My family is thinking of traveling to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons the 2nd or 3rd week of October. I'm wondering if it is worth going at this time? I have a 13 and 16 year old who are not too thrilled with going on this trip. So...I was hoping to do horseback riding and rafting etc to keep them happy. I even thought about doing a dude ranch. I'm afraid it may be too late in the season for these things? How is the weather? Should we fly into Denver. Any itineraries would be much appreciated.

Thank you for any and all help, as I am not much of a planner and do not have a whole lot of time.

Staci

Staci - I see your post is tagged for Colorado, and really you should post this for Wyoming & Montana. Having said that, though, you will be going too late for horseback riding and rafting activities. Check the nps.gov website for closing dates; most things will be closed down by the time you are looking at.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/ocd_locale.htm
https://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/index.htm

We normally fly into Salt Lake City when we go there, although smaller airports like Jackson Wy are much closer. Denver is farther away.

It will be chilly. We just left Yellowstone NP and many of the lodges are closing within a month. Some of the park roads will be closed by the time you Rrive. It is supposed to snow tomorrow.

We are now in Grand Teton NP. It is in the 70's today but supposed to drop in temp tomorrow...high in the 50's to low 60's.

We had a couple of inches of snow on our tent in the first few days of August when we went to Yellowstone.

For weather historical weather patterns see the graphs on https://weatherspark.com/averages/31...-United-States

They are easy to read, and give a great feel. Its easy to interpolate within months for specific days. They show a wide variety of facts incl. high, average, and low temperatures and precipitation and many other weather facts.

Be prepared for chilly weather in the morning. I remember our trip there one early September, when I wore gloves and a jacket for an early morning experience and was wearing shorts later in the same day. Then, on the day we left (the 10th of the month), it showed a little. So, be prepared for anything!
PS: We still had a great, great trip and to this day, the Teton is still our favorite national park!