John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway

You may be looking at the title of this entry and ask yourself “is he writing about a road?”. Yes, I am!  The John D Rockefeller, Jr Memorial Parkway is an official unit of the National Park System and thus a place I need to visit if I am to visit all of them.

In this case, it is an easy visit, as the Parkway runs for seven miles between the southern entrance to Yellowstone National Park and the northern entrance to Grand Teton National Park.  Since our plan for the day was to leave Yellowstone and visit Grand Teton, the Parkway was a given.

As we left Grant Village in Yellowstone, the rain started to fall. It would stay with us for much of the day. After passing through the southern section of Yellowstone, we reached the Parkway, marked by a small sign on the opposite side of the highway from the larger Yellowstone National Park sign and entrance station.

The drive itself is rated as very scenic. Unfortunately, with constant drizzle and low hanging fog, we did not see too much of the surrounding mountains.  However, as with most of nature, the fog and rain presented an entirely different view of the surroundings and one every bit as scenic as the view on a clear day.

At only seven miles, we completed the parkway in around fifteen minutes and passed into Grand Teton National Park. Though very short, and really, nothing more than a road, I enjoyed the ride along the Parkway, and the alternate views the rain and fog provided.

Steve