Day 9 - Jackson Hole and the Tetons

September 2017

Day 1 - Toronto to Chesterton IN
Day 2 - Chesterton IN to Rochester MN
Day 3 - Rochester MN to Lincoln NB
Day 4 - Lincoln NB to Denver CO

Weekly recap with more photos
Day 5 - Denver CO to Rapid City SD
The Curtis Hotel Denver CO funky themed floors
Day 6 - Rapid City SD Mount Rushmore City of Presidents
Day 7 - Rapid City SD to Billings MT Crazy Horse and Little Big Horn
Day 8 - Billings MT to Driggs ID

September 13

We got a late start for a change and headed into Jackson Hole before heading to Teton National Park.

Overlooking Jackson Hole.

The town of Jackson was named in late 1893 by Margaret Simpson, who at the time was receiving mail at her home as there was no post office. She named the town in order for easterners to be able to forward mail west. Jackson, which became incorporated in 1914, was named after David Edward "Davey" Jackson who trapped beaver in the area in the late 1820s while a partner in the firm of Smith, Jackson & Sublette. Davy Jackson was one of the first white men to spend an entire winter in the Valley of the Teton Mountains.

Traffic!

If I described Keystone and Custer as tacky tourist traps then Jackson Hole is a trendy tourist trap. It has old time charm and new time prices! It was packed.


The term "hole" was used by early trappers or mountain men, who primarily entered the valley from the north and east and had to descend along relatively steep slopes, giving the sensation of entering a hole.

Jackson Hole is on the floor of the valley at 6,400 feet above sea level.

Inside the Wort Hotel where we had lunch in the Silver Dollar.

Fun t-shirts.

The four elk antler arches guarding the corners of Jackson Hole’sGeorge Washington Memorial Park, more commonly called the Town Square, have become well known icons to the town’s many visitors.

 

When the local Rotary Club erected the first arch in 1953, it had no idea it was creating an icon. But the arch was an instant hit with visitors, so the club started planning for additional arches, one on each corner. These were built between 1966 and 1969.

Today’s arches are not the original ones, though. Elk antlers have a life span.

“They were starting to decompose,” says Rotarian Pete Karns. “People could and did steal individual antlers because they weren’t secure anymore.”

 

Want to go rafting with these guys?

We headed to the Teton National Park around 2PM.

At approximately 310,000 acres (480 sq mi; 130,000 ha; 1,300 km2), the park includes the major peaks of the 40-mile-long (64 km) Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. It is only 10 miles (16 km) south of Yellowstone National Park, to which it is connected by the National Park Service-managed John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. Along with surrounding National Forests, these three protected areas constitute the almost 18,000,000-acre (7,300,000 ha) Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the world's largest intact mid-latitude temperate ecosystems.
John took his Nikon camera to play with the various creative functions. These photos are in no particular order.

Grand Teton National Park is named for Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the Teton Range. The naming of the mountains is attributed to early 19th-century French-speaking trappers—les trois tétons (the three teats) was later anglicized and shortened to Tetons. At 13,775 feet (4,199 m), Grand Teton abruptly rises more than 7,000 feet (2,100 m) above Jackson Hole, almost 850 feet (260 m) higher than Mount Owen, the second-highest summit in the range. The park has numerous lakes, including 15-mile-long (24 km) Jackson Lake as well as streams of varying length and the upper main stem of the Snake River. Though in a state of recession, a dozen small glaciers persist at the higher elevations near the highest peaks in the range. Some of the rocks in the park are the oldest found in any U.S. National Park and have been dated at nearly 2.7 billion years.

 I will preface this photo and more to come of the dangers of wild animals in this park...John said we saw more road kill on our journey than any live animals today!

Human history of the Grand Teton region dates back at least 11,000 years, when the first nomadic hunter-gatherer Paleo-Indians began migrating into the region during warmer months pursuing food and supplies. In the early 19th century, the first White explorers encountered the eastern Shoshone natives. Between 1810 and 1840, the region attracted fur trading companies that vied for control of the lucrative beaver pelt trade. U.S. Government expeditions to the region commenced in the mid-19th century as an offshoot of exploration in Yellowstone, with the first permanent white settlers in Jackson Hole arriving in the 1880s.

This really intrigued me. I am a huge fan of Ansel Adams and this is his shot of the Tetons and Snake River.

 

The Tetons and the Snake River:  Ansel Adams (1942)

 Here's John's, the trees have grown!

Ansel Adams stood atop this car. There is a low wall there now and I saw some Asian girls climb it to get a photo and all I could think of was a news story from a few years ago at Niagara Falls when a Japanese exchange student fell over after straddling a railing.

Definitely watch out!

The Cunningham Cabin is a double-pen log cabin that was built as a homestead in Jackson Hole and represents an adaptation of an Appalachian building form to the West. The cabin was built just south of Spread Creek by John Pierce Cunningham, who arrived in Jackson Hole in 1885 and subsisted as a trapper until he established the Bar Flying U Ranch in 1888. The Cunninghams left the valley for Idaho in 1928, when land was being acquired for the future Grand Teton National Park.

Cunningham and his wife grew about 100 acres (40 ha) of hay, later irrigating another 140 acres (57 ha) to provide feed for 100 cattle and eight horses. His brother, W. Pierce Cunningham, settled his family nearby. By 1924 the Cunningham ranch comprised 560 acres (230 ha). By 1926 Cunningham had moved out of cattle and was raising sheep on the land.

J. Pierce Cunningham was one of the original county commissioners chosen when Teton County was organized in 1923. He was also, at various times, justice of the peace, postmaster and game warden.

We did get some rain.

Ahhh yes, more traffic going through Jackson Falls.