I hate HATE roads through mountains with extreme drop offs and no guard rails. I don’t really care for them even WITH guard rails.
We will be driving from Jackson Hole into Yellowstone. My DH prefers routes that are gorgeous to routes that are quicker but with inferior scenery. I cannot enjoy a drive like the above forementioned, not matter how beautiful.
Are any of you guys familiar with this part of the country who could advise me? I want DH to be happy, but the last time we did a scary drive, I literally felt a panic attack coming on.
We have done this drive. Quite a bit of it is on roads which are relatively flat, with mountains nearby (such as the Grand Tetons, which are beautiful). It might be a good compromise between you and your husband with flat roads, flat dry lands in the near ground, and very tall mountains very close by. I will admit that I was only in that area once for a week so others might be more familiar with it.
I do not recall any of the roads as being scary.
When we got to Yellowstone we did see a tourist trying to get close and personal with a Bison. That was scary. The Bison did not look happy.
You might want to go to Google Maps, map out the route from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone, and then click on specific sites to see photos of what the roads look like. The pictures that I found just now on Google Maps reminds me quite well of what we saw when we were there.
I’ve done this drive as well and remember it as pretty flat and very pretty. Now the BearTooth Pass is scary especially if you are pulling a trailer and there is snow…
Jackson to Yellowstone is a straight shot up the Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, about an hour and a half. Road is straight, flat, 2 lane highway with a 70 mph speed limit (when we were there in 2003). No hairpin turns or steep drop offs if I recall.
we did the reverse, and as an Easterner in the West for the first time, let me tell you that there is no possibility that any route is boring or non beautiful.
We did the drive from Grand Tetons to Yellowstone, and I’m another who doesn’t remember any scary roads or drop-offs.
It is definitely beautiful out there. Enjoy the scenery as you go.
We may have preferred GT to Yellowstone overall. It’s a spectacular place. Yellowstone is also magnificent, and it’s a tough call.
It may be too late for other advice, but if you’re staying very long in Yellowstone, I suggest you stay in 2 different lodges.
If you would like a physiographic perspective, the roads in Yellowstone itself generally traverse a volcanic plateau. In this sense, the majority of the park, while at high elevation, is not especially mountainous. Better still, as others have suggested, the approach from the south adheres to a natural valley floor.
I remember the road as flat and scenic. After my initial visit during childhood, my mother often commented that she was even more impressed with the scenery of Tetons than in Yellowstone. Of course in our limited visit then to Yellowstone, I think we mostly were within the forested parts.
it’s funny - they should be one park. They are adjacent to each other; one offers stunning views; the other offers out-of-this-world physical earth sites. Both are amazing!
and to OP i’ve been on scary roads in the rocky mountains, and even outside of SanFran -but dont remember being scared at the roads between JH and YS. you will love it.
Thank you all! I can now relax and look forward to a beautiful drive and no freaking out.
The prior time I referred to, we drove some road that was absolutely terrifying-it is a famous one, but I can’t remember the name. Then, after that, my DH surprised me and our equally terrified D2 with a trip across the Royal Gorge.
I seriously have never been more terrified. I wish I didn’t have this fear-I truly wish I had an adventurous spirit instead the height-averse one I have, but I don’t know how to convert myself to that kind of personality. DH and D1 are completely free of fear and love beauty and adventure no matter the “risk,” while D2 and I are very risk averse. D2 has no desire to be any different, but I truly wish I could embrace the passion to do and see everything amazing. I just can’t.
PS-I did actually surprise some longtime friends last night at dinner when I made a reference to going on a hot air balloon with D1 while on a tour of the Loire Valley Castles. My female friend was surprised I did it and said she would NEVER, while her husband said he would love to and couldn’t believe the woman he has known since we were 13 would do such a thing.
I’ve been in a hot air balloon (but at the braver age of 15). We live a few hours from Royal Gorge but have not been there despite almost 30 years of opportunity.
I wonder if your trip that terrified you was the road up to Pike’s Peak since the gorge isn’t that far from there. That road made me so nervous.
There is a train that goes through that gorge though. When covid hit I got to ride it right before it shut down. Now that was some amazing views and all at the water level along the tracks, way under the bridge, so no heights to worry about. I highly recommend it.
Pike’s Peak, Independence Pass (Out of Aspen, toward Vail), Mt Evans…all are switchbacks with no guardrails.
The first time I was in Colorado we were in a rental car driving over Berthoud Pass (to Winter Park). The weather was terrible and we later learned they were closing the pass behind us as we drove over. We couldn’t see how dangerous it was because it was dark.
There was ONE solitary guardrail, way up on Pike’s Peak. It had a big dent in it evidencing that it had served it’s purpose. I’m sure someone needed a change of underwear after that. The road was closed past a certain pont for snow the day before we went up. It wasn’t completely clear everywhere as we ascended.
The reason they don’t have guardrails is that the snowplows can’t get through in the spring to push the snow over the edge.
We drove over Independence Pass with my brother opening the passenger door and telling my father “you’ve got 2 feet” and my mother screaming from the back “NO YOU DON’T!”
