Sight · Grand Teton National Park
A grassy spring meadow where bison and elk linger in spring.
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The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Grand Teton Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Grand Teton National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Grand Teton audio tourRecorded for this place
Kelly Warm Spring: A Brief Meadow Stop“You're coming up on Kelly Warm Spring, a small geothermal pool in an open meadow. Stop for a brief look if you're curious, but don't plan a soak: the park advises against entering the water.”
Plays as you drive up to Kelly Warm Spring in the Parkwolf Grand Teton Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“…We have been driving around with the audio tour and it has been informational and spot on. The whole family has been impressed. We used it for Yellowstone and Grand Teton.”
Guide
Kelly Warm Spring is a small geothermal pool in a grassy meadow about a mile northeast of Kelly along Gros Ventre Road. It makes a brief pause for the open meadow and the spring itself, but the water is warm rather than hot. The park advises against entering because the pool has high levels of E. coli and the presence of Naegleria fowleri. A restroom and interpretive information are listed at the site.
Bison and elk sometimes linger by the pool in spring, when the meadow greens early. There is also a less visible story here: people have released aquarium fish into the spring for decades. Some non-native species have thrived and compete with native fish. A 2018 treatment greatly reduced their numbers, but did not eliminate every fish.
The spring shares its name with nearby Kelly, a community that grew around William Kelly’s 1907 sawmill. In 1925, a landslide dammed the Gros Ventre River and formed Lower Slide Lake. The natural dam failed in 1927, sending a flood through Kelly that killed six people; only two buildings remained standing.
Wildlife
172 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
195 sightingsBrown BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
32 sightingsGray WolfMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
1,816 sightingsMooseMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
614 sightingsBisonMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
738 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Grand Teton. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
Sight · 0.6 mi awayLuther Taylor Homestead (Shane Cabins)A real homestead that played a brief role in Shane.
Scenic pullout · 0.7 mi awayPath of the Pronghorn TurnoutA quick stop that puts the pronghorn's migration in view.
Campground · 3 mi awayGros Ventre CampgroundA campground near Jackson, with the river a short walk away.
Sight · 3 mi awayMormon Row Historic DistrictOld homesteads and the Tetons sharing the same frame.
Sight · 4.5 mi awayBlacktail Ponds OverlookPatient scanning may pay off with moose or elk.
Sight · 4.5 mi awayGlacier View TurnoutAn easy pullout to see how glaciers shaped the Tetons.
Food · 4.9 mi awayDornansFuel, groceries, and a meal share a stop with Teton views.Parkwolf’s Grand Teton ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
