Grand Teton Said No to a Moose-Wilson Pathway in 2016. Here's What the Reversal Actually Decides

Reaching the 2016 "no" took years of environmental review, public comment, and formal seats at the table for both Teton County and the Town of Jackson. The "yes" took one signature. Acting Regional Director Bert Frost signed it on August 14, 2026, and neither the county nor the public got a renewed chance to weigh in on the pathway decision itself before it took effect.

Nearly three months later, the amendment still leaves open most of the questions that decide whether anyone rides a separated path between Moose and the Granite Canyon Entrance: when it gets built, who pays, and whether bikes are formally allowed on it. The one piece with real momentum is a road realignment through the beaver ponds, and the reason for that goes back to the original 2016 plan.

What the Signature Put on the Map

The amendment to the Moose-Wilson Corridor Comprehensive Management Plan adds a multiuse pathway running parallel to Moose-Wilson Road from Moose to the Granite Canyon Entrance. It will generally stay "as close to the roadway as possible and within 150 feet" of the road edge. The exceptions are near the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve and wherever vegetation or topography require otherwise. Local coverage puts the length at about 7.1 miles. Friends of Pathways sees it as the missing link in a regional "Grand Loop" connecting Moose, Jackson, Wilson and Teton Village.

The text also covers a few specific spots. Near the Preserve, the path would run around the edge of the visitor center parking lot and share the existing entrance road. The amendment describes this as concentrating development instead of tracing the Preserve boundary. Between the Granite Canyon Trailhead and Levee Access Road, the path would swing away from the road at one point to get around a terrain obstacle.

The path is also required to follow the road's new route, and that route is changing too.

The Road Moves Before Any Path Does

The amendment drops the earlier plan to rebuild the 1.8-mile stretch between Sawmill Ponds Overlook and the Death Canyon Road junction where it sits now. Instead, about 1.3 miles of that road will be removed and replaced by a 1.9-mile alignment east of the beaver ponds. The old roadbed will be restored to natural conditions.

The park gives a wildlife reason for this. The west side of that wetland is lined with chokecherry, hawthorn and other native shrubs that black and grizzly bears feed on. The amendment says bears using that habitat are "more vulnerable to vehicle disturbance and possibly vehicle collisions" with the road where it is today.

So the pathway's route depends on the road's route. The path "will follow the new road alignment as closely as possible," so it can't be finalized until the road realignment is.

The road construction that began in spring 2026 isn't pathway work at all. It's work the 2016 plan had already selected. Construction crews in the corridor this year don't mean the path has broken ground.

What the Amendment Leaves Unanswered

Here is what the signed decision settles and what it leaves for later, side by side.

The cost is the biggest open question. Grand Teton Superintendent Chip Jenkins told the Jackson Hole News&Guide that the 2016 pathway estimate was $17 million and that he expected today's figure to be at least twice that. He also said officials had not identified where the money would come from. On its project page, Friends of Pathways says it hopes for a public-private partnership with meaningful private funding. That's a goal, not a commitment.

The bicycle caveat is spelled out in the amendment itself. It says the decision "does not constitute a final agency action with respect to bicycle use until compliance with the NPS servicewide bicycle rule has been completed." For a project pitched largely to cyclists, that step still has to happen before a path built for bikes is formally open to them.

Why 2016 Said No and 2026 Said Yes

The 2016 Record of Decision chose a plan meant to limit new development and shrink the corridor's footprint. It rejected the separated path because it projected substantial added disturbance and fragmentation of wildlife habitat, changes to the corridor's character and visual quality, and adverse effects to archaeological sites.

The 2026 amendment points to some new information, including higher visitation and the arrival of e-bikes. Even so, the park says the 2016 environmental analysis is still valid and the effects would be similar to what was studied then, with mitigation such as keeping the path close to the road. The policy direction changed as well. The amendment cites Executive Order 14314, dated July 3, 2025, which calls for better visitor access and a review of policies that unnecessarily restrict recreation. The park concluded that the path would improve recreational access and that the road realignment would benefit natural resources.

The park didn't throw out the old impact findings. Most of what moved is the weight given to recreation access.

The Fight Is Over Process More Than Pavement

The local response has mostly been about who was consulted, not about the path itself. Teton County was a cooperating agency in 2016. Its October 5 letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says the county "was not invited to take part in the 2026 reevaluation and did not have a meaningful opportunity to discuss the proposed change prior to the decision." The county asked Interior to reconsider the corridor-length path and to bring the county back in as a cooperating agency.

On October 19, the Jackson Town Council voted unanimously to send its own letter backing the county. Buckrail reported that the motion does not ask for a supplemental environmental impact statement and does not call for the project to stop. Mayor Arne Jorgensen explained the town's reasoning to KHOL, in a story published by Wyoming Public Media:

"We thought it was important for us to comment on the failure of process that has occurred this year."

Supporters and opponents have both organized. Sam Petri of Friends of Pathways called the approval a win for people walking and biking and for the environment, according to Buckrail's August report. In the same story, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance executive director Jenny Fitzgerald called the path unsafe for visitors in dense bear and moose habitat and described the reversal as federal overreach.

WyoFile reported a similar split. Cyclist and pathway advocate Tim Young described a separated route as a safety improvement and a way to get between Teton Village and Moose without a car. Joan Anzelmo of Friends of the Moose-Wilson Corridor and Allison Michalski of the National Parks Conservation Association both objected to the change being made without more study and public participation. At the October 19 meeting, Catherine Hughes of the Conservation Alliance also asked the council to push for new environmental analysis using recent wildlife, traffic and visitor data.

In an emailed statement to KHOL, Interior defended its process. It cited the corridor plan's earlier environmental analysis and public involvement, plus renewed consultation with tribes and state leadership. The statement said the park service will "continue working with consulting parties" as design and permitting move forward. It did not say whether the town and county are among those parties.

In 2016, the town wasn't fully happy with the outcome either. Its letter from that year called the plan "imperfect" but said it "balances resource protection with public access and recreational opportunities." Ten years later, the town's objection is about being left out of the revision, not about the trade-offs the original plan made.

The Steps Between a Signature and a Path

From here, each step depends on the one before it:

1. Surveys and a timeline. The park has said implementation starts with developing a project timeline and doing topographic surveys.
2. Design that follows the new road. The News&Guide reported that technical work was planned for fall and design work for winter. Because the path has to track the realigned road past the beaver ponds, its final line depends on the road design.
3. Bicycle rule compliance. Until this is done, the amendment is not a final decision on bike use.
4. A funding source. None has been named for a project the superintendent expects to cost at least $34 million, twice the 2016 figure.

If you ride the Granite Canyon end or drive the road past Sawmill Ponds, the first visible change will be the road shifting east of the beaver ponds. The pathway can't be built until that happens.

Changes to this corridor affect daily life for anyone who lives along its south end in Wilson and Teton Village. If you'd like to know how projects like this have played out in places you're weighing, Deirdre Griffith is happy to walk through it with you. Let's connect to explore Jackson Hole opportunities.