Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park – I’ve heard about it most of my life but today I saw it and it is beautiful. We left Jackson Hole and drove the fifty miles to our stay for the next three nights, Moran, Wyoming; a tiny little town, really just a post office with a number of nice campgrounds, including this one, the Fireside Campgrounds. The difficulty for us is the lack of communication infrastructure – cell phone is almost non-existent, internet is as bad, and the only contact we have with the outside world is an occasional text, and the local radio station which plays one or two songs then dead air for 10 minutes or so.

The drive between Jackson Hole and Moran is absolutely beautiful. The town of Jackson is very quaint and has arches constructed of Elk horns which are iconic to this area. There are also many shops, restaurants and galleries featuring the beautiful mountain art so connected to this region. Again, we followed the Snake River and at every turn viewed a new vista of the beautiful snow-capped mountains.

We arrived at our camp ground, disconnected our camper and headed into Teton National Forest (the mountain roads are difficult to traverse with a camper and many roads are marked to prohibit them). It was a beautiful morning with many white fluffy clouds; the tops of the mountains disappeared into the mist. We watched the different mood of the mountains as rain clouds began to move into the area. More of the mountain tops were obscured, snow was blowing from the glaciers, and water was running down the caverns. In the lower elevations where we were, there was hardly any rain, just a brief shower.

The Cunningham family was one of the first settlers in this area and was later instrumental in designating this area as a national park. One has to remember that these early settlers arrived here around 1904 – when you live in the East you think of early settlers as Revolutionary Era, but that is not the case here in the West. The original home of the Cunninghams is still standing and we visited it. It is incredibly small – one small room connected by a breeze-way to another equal-sized room which housed the livestock. Each room was about 20x20. It is hard to imagine a family living in such a small dwelling, but it was not uncommon at that time.

As always, I am drawn to the beautiful array of plants and particularly wildflowers which dot the landscape. Driving through the park today, I saw purples, yellows, whites and an occasional red just to spice us the display. There were at times, entire meadows of wildflowers as far as the eye could see.

The primary plant in this area theis magnificent Lodge Pole pines. They look different from the Ponderosa pines we saw in Utah. These are also enormously tall, but the trunk of the tree is very straight and the same diameter from top to bottom, making them excellent for construction of lodges and homes, hence the name.

drove on through the park to one of the beautiful lakes, Lake Jenny, which is contained within the Grand Teton National Park. Again, and I realize I’m repeating myself, the views of the mountains and the lake are just beautiful. I cannot think of any other words to use. Everything that I could say is not adequate for the natural beauty that is here. Likewise, the photos I take are truly representative of it. The camera can never capture everything the eye can see. We are so uniquely and fearfully made that we alone can comprehend the immense beauty that God has created and placed here. It is humbling.