Slices of America: Summer '08 Road Trip: Teton National Park

Summer '08 Road Trip
Teton National Park
June 20-21, 2008 / by Taylor Lasseigne and Angela Driscoll

Austin   Guadalupe   Carlsbad   Roswell   Chaco   Mesa Verde   4 Corners   Buckskin
             
           
Zion   Yellowstone 1   Yellowstone 2   Yellowstone 3   Yellowstone 4   Teton   Fick

June 20-21 were spent in the grandeur of Grand Teton National Park. In short, the attraction to this park lies in the contrast between abrubt rising granite and broad gracier-carved lakes. Even after four days of Yellowstone, the landscape of Teton still caught me off guard. Our first stop in the park was at the Colter Bay Visitor Center for a proper lay of the land. There, we toured the Indian Arts Museum which, "Displays some of the David T. Vernon Collection, an impressive variety of American Indian artifacts donated by the Rockefeller family".

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Grizzly bear claw neclace

A sign outisde the park explains the origin of the name Teton:

The giant peaks were a famous early western landmark known to fur hunters and mountain men. Perhaps as early as 1819, the French-speaking trappers were calling them the Trois Tetons - the three breasts. More prosaic English-speaking mountain men named then the Pilot Knobs, but the romantic French name stuck.



Baby moose on the roadside. Its mother was forraging in the bushes.


Jackson Lake Dam and Reservoir


Jackson Lake vista from a roadside picknick pull-off


Teton panoramic (click for full size image)


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Jackson Lake






We spent the majority of the day at Jenny Lake. From the southeastern side of the lake, we boarded a ferry and crossed to the base of the Tetons. There, we hiked the Hidden Falls trail.









Marmot




The Calypso orchid (Calypso bulbosa) - also known as the Fairy Slipper or Venus's Slipper




Snake River




Colter Bay boats




Cabin near Colter Bay


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Austin   Guadalupe   Carlsbad   Roswell   Chaco   Mesa Verde   4 Corners   Buckskin
             
           
Zion   Yellowstone 1   Yellowstone 2   Yellowstone 3   Yellowstone 4   Teton   Fick