Grand Teton National Park is a gorgeous 310,000-acre park located in northwest Wyoming. It is only 30 miles away from Yellowstone National Park and so often gets overlooked by that more famous federal park, and yet Grand Teton Wyoming has its own fantastic landscapes and natural wonders that are well deserving of attention.
What to Know About Grand Teton National Park, WY
The History
In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge sympathized with a group of Jackson Hole, WY petitioners who wanted some of the region preserved as a national playground for hunting, fishing, and dude ranching. He responded by issuing a series of executive orders. The first, No. 4631, closed several hundred acres from settlement pending research into creating it as an elk refuge (which exists to this day). Then in 1927, President Coolidge signed No. 4685 and named an additional 23,000 acres to be preserved and closed from homesteading. Finally, on February 26, 1929, just six days before the end of his presidency, President Calvin Coolidge signed legislation introduced by WY Senator John Kendrick that officially preserved 150 square miles of land covering the Teton Mountain Range and the Teton Forest as the Grand Teton National Park.
This closing act by Coolidge was a controversial move at the time, but one that would be lauded by many for all the decades to follow. The land preserved in 1929 accounted for about 1/3 of the total acreage preserved today as the Grand Teton National Park. Additional land would be added via donations (including significant land contributions by the Rockefeller family) and other federal legislation, including legislation signed by Presidents Harry S. Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Land
The focal point of Grand Teton National Park is undoubtedly the mountains the park is named after. The Teton Range is a 40-mile-long mountain range that lies directly on the Teton fault. Geologists believe that this is the youngest mountain range not just within the Rocky Mountains, but throughout most of the world, with its estimated formation only about six to nine million years ago.
Being so young means that the Grand Tetons are not worn down, such as the Appalachian Mountains which were formed over a billion years ago, and so their rocky peaks stand tall, rising sharply above the valleys below. Uniquely, this mountain range doesn't have many foothills or smaller peaks and ranges between them and the valley due in part to their formation and in part to massive glaciers that sculpted out the region. The result is exceptional, unobscured views of snowy-top mountains.
Planning Your Vacation to Grand Teton Wyoming
Grand Teton National Park is a park both learning about and exploring about. Learn more about this natural wonder and what to expect during your vacation beneath its peaks.