywhere, which felt really different after Jackson Hole. It’s a much smaller mountain, but the snow made up for it completely.”
Michelle, age 8: “The drive to Grand Targhee was really snowy and took forever, but I actually liked watching the snow fall the whole way. Once we we skied through the trees together the entire time, and the snow was so deep and soft that falling wasn’t scary at all. There were basically no lines for the lifts, so we got to ski so much more than at other places. I liked that it felt like a secret mountain that not many people know about. If we stayed right there instead of driving from Jackson, I think it would have been even better.”
Value for Money
Our two free Mountain Collective Pass days made this stop essentially free on the lift ticket side, which was a fantastic value on top of an already excellent Jackson Hole trip. The real cost here wasn’t money so much as logistics: without lodging of our own right at Grand Targhee, the Teton Pass commute became the biggest factor in our overall experience. For future trips, we’d strongly consider booking a night or two directly at the resort to remove that variable entirely, especially during an active storm cycle like the one we hit. We’d also point out that the free Mountain Collective days made this an easy add-on to an already-planned Jackson Hole trip, and we’d recommend the same pairing to anyone holding the pass, provided they plan lodging more carefully than we did.
Best for:
- Skiers who love powder skiing
- Mountain Collective Pass holders looking for genuine value
- Families who love tree skiing and widely spaced glades
- Visitors wanting a quiet, uncrowded resort
Not ideal for:
- Those wanting a lively town or extensive dining options nearby
- Expert skiers seeking Jackson Hole-level extreme terrain
- Families needing a big, full-service destination village
Final Verdict
Two days at Grand Targhee, bookended by a genuinely harrowing blizzard drive over Teton Pass, turned into one of the best surprises of our whole Wyoming trip. My wife, our older daughter, and our younger daughter skied together through legendary tree terrain the entire time, and 24 inches of light, dry powder meant we were still finding fresh snow on our final runs. It would have easily rated higher than even Jackson Hole if we’d had lodging or a town of our own closer to the mountain rather than commuting from Jackson each day. As it stands, Grand Targhee is a genuinely special, uncrowded powder mountain that rewards a bit of extra planning, and ideally, a room booked right at the base. Grand Targhee doesn’t need to compete with Jackson Hole’s scale or reputation to be worth visiting; it simply does its own thing, quietly and exceptionally well.