Grand Teton National Park Click on image to see more photos |
Grand Teton National Park
We offer custom private tours and scheduled tours to all the attractions of Grand Teton National Park as well as all the other area sites including Yellowstone National Park, Teton Village, Jackson Hole Wyoming and back country areas. Please call us for details.
The jaw-dropping grandeur of Grand Teton National Park’s stunning landscape is enthralling, with jagged, snowcapped peaks jutting abruptly from the sage-covered valley floor below, where surging rivers and babbling brooks course through dense forests and wetlands into pristine glacial lakes. Extending across northwestern Wyoming in a majestic 484 square mile (1,250 km2) swath, this geographical mosaic radiates the breathtaking splendor of nature, attracting nearly four million admirers every year.
As one of the most iconic mountain ranges in the United States, the Teton Range is the dominating feature of the park. These incredible serrated crags tower a full 7,000 feet (2,133 m) above the Jackson Hole valley directly below, with no preamble of foothills to soften their appearance. There are 12 peaks within the Teton Range whose windswept summits surpass a 12,000-foot elevation (3,657 m), with the tallest being the Grand Teton itself at 13,770 feet (4,197 m).
A verdant alpine glen encircled by towering mountain ranges, Jackson Hole became the crossroads of the fur trade in the northern Rockies. It was given its name by the mountain men who trekked and trapped their way across the West in the early 1800’s. The name “Hole” is a local term referring to the feeling of sinking deep into the ground one gets when looking up at the encompassing peaks. Not only does Jackson Hole sit at the very base of the soaring Teton Range on the west, it is supplemented by the Gros Ventres Range to the east, the Wyoming Mountains to the south, and Yellowstone National Park to the north. This 48-mile-long (77 km) valley forms a large portion of Grand Teton National Park, and also contains the National Elk Refuge, home of the largest elk herd in the world.
This impressive panorama owes the greater part of its formation to the work of glaciers, 12 of which still adorn the park’s varied landscape today. Massive accumulations of snow and ice, glaciers move unhurriedly but relentlessly downhill, scouring and reshaping the earth they traverse. It has been estimated that, at one time, an ice sheet some 4,000 feet (1,219 m) thick filled the entire valley of Jackson Hole, sculpting it into what it is today.
Formed and filled by glacial ice, picturesque Jenny Lake lies in the very heart of Grand Teton National Park at the base of the Cathedral Group, the Tetons foremost peaks. One of 7 interconnected lakes along the course of the Snake River, Jenny’s sapphire waters beckon kayakers and canoeists, while her numerous hiking trails offer subtly changing vistas of her glorious surroundings to all who traverse them.
Grand Teton National Park contains not only incredibly beautiful mountain scenery, but also a diverse array of wildlife and vegetation. A great many of the West’s iconic animals roam freely throughout the park, including bison, elk, black and grizzly bears, golden eagles, moose, wolves, deer, pronghorn antelope, and coyotes. Scores of plants and trees garnish the landscape, including big leaf sagebrush, sedges, firs, lodgepole, whitebark, and limber pines, spruce, aspens, cottonwoods, alders, willows, and cattails.