MowryJournal.com   Life's Passions

Where Is It: Nearly 500 miles northwest of Denver, and just south of Yellowstone National Park.

The Birth: From NationalParksTraveler.com:

Say what you will about corporate altruism, whether it’s self-serving or truly benevolent, but in the case of Grand Teton, without it the park would be a shell of its present form.

When President Calvin Coolidge created the park in 1929, the legislation called for preservation of just 96,000 acres, acres that encompassed little more than the jagged roof of the Teton Range and the six glacial lakes that sprawl at the bottom of the mountains’ eastern flanks.

No doubt, this 96,000-acre preserve was stunning, and the initial legislation would see that it would indeed be protected for the enjoyment of future generations. But without the intervention of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., working through his Snake River Land Company to buy up thousands of acres that extended beyond that initial allotment, it’s very possible, and highly likely, that the view we have today of the park would be filled with a foreground of development, not rolling sagebrush fields, timbered plateaus, and the uncluttered and beautifully meandering braids of the Snake River.

Size: 310,000 acres

# Visitors: 2,688,794 in 2013. July had peak attendance; November was the least attended.

Plants: From Wikipedia.com:

Grand Teton National Park and the surrounding region host over 1000 species of vascular plants. With an altitude variance of over 7,000 ft (2,100 m), the park has a number of different ecological zones including alpine tundra, the Rock Mountains subalpine zone where spruce-fir forests are dominant, and the valley floor, where a mixed conifer and deciduous forest zone occupies regions with better soils intermixed with sagebrush plains atop alluvial deposits.

Animals: From Wikipedia.com:

Sixty-one species of mammals have been recorded in Grand Teton National Park. This includes the gray wolf, which had been extirpated from the region by the early 1900s but migrated into the Grand Teton National Park from adjacent Yellowstone National Park after the species had been reintroduced there. The re-establishment of the wolves has ensured that every indigenous mammal species now exists in the park. In addition to gray wolves, another 17 species of carnivores reside within Grand Teton National Park including grizzlies and the more commonly seen American black bear. Relatively common sightings of coyote, river otter, marten and badger and occasional sightings of mountain lion, lynx and wolverine are reported annually. A number of rodent species exist including yellow-bellied marmot, least chipmunk, muskrat, beaver, Uinta ground squirrel, pika, snowshoe hare, porcupine, and six species of bats.

Choices: For a suggested 7-day itinerary, visiting both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, check out National Geographic expeditions, here.

Fees: $25 for a 7 day pass, good for both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. A winter day pass, offered mid-December – April 30, is $5.

Contact Info:

Current Issues: From SFGate.com:

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The State Board of Land Commisioners has endorsed a proposal that would transfer ownership of 1,280 acres of state school trust land in Grand Teton National Park to the federal government.

The board voted 4-1 Thursday to accept federal land and mineral rights elsewhere in Wyoming in exchange for the land. The agreement still needs legislative approval.

The new agreement was necessary because the federal government couldn’t meet a Jan. 5 deadline to buy one of the sections for $45 million as specified in a previous agreement.

Don’t Miss This: Tri’s Totally Teton, a site dedicated to hiking in this Park, shares a video that’s a great intro to the Park. See it, here.

Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 10/28/13.

Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/02/13.

Photo and caption by Glen Hush/National Geographic Photo Contest – http://www.ngphotocontest.com) I had been in Teton National Park for 5 days and hadn’t yet seen the tops of the Teton Range due to non stop storm systems moving through. October can be like that in this majestic part of America. Large herds of bison roam free in this park as well as in Yellowstone, just to the north. It is an awe inspiring sight indeed. After taking pictures of this herd, I felt that I had been “shut out” as the mountain peaks had still not been revealed to me. It wasn’t until I looked at the pictures on my computer that I realized that in a few frames, the peaks had been revealed. What a great surprise.

Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/09/13.

Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 7/16/13

A lovely day for a stroll through Grand Teton National Park. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 10/22/13.

Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 4/22/13.

Lightning From Snake River Overlook. Photo by Travis Patterson, http://www.travispattersonphotography.com. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/13/13.

A grizzly bear crossing the Snake River at sunrise. Photo: Donald Higgs. Posted on Tumblr on 1/15/14.

From the Park’s Facebook page.

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'” -Lewis Carroll. Photo by J. Stetson, taken Dec. 2012. From the Park’s Facebook page.

From the Park’s Facebook page.

The least chipmunk, the smallest of three chipmunk species in the park, weighs only 1.5 to 1.8oz, or about the same as 8-10 U.S. nickels. Photo credit: D. Lombardi. From the Park’s Facebook page.

Bull elk. From the Park’s Facebook page.

From the Park’s Facebook page.

Great Gray Owls are the largest owls in North America measuring about 32” in height. Since they are mostly nonmigratory we will be seeing these gray giants swooping down on prey throughout the upcoming winter. From the Park’s Facebook page.

Bison. From the Park’s Facebook page.

Pronghorn. From the Park’s Facebook page.

Taggart Lake. Photo: A. Yu. From the Park’s Facebook page.

From the Park’s website.

From the Park’s website.

From the Park’s website.

From the Park’s website.

From the Park’s website.

From the Park’s website.

From the Park’s website.

More

National Park Service: Grand Teton National Park

Tri’s Totally Teton

Backpacker.com: Hiking and Backpacking Trips

Jason’s Travels: Visiting Yellowstone And The Grand Tetons

TerraGalleria.com: Grand Teton National Park

The Monday Pod: Yellowstone and Grand Teton Pt 3 – The Photographic Experience

EnjoyYourParks.com: Grand Teton National Park