Grand Teton [Wyoming] National ParkUnited States. Department of the Interior
History
Grand Teton [Wyoming] National Park
United States. Department of the Interior
Grand Teton National Park (Wyo.)
In addition to its sublime peaks and canyons, the Grand Teton National
Park includes six large lakes and many smaller bodies of water,
glaciers, and snowfields, and extensive forests of pine, fir, spruce,
cottonwood, and aspen. However, much of the park area is above timber
line (10,500 feet), the Grand Teton rising to more than 7,000 feet above
the floor of Jackson Hole.
The great array of peaks which constitutes the scenic climax of this
national park is one of the noblest in the world. It is alpine in the
truest sense. Southwest of Jenny Lake is a culminating group of lofty
peaks whose dominating figure is the Grand Teton, the famous mountain
after which the park takes its name. The resemblance of this group,
whose clustered, tapering spires tower aloft to a height of thousands of
feet and are hung with never-melting snowfields, to a vast cathedral,
must suggest itself to every observer.
However widely traveled, visitors viewing the Tetons for the first time
confess that the beauty of this park and the rugged grandeur of its
mountains come to them as a distinct revelation. This is amply proved by
the increasingly large number of visitors who return summer after summer
to spend their vacations in the Grand Teton National Park. The
recreational possibilities of these mountains, they have found, are
practically limitless. Here they may camp on the lakes, swim and fish,
ride or hike the trails, engage in the strenuous sport of
mountaineering, or--if their needs and wishes so dictate--simply relax
and rest.
The Grand, Middle, and South Tetons comprise the historic _Trois
Tetons_, which were noted landmarks to the trappers and explorers of the
early nineteenth century. The Three Tetons are seen to best advantage
from the west and southwest. As the observer's viewpoint is shifted, the
major peaks change greatly in outline and relative position, but despite
this fact one soon learns to recognize each.
Eleven peaks are of such boldness and prominence that they receive rank
as major peaks. In order of descending altitude they are: Grand Teton,
13,766 feet; Mount Owen, 12,922; Middle Teton, 12,798; Mount Moran
12,594; South Teton, 12,505; Mount Teewinot, 12,317; Buck Mountain,
11,923; Nez Perce, 11,900; Mount Woodring, 11,585; Mount Wister, 11,480;
and Mount St. John, 11,412.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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