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Published: July 29th 2011
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Rising up almost directly from the plains, the Tetons present some of the most picturesque mountain views in the world. There is no crawl upward through ever higher foothills - it is just a straight shot up to the summit of Grand Teton at 13,775', rising 7000' above Jackson Hole. However, this is partly illusory, since Jackson Hole is depressed below the surrounding plains. Although containing some of the oldest rocks in North America ) 2.5 billion years old), the Tetons are one of the youngest mountain ranges on earth, their formation having started some 6-9 million years ago. The were created by a graben fault that resulted in the mountains being pushed up while Jackson Hole fell. The parks was created in 1929, and expanded with the addition of the previous Jackson Hole National Monument to form the present park. Together with Yellowstone which lies 10 miles north along the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, it constitutes the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest mid-latitude intact ecosystem on earth.
Driving south from Yellowstone, where we developed whiplash trying to find a bull moose in the lush river bottomlands in the south part of the park, we entered the connecting parkway
and then Grand Teton NP, each transition marked only by the requisite signage. You are well down into the Teton park before you have to stop and pay the entrance fee. OUCH!! Okay, Jennie and Jan, I will admit that I bought a senior lifetime pass at Glacier!
There are two roads going north and south through the park, which are quite literally the high road and the low road. Despite my lifelong tendency in the other direction, we took the faster high road down to Teton Village in order to catch the tram up to the top of Rendezvous Peak. In less than 10 minutes, the tram whisks you up 4139 feet to the peak of Rendezvous at 10,450'. From there the entire Teton area and Jackson Hole are laid out below you. I have always heard that you should not eat the yellow snow, but there we were told not to eat the pink snow since the pink color is caused by a toxic algae that blooms in the snow as it is melting, causing a delightful watermelon smell and taste but potential gastric distress. The algae is actually a green algae but also contains a red
pigment that helps protect it against UV light damage. The higher absorption of heat by the darker pigment actually accelerates the melting of the snow, thus making conditions better for growth of the "watermelon snow".
Because of the lateness of the hour, we did not spend any time in Jackson itself, and returned north to Jackson Lake Lodge, our lodging for the next two nights in the northern part of the park. Like most lodging and eating establishments in national parks, these functions in GTNP are run by a concessionaire. I am not sure whether they make decisions just based on profits or whether they simply are given inadequate resources, but the ability to feed the number of people for whom they are providing lodging is usually inadequate. Unable to get reservations at a reasonable hour in the real dining room, we ate in the grill which is semi-fast food with limited choices and way too much in the way of calories and grease. The decor was not very good, but at least the food was flavorless.
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