Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming: Sunrise on the Grand Tetons

Sunrise on the Grand Tetons,
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

This photo of the Grand Tetons was made as the sunrise hit the summits of Grand Teton and Mt. Teewinot. The valley floor is still in shadow, while the raking side light highlights the rugged spires and ridges that make up these pyramids of rock. The remnant glaciers drain as cascading waterfalls, which are visible from miles away as crooked whitewater ribbons on a fast journey to the Snake River far below them.

Jackson Hole is an astounding place. A "hole" was a term used by the Mountain Men fur trappers of the early 1800's to describe a high, broad valley surrounded by mountains in the Rockies. Holes were excellent locations for their annual Rendezvouses, where the trappers sold their furs to the traders that had packed in supplies across hundreds of miles of wilderness.

The Rendezvous was the pinnacle of a mountain man's year, when he was able to get paid for his year's perilous efforts of trapping in hostile Indian country. Naturally, the sudden access to a year's profit, along with the temporary availability of cilvilized foodstuffs, companionship, and liquor, resulted in much celebration, some of which was fatal.

Teton is French for breast. The mountain range was originally named Le Trois Teton by French fur trappers, for the three most prominent summits. It was lonely out there in those days....

The Tetons are very young mountains composed of very old rock, some about 2-1/2 billion years old. The summits soar more than a mile above the sagebrush flats and morainal lakes of the Snake River country.

The small glaciers that still etch away at the upper summits are mere vestiges of the massive ice sheets that carved this valley during the ice age.

Grand Teton National Park was established by Congress in 1950.