![]() ![]() But many activities are still possible in the winter, from multi day cross-country skiing trips to just photographing the snowy mountains from the highway. NPS campgrounds and visitor centers have slightly shorter opening seasons, typically late May to early October. The Moose-Wilson and Teton Park roads are closed in the winter, usually from the start of November to the beginning of May, though US 191/89 is open all year. ![]() Finally, the lakes, rivers and ponds harbor many types of fish, which in turn help support a large and varied bird population. Flowing slowly through the valley, the Snake River creates the largest area of wetlands in the park, terrain also found around lakes and smaller streams this is the favored location for moose and numerous smaller mammals. Between the mountains, the flat land of the valley floor has only occasional trees and is instead covered with uniform sagebrush and grasses, habitat for antelope and bison. Forests cover the lower slopes, composed of spruce fir and whitebark pine at the upper elevations, with Douglas fir, lodgepole pine and limber pine beneath. ![]() All major summits are out of reach to regular hikers, however, instead accessible only to rock climbers.įive distinct climate zones are represented in Grand Teton National Park highest is the Alpine tundra region above 9,000 feet, where bare granite predominates, sprinkled with patches of short grass, small wildflowers, moss and lichen, though all is hidden by snow for up to 8 months of the year. Only six paths climb into the mountains, most following a narrow, steep-sided canyon up into the high Alpine country above the treeline. Along the edges of the valley are a dozen or so smaller lakes, which provide destinations for many of the park's trails. Grand Teton National Park contains the eastern half of the mountains - the park boundary runs approximately along the crest - together with two other large features, 25,540 acre Jackson Lake and the wide valley of the Snake River, known as Jackson Hole. The highest and most spectacular section of the Tetons is towards the south end, where several of the highest peaks (the Cathedral Group) are clustered together, centered on 13,770 foot Grand Teton. The mountains stretch for a relatively short distance, rising up near the small town of Jackson and extending northwards for 30 miles, until the land slopes down to the edge of the Pitchstone Plateau in Yellowstone National Park. Several dozen glaciers around the summits keep the mountains partly snow covered even in late summer, and for much of the year the peaks are buried beneath an unbroken expanse of ice. Many other US mountains are taller, more extensive and equally rugged, but none can match the Teton Range in northwest Wyoming for the steepness with which the east face rises above the flatlands of the Snake River Valley, gaining over 5,000 feet in a horizontal distance of just a few miles, without any intervening foothills. ![]()
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