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 abrupt rising granite and broad glacier-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”.
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.
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.
