Cascade Canyon Turnout

Cascade Canyon Turnout is a roadside viewpoint on Teton Park Road, with a short walk from the parking pullout to a view into the canyon. It’s a good brief stop if you want to see Cascade Canyon without taking the challenging walk farther into its alpine country. From here, you get a glimpse of the landscape rather than the close-up experience of the canyon trail.

Look up-canyon across the sagebrush flats and scattered trees toward the steep mountain walls. Lower down, the forest includes lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir and subalpine fir. Cascade Creek runs near the trail and creates wetland patches; higher up, the forest gives way to alpine terrain that stays buried in snow much of the year. For a photo, keep some sagebrush or the lone pine in the foreground instead of framing only the peaks.

The canyon’s broad U shape was carved by Pleistocene glaciers that flowed down it. The turnout makes that shape easier to read from a distance: the valley rises from forest into the high alpine country, while the view lets you stay beside the road.

The Hayden Expedition called the creek Glacier Creek in 1872. It was renamed Cascade Creek in 1931 because its water carries no glacial silt. The creek drops from the canyon toward Jenny Lake.