Creation of the Teton Landscape: The Geologic Story of Grand Teton National ParkReed, John C. (John Calvin)
Science
Creation of the Teton Landscape: The Geologic Story of Grand Teton National Park
Reed, John C. (John Calvin)
Geology -- Wyoming -- Grand Teton National Park
Three steepsided hills called _buttes_ rise out of the flat floor of
Jackson Hole. They are tilted and faulted masses of hard, layered rock
that have been shaped by southward-moving glaciers. Six miles north of
the boundary turnout is Blacktail Butte, on the flanks of which are
west-dipping white beds. Southwest of the turnout is East Gros Ventre
Butte, composed largely of layered rocks that are exposed along the road
from Jackson almost to the turnout. These are capped by very young lava
that forms the brown cliff overlooking the highway at the north end of
the butte. To the southwest is West Gros Ventre Butte, composed of
similar rocks.
_View west._—
The motorist traveling west along U. S. 26-287 is treated to two
magnificent views of the Teton Range. The first is 8 miles and the
second 13 miles west of Togwotee Pass. At these vantage points, between
20 and 30 miles from the mountains, the great peaks seem half suspended
between earth and sky—too close, almost, to believe, but too distant to
comprehend.
Only from closer range can the motorist begin to appreciate the size and
steepness of the mountains and to discern the details of their
architecture. The many roads on the floor of Jackson Hole furnish
ever-changing vistas, and signs provided by the National Park Service at
numerous turnouts and scenic overlooks help the visitor to identify
quickly the major peaks and canyons and the principal features of the
valley floor. Of all these roadside vantage points, the top of Signal
Mountain, an isolated hill rising nearly 1,000 feet out of the east
margin of Jackson Lake, probably offers the best overall perspective
(fig. 3). To the west, across the shimmering blue waters of Jackson
Lake, the whole long parade of rugged peaks stretches from the north
horizon to the south, many of the higher ones wearing the tattered
remnants of winter snow. From here, only 8 miles away, the towering
pinnacles, saw-toothed ridges, and deep U-shaped canyons are clearly
visible.
Unlike most other great mountain ranges, the Tetons rise steeply from
the flat valley floor in a straight unbroken line. The high central
peaks tower more than a mile above the valley, but northward and
southward the peaks diminish in height and lose their jagged character,
gradually giving way to lower ridges and rounded hills. Some of the
details of the mountain rock can be seen—gnarled gray rocks of the high
peaks threaded by a fine white lacework of dikes, the dark band that
cleaves through Mount Moran from base to summit, and the light brown and
gray layers on the northern and southern parts of the range.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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