Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming: Friday, March 19, 2010

This weekend Jesse and I decided to get away to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  I've been before (with Laura, Stephanie, Bonnie, and Tray -- see earlier post), but that was in Autumn, and Jesse wasn't able to go.  So we threw the pugs in the Xterra and headed out.  Jackson is about 4 - 4.5 hours from Salt Lake City (depending on the route you choose), and it's a very nice drive.  In and of itself, Jackson is a nice tourist attraction -- it's a very frontier-styled town, with great shops, restaurants, art galleries, and museums, all set in amazing scenery, adjacent to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone Park.  (We didn't go to Yellowstone this trip -- Winters in Yellowstone are very harsh, and the park is closed all Winter except to snowmobiles and cross-country skiing.  I checked into snowmobile trips, but wow, they are incredibly expensive, so no go).  Grand Teton NP, however, is kept partially plowed, and is open year-round.

We got to Jackson on Friday, and Jesse loved the town immediately.  It was the afternoon, so we mostly just drove around exploring, and Jesse got his first glimpse of the Teton mountains (extremely impressive).  That night, we left the pugs in the hotel room (not supposed to!), and had the best pizza we've ever had at Mountain High Pizza Pie (I ate here the last time I was in Jackson with the girls, and we all thought the same thing -- Jesse now concurs).  The next morning, we got up, took the dogs to a GREAT doggy daycare (Rally's Pet Garage, see link below), and off we went to explore the Tetons.  The snow on the peaks was gorgeous, and as the day progressed and warmed up, there was a lot of really cool mist drifting between the peaks.  We spent all day driving around, taking mini-hikes and exploring the park.  Jesse was pretty amazed, as almost everyone is their first time here.  We also saw some wildlife -- a Moose couple crossing the Snake River (see pic below), and a beautiful lone wolf (it was too far away to photograph properly). 

The next day we took the pugs with us for some exploring and playing in the snow, and after a great day we loaded up and headed home.  Coming back, we took the Teton Pass -- a route I've never taken before as it adds about an hour to the drive time, but WOW!  I will never NOT take this route again -- when you imagine curvy mountain roads with spectacular views and frightening precipices, this is what you see.  It is truly one of the most amazing roads I've ever driven (which up until know had been held by Glen Canyon out of Colorado on I-70).  Next time I bring visitors here (hopefully my family) we will definitely be coming this way.

Hope you enjoy the pix, and come on out and let's visit!

http://www.jacksonholechamber.com/jackson_hole_wyoming/ 
http://www.rallyspetgarage.com/ 
http://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm

Educational Moment:  The Teton Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains.  Running north-south range, it is on the Wyoming side of the state's border with Idaho, just south of Yellowstone National Park.  The principal summits of the central massif are the Grand Teton at 13,770 ft,  Mount Owen at 12,928 feet, Teewinot (12,325 ft), the Middle Teton (12,804 ft), and the South Teton (12,514 ft).  Most of the range is in Grand Teton National Park.  Early French voyageurs used the name "les Trois Tétons" (the three breasts).  It is likely that the Shoshone people once called the whole range Teewinot, meaning "many pinnacles".  One reason the Tetons are famous is because of their great elevation above their base. Unlike most mountain ranges, the Tetons lack foothills, or lower peaks which can obscure the view. This is due to the fault zone being at the base of the range on the eastern side (much like the Wasatch Front in northern Utah), and the range being too young to have had time to erode into soft hills. As such, the Tetons rise sharply, from 5,000 to nearly 7,000 feet above the valley floor. The view is most dramatic as seen from the east; on the west side, they appear as high rolling hills that transition smoothly into flat pasture.