We had a little surprise this morning. The tire pressure sensor activated on Ma's car. I suspect a combination of the cold (the low last night was 36 degrees) and the elevation (8,000 feet) caused the tire pressure to drop below normal. We located an air hose at the Old Faithful filling station, and we were back in business. No big deal.
We headed south, exited Yellowstone, and entered the Grand Tetons. They're only 8 miles apart.
The Grand Tetons were Ma's favorite locale of our trip. They certainly are majestic. Their appeal is due in no small part to their lack of foothills. The mountains seem to rise up right out of the prairie.
We headed south, exited Yellowstone, and entered the Grand Tetons. They're only 8 miles apart.
The Grand Tetons were Ma's favorite locale of our trip. They certainly are majestic. Their appeal is due in no small part to their lack of foothills. The mountains seem to rise up right out of the prairie.
...or in this case, right out of the lake. That's Jackson Lake behind us.
The rise is dramatic on this (eastern) side of the mountains. On the other (western) side, the rise is much gentler. This disparity is explained by the way the mountain range was created. There is a fault line directly under the eastern edge. The earth cracked, and the land to the west of the fault rose up while the land to the east (where we're sitting) remained flat. Thus, no foothills mar the view on this side.
Another view from Jackson Lake. It's a really big lake.
(Lakeview Picnic Area)
The lake formed naturally due to a glacier, but it was made larger in 1911 when Jackson Lake Dam raised its water level by 33 feet. That may sound like a lot, but in relative terms it's a drop in the bucket. Some parts of the lake are 438 feet deep!
We drove up a narrow switchback road to the top of Signal Mountain.
Along the way, we caught a glimpse of a bear's butt scurrying away through the underbrush. We weren't quick enough to snap a photo.
There's a swell view from up here.
It's enough to turn anyone into a conservationist.
Signal Mountain is not in the same "line" as the Tetons. It sits out here alone in the area known as the "Jackson Hole". Compared to its big brothers across the lake, Signal Mountain a tiny pimple on the earth's landscape. It's prominence is a measly 890 feet from the surrounding prairie.
Jackson Hole is the name given to the relatively flat valley that occupies the "hole" created by the surrounding mountains: Teton Range to the west, Gros Ventre Range to the south and east, and Yellowstone's caldera to the north.
Back down on the prairie, you get a sense of how flat and grassy the surrounding area is. Great place to raise cattle, right? And therein lies the history of Grand Tetons National Park.
The park has a tumultuous history.
White men first began settling the area in the 1880s. Most homesteaders gave up before they earned their deed, unable to successfully grow crops during the short dry summers. But a few cattle ranchers produced enough profit to stick it out for a few years. They supplemented their meager earnings by playing host to wealthy eastern businessmen on vacation. The tourists eagerly paid top dollar for the chance to hunt exotic game. As you might expect, the ranchers were not keen on the federal government plunking a wilderness reserve smack in the middle of their gravy train. But they acquiesced enough to allow a small National Park to be established in 1929. (I suspect the ranchers' hope was that the park would play the role of incubator, and excess game would wander outside the park and right into their crosshairs.) Conservationists were not satisfied with the piddly 96,000 acres that had been set aside. It barely covered the mountain range, and there were hundreds of thousands of acres in the Jackson Hole that were unprotected. Locals opposed any expansion to the park. So, noted conservationist John D. Rockefeller began to privately and anonymously buy up as much land as he could. He donated his acreage to the federal government in 1943, but Congress refused to make it part of the national park on account of local opposition. So, President Franklin Roosevelt used his executive powers to establish a 210,000-acre "Jackson Hole National Monument." It didn't offer quite the same level of protection as a national park, but it was enough to deal a blow to local interests. By 1950, locals had given up their resistance. In return, they were given a generous bribe, er, um, compensation for lost property tax revenue.
Nearby ranchers still resent many of the policies of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. They certainly did not approve of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. And they're not pleased with the protection given to bears and coyotes either.
Conservationists are not entirely happy either. The park preserves several historic structures from its life before parkhood. And Idaho farmers are still allowed to use Jackson Lake for irrigation. Many purists feel that the land that was disturbed by farming, ranching, and other human activities should be restored to a completely natural state. It's also the only national park that contains an airport.
Enough of politics. Let's see some more mountain pictures...
This is Mount Moran on the Middle Teton. Do you see that black line near the top of the peak?
How 'bout now? That's called the "Black Dike".
Millions of years ago when this area was volcanically active, magma was forced up through a hole in the earth's crust. It extruded like a spritz cookie. It then hardened into a 150-foot tall basalt intrusion.
Below the dike is "Falling Ice Glacier". It's just one of five glaciers that calls Mount Moran home. There are seven others elsewhere in the Teton Range.
The area around us is the Jackson Hole. It's covered in sagebrush and low grasses. We're about 7,000 feet above sea level. The peak behind us (Mount Moran) is 12,605 feet.
Each venue in this park was more picturesque than the last.
That's Jenny Lake behind us. We'll be going across it after lunch.
