Grand Teton National Park citations and arrests.
Grand Teton is the national park people drive through on the way to somewhere else. A commuter highway runs the length of it, and every mile of that pavement is federal land patrolled by rangers who write federal tickets. Some of the cases are heard in Jackson, minutes from my office.
Call or text me. Clients get my cell number from day one, and I answer. Got a violation notice? Here's what happens next.
Read it in your language. Talk it through in your language.
Every page of this National Parks chapter is written in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, French, German and Italian. The consultation is a video call with attorney Aaron Herzberg, carried in your language by live translation software, at no additional charge.
What is different about Grand Teton.
U.S. 26/89/191 is the main road north out of Jackson, and for more than twenty miles it is inside the park boundary. Rangers run radar on it, respond to crashes on it, and stop impaired drivers on it at two in the morning.
The rules are the same Park Service regulations that govern Yellowstone, with the Grand Teton superintendent's own closures: stay one hundred yards from bears and wolves and twenty-five yards from everything else, no drones, pets on a six-foot leash within thirty feet of a road.
Some Grand Teton proceedings are held before the U.S. Magistrate Judge in Jackson, although the court may conduct proceedings elsewhere in the district. Petty-offense trials, including ordinary Class B misdemeanor park offenses, are bench trials rather than jury trials.
How Grand Teton citations arise.
- On the road. Speeding is the volume charge, and the second charge that rides with it is usually unsafe operation. A refused breath test adds a separate charge, jail time in recent sentences, and a one-year ban on driving anywhere on federal land. Speeding · DUI · Unsafe operation
- On the water. Jackson Lake and the Snake River bring boating and fishing citations: permits, invasive-species inspections, closed stretches, and the rules on floating the river. Open containers are cited on the highway pull-outs and at the boat ramps. Open container
- Campgrounds and the backcountry. Camping outside a designated site, an unattended or out-of-season fire, and improperly stored food are campground and backcountry charges that rangers take seriously because of the bears. Guided or commercial activity without a permit is charged under the business-operations regulation and requires an appearance.
- On the trails. Leaving a trail to shortcut a switchback, entering a closed area, and approaching wildlife for a photograph are the trail cases. These are not warnings; they are prosecuted, and the disposition is negotiated. Wildlife · Closed areas
The visitor, the neighbor, and the outliers.
The court, who gets banned, and the sentences the government announces
The court
Federal misdemeanor proceedings arising from Grand Teton National Park are handled in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming; the prosecutor is the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Wyoming. The judge and prosecutor are the same people who handle Yellowstone, so the dispositions, the probation terms, and the park bans track what is done at Mammoth. Being in the courtroom regularly is the advantage of a Jackson lawyer; the drive is the least of it.
The visitor and the neighbor
Most of the people cited in Grand Teton do not live here. For them the case is a logistics problem as much as a legal one: a court date in a town they flew out of a week ago, a Notice to Appear that arrives after they have stopped thinking about Wyoming, and a real question about whether a federal petty offense will follow them into a job application or a visa renewal. The work is to resolve the case from a distance, with written consent to proceed in their absence where the court permits it, and to land on a disposition that does not need explaining later.
The other client is my neighbor. Teton County residents drive through the park daily, and a surprising number of the sentences the U.S. Attorney's Office announces name Jackson or Wilson addresses. For a resident, the federal record matters, but so does a probation term that closes the park for two years, or a federal-lands driving ban that covers the commute to the airport and the drive to Moran. Those terms are negotiable, and they are where a local lawyer earns the fee: knowing what the court has accepted before, and asking for it in the right form.
The cases the government announces
In 2025 the court held a bench trial in Jackson over a runner's shortcut on the Garnet Canyon Trail, and the case drew national attention because the maximum penalty for that petty offense is the same six months and $5,000 that applies to nearly everything else in the regulations. Elk, moose, and bison cross the highway at dusk and dawn, and a wildlife strike often produces a citation as well as a wrecked car.
- 01Speeding, DUI and a refused breath test on the highway: seven days in custody, two years' probation, a one-year ban from driving on federal lands, $980
- 02DUI, refusal, interfering with a ranger and leaving the scene: consecutive short jail terms, probation, and the federal-lands driving ban
- 03Reckless driving at 127 in a 45, a dead elk, and leaving the scene: three days in custody, $1,000 in fines and a $750 community-service payment
- 04A well-known photographer's traffic dispute with the park: a $500 fine after a bench trial, with sentencing conducted by video
- 05The Garnet Canyon shortcut: guilty after a bench trial in Jackson, with a deferred-prosecution resolution later proposed
Items 1–3 from U.S. Attorney's Office announcements, 2024–2025; items 4–5 as reported by the Jackson Hole News&Guide and WyoFile. These are the cases chosen for publicity, not the typical result; most Grand Teton citations end as a forfeiture, not a conviction. Every case turns on its own facts.
Asked about Grand Teton specifically.
I was stopped on the highway, not on a park road. Is that really a park case?
Where is court for a Grand Teton citation?
I live in Jackson. Does that change the case?
What is the speed limit through the park?
The letter says I can pay $130 online or $140 in court. Which is right?
Can I get a ban from Grand Teton?
Find your citation.
Every page below is written for one kind of notice. Start with the one that matches yours.
Start with a confidential conversation with Aaron Herzberg.
National-park matters begin with a thirty-minute call, and almost everything after that can be handled from wherever you are. Book it through the chat button in the corner of this page, or send the note here and my office will call you, usually the same business day. Have your violation notice in hand so we can read the box together, and call or text any time. Video consultations are available in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, French, German and Italian, with live translation software, on request.
40 E Simpson Ave, Jackson, WY 83001 · by appointment · video consultations for out-of-state clients · info@puzzlegroup.com