We made the relatively short drive from Island Park to Victor a small town across the Teton Pass from Jackson, WY and the Grand Teton National Park. The Teton Valley RV park was a nice quiet park with large comfortable sites. The managers of the park were very friendly and even had a black cat running around so we felt right at home.
We used our first day to check out Jackson, book our white-water rafting trip and peruse the visitor centers. The 12 mile drive over the pass is absolutely gorgeous. We learned that Jackson Hole is the name of the Snake River Valley adjacent to the Tetons and contains the city of Jackson as well as a large part of the NP. Jackson is a great city with lots of fun shops, restaurants and history. We booked our rafting trip for the last day of our stay as that was the only opening they had. They only run the trip if they have a minimum of six people and the weather was a little cool so not very many people want to get soaked on the river. The visitor centers were great as usual and pointed out the best places to see wildlife and of course explained the geology of the area.
Elk antler arch. These are collected by the boy scouts every year from the Elk Refuge.
We chose the hidden falls / inspiration point hike above Jenny Lake which included a shuttle boat ride across the lake. I decided to take a back road to Jenny Lake in the hopes of catching some wildlife and we were finally rewarded with a bear! He was so cute right on the side of the road munching on a tree. It was a beautiful drive through the woods. We arrived at Jenny Lake ready for our shuttle boat only to find that the parking lot was full. We still can't believe how crowded everything is. After circling a couple of times we had parking success. A couple coming off the boat said they saw a moose family on the hike! The boat captain told us we didn't have much time until the last shuttle, but we could always hike the 2 miles back to the parking lot if we missed the last boat. We took off on the hike up to hidden falls and then continued to inspiration point and met with another couple that said yes they had seen the moose family a few miles further in. Now on a mission we hiked as fast as possible asking everyone coming down the trail to confirm the moose sighting. We finally realized that the moose must have moved on. Disappointed we headed back to the boat dock. Fortunately even without the moose, the hike was fabulous - great views, great weather. We drove the same road back to the pass and were rewarded with another bear sighting! So exciting.
Black bear carbo loading for hibernation
Hidden Falls
Jenny Lake as seen from the hike up
What makes the Teton Range within Grand Teton National Park so spectacular to look at is that there are no foothills to obstruct their view. This is due to how they formed. They formed with a "quick" thrust upward along the Teton Fault Line. Generally mountains form during a very long compressional process between plates that gives rise to lots of buckling (foothills) of land surrounding the highest peaks. In this case, 10 million years ago two blocks of Earth's crust moved in opposite directions from each other. One skyward to make the Teton Range, one downward to make Jackson Hole Valley. They moved along a crack or fault line that separated the two blocks. Movement along the Teton Fault generated massive earthquakes causing the mountains to rise and the valley floor to drop.
Straight up, no foothills in sight!
A section of the Teton Range.
The peak in the middle furthest back is the Grand Teton at 13,770 feet. The peak furthest left is the Middle Teton at 12,804 feet. The third Teton called the South Teton at 12,514 feet is not in this picture but would be to the left of the Middle Teton. The peak with all the glaciers at the top of it is Mt. Owen at 12,928 feet. The peak furthest right is Teewinot Mt. The big snow mass at middle right is the Teton Glacier.
This is Mt. Moran. See the black stripe on its face? Look at the pic below for a close up.
This is a strip (dike) of an igneous rock called Diabase. It is 150 feet wide and you would see it extend 6.5 miles westward if you were looking down from top of the mountain. The black dike was once molten magma that squeezed into a crack when the rocks were deep underground, and has since been uplifted by the movement along the Teton Fault.
Another view of the Grand Teton (peak on the left) and the Teton Glacier
Erosion sculpted the Teton Range landscape. Starting 2 million years ago, massive glaciers up to 3,500 feet thick flowed from Yellowstone. Ice sheets filled the valley, alpine glaciers sculpted the jagged Teton skyline seen above.
As glaciers "flowed" they moved huge amounts of earth or glacial debris called moraines. These moraines were left behind after the glaciers receded and acted like dams allowing the formation of lakes like Jackson Lake above. Jenny Lake too!
Jackson Hole Valley
The next morning the surrounding mountains were covered with snow! Unfortunately our raft trip was cancelled due to lack of participation! We were so bummed! It was only 50 degrees out so probably not a bad thing, but we had really been looking forward to it.
I should explain the title.... this is the Italian version of the saying "If it were a snake...." We say it all of the time and think it is very funny.
Coming soon.... UTAH! Quick stop in Provo and then on to Zion, Bryce and Arches NP
No comments:
Post a Comment