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30 images of mountain scenery, lakes and aspens taken in Grand Teton National Park, ten miles to the south of the Southern entrance to Yellowstone National Park in autumn.
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Geothermal Scenery Old Faithful Geyser Eruption Assorted Yellowstone Scenic
Rivers and Waterfalls of Yellowstone Grand Teton National Park
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website. The Banner below leads to the Photoshelter Scenic Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links:
Yellowstone Geothermal Scenery Grand Tetons
Geothermal Scenery Old Faithful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Lamar Valley & Misc Scenics Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces
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Antler Arch Town Square Jackson Hole 0120 M 1500 x 1290 (868 KB)
One of the four arches of shed elk antlers at the corners of the Town Square in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The first arch was built in 1953, and the remaining three were built 10 years later. In 2007, funds were raised again to replace the arches, and the final replacement arch will soon be completed.
These images are of the original arches, made from about 2000 elk antlers (weighing over 10,000 pounds) from the National Elk Refuge, which are shed each year and collected from the ground by local Boy Scouts.
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Antler Arch Town Square Jackson Hole 1374
One of four antler arches at the corners of the Town Square in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, made from over 2000 elk antlers.
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Aspens Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1005
Aspens in their full autumn splendor, north of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park.
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Aspens Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1000
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Aspens Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1003
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A small grove of Aspens in full autumn color in Grand Teton National Park north of Jackson Lake.
Catching the Aspens in full fall color requires a tricky bit of timing. The color change is dependent on the altitude, temperature, and weather, and they could be magnificent one day and barren on the next. Beginning in early September, the cooling temperatures turn the trees yellow, bright gold, orange and sometimes a brilliant red. Once the color has changed, a slight breeze can denude the branches, so the timing has to be right if you want to catch the trees in full foliage and full color at the same time.
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Aspens Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1007
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Aspens Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1008
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Aspens in brilliant fall color, north of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park.
Aspens change color based upon the balance of chemicals in the tree. The balance is genetically determined and varies between clones. When temperatures cool and chlorophyll production stops, carotene (yellow) and anthocyanins (red) become more prominent as the chlorophyll breaks down.
More images of Aspens in Fall Color can be seen on the Utah: Assorted Scenic page.
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North Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1011
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Morning Fog North Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1310
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The Grand Tetons rising above North Jackson Lake in autumn. The lake bed is exposed when water levels are low. The right image was taken just after sunrise, with morning fog over the lake. This northeast view shows Grand Teton and Teewinot Mountain at left, and at right is Mount Moran.
Jackson Lake is named for David Edward “Davey” Jackson, one of the early partners in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, formed in the 1820s as a rival of the Hudson’s Bay Company and Astor’s American Fur Company. The company employed many early mountain men to trap for the lucrative fur trade in the 1820s to 1830s, including Jim Bridger, Kit Carson and others.
Formed by General William H. Ashley in response to an 1822 law against the sale of alcohol to Indians, who had done the trapping up to then and had often been paid with or cheated by the use of alcohol. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company established a new method that made the Indian trappers and trading posts obsolete. It used mountain men as trappers and they met at the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous to trade, resupply and party. The first Rendezvous was in 1825. At the second Rendezvous in 1826, Jedediah Smith, William Sublette and David Edward Jackson bought the fur company from General Ashley and Major Henry.
Sublette named the valley east of the Teton Range Jackson’s Hole for Davey Jackson.
Mount Moran Morning Fog Grand Tetons 1355
Morning fog over Willow Flats, with Mount Moran in the distance. The prominent shape of Skillet Glacier dominates the eastern face.
Mount Moran was named for Thomas Moran, the artist whose paintings of Yellowstone created from sketches made during the 1871 Hayden Survey were critical to the creation of Yellowstone National Park. His first painting of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872) was purchased by the government for the enormous sum at the time of $10,000, and captured the imagination of the nation.
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Morning Fog Willow Flats Grand Tetons 1322 16x9
Morning fog over Willow Flats, with the Teton Range in the distance. On the left is the Cathedral Group, including Grand Teton and Mount Owen, Middle Teton and South Teton, Teewinot Mountain and others, most of which are over 12,000 feet, together representing 8 of the 10 highest peaks in the Teton Range. In the center of the image are Mount St. John, Rockchuck Peak and Mount Woodring, and at the right is Mount Moran, which is easily identified by the prominent landmark of Skillet Glacier on its eastern face.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website. The Banner below leads to the Photoshelter Scenic Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links:
Yellowstone Geothermal Scenery Grand Tetons
Geothermal Scenery Old Faithful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Lamar Valley & Misc Scenics Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces
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Jackson Lake Mount Moran Grand Tetons 1364
Mount Moran looms over Jackson Lake in the early morning, with the rest of the Grand Teton Range extending to the left of the image. At the far left are Grand Teton, Mount Owen and Teewinot Mountain.
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Colter Bay Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1013
A sailboat rests near Colter Bay on Jackson Lake (Bivouac Peak in the background).
Jackson Lake is the remnant of a large glacial lake, fed primarily from the Snake River. The natural lake was enlarged by the Jackson Lake Dam, which was originally built in 1911. Jackson Lake is one of the largest high altitude lakes in the United States (6772 ft., 15 mi. by 7 mi.)
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Colter Bay Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1017
Mount Moran forms a backdrop to this image of a sailboat on Jackson Lake near Colter Bay.
John Colter was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06, and in later explorations during the winter of 1807-08, he was the first known person of European descent to enter the region of Yellowstone National Park and to see the Teton Range. John Colter was the first mountain man.
John Colter traveled hundreds of miles through the area, alone in the dead of winter, with nighttime temperatures of -30 degrees or lower. He passed by the shores of Jackson Lake and explored the valley of Jackson Hole, crossed Teton Pass into Pierre’s Hole (later famous for the 1832 Rendezvous of the mountain men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company), then headed north and east to Yellowstone. When he returned to Fort Raymond in March or April of 1808, nobody believed his stories of geysers, bubbling mudpots and other geothermal features. They jokingly referred to the area as “Colter’s Hell”.
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Colter Bay Jackson Lake Grand Tetons 1019
A sailboat rests on Jackson Lake near Colter Bay, overlooked by Mount Moran, Bivouac Peak, and other mountains in the Teton Range at mid-morning in autumn.
In 1809, John Colter teamed up with John Potts, another member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and while traveling by canoe up the Jefferson River, they encountered several hundred Blackfoot Indians who demanded that they come ashore. Colter came ashore and was stripped naked. Potts refused and was shot and wounded. When Potts returned fire and hit one of the Indians, he was riddled by bullets and killed, then his body was dragged ashore and hacked to pieces. Colter was then told to leave, and encouraged to run. He soon realized that he was running for his life, naked and pursued by a pack of Blackfoot braves. Colter was a fast runner, and after several miles he was ahead of all but one of the braves. He stopped, killed the exhausted Blackfoot, took his blanket, and continued on to the Madison River, five miles from the start of the run, and hid in a beaver lodge until night, when he emerged and walked for 11 days to a fort on the Little Big Horn. This harrowing exploit became famous as “Colter’s Run”.
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Cottonwoods Cathedral Group Grand Tetons 1062
Cottonwoods surrounding Cottonwood Creek are overlooked by the Cathedral Group in Grand Teton National Park.
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Cottonwoods Cathedral Group Grand Tetons 1066
The Cathedral Group rises over a stand of cottonwoods north of Schwabacher’s Landing in Grand Teton National Park.
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The section of the Cathedral Group shown in the two images above (left to right) are South Teton, Middle Teton, Grand Teton, Mount Owen and Teewinot Mountain.
Cottonwoods Cathedral Group Grand Tetons 1073
The Cathedral Group looms over cottonwoods north of Schwabacher’s Landing in Grand Teton National Park. Mount Winter is at the far left, followed by South Teton, Middle Teton, Grand Teton, Mount Owen and Teewinot.
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Cottonwoods Cathedral Group Grand Tetons 1072 16x9
A wider view of the Cathedral Group rising over a stand of cottonwoods north of Schwabacher’s Landing. Left to right are Buck Mountain, Mt. Winter, South Teton, Middle Teton, Grand Teton, Mt. Owen and Teewinot.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website. The Banner below leads to the Photoshelter Scenic Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links:
Yellowstone Geothermal Scenery Grand Tetons
Geothermal Scenery Old Faithful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Lamar Valley & Misc Scenics Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces
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Snake River Grand Tetons 1078
The Snake River winds through the valley of Jackson Hole on its way west from Jackson Lake. Grand Teton and Mount Owen are in the center distance. The historic Oregon Trail, laid out by fur trappers and traders between 1811 and 1840, from the Platte River Valley in Nebraska, through the Rocky Mountains and Tetons, along the Snake River to Idaho and on to the Columbia River in Oregon.
The Snake River is the largest tributary of the Columbia River. The region was home to numerous tribes of Native Americans for 11,000 years. By the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Nez Perce and Shoshone were the most powerful tribes in the region. A Shoshone hand sign for Fish was misinterpreted to mean Snake, giving the river its name. John Colter was first European to see the Snake headwaters, although various explorers including Meriwether Lewis had encountered and traveled the western parts of the Snake River earlier. The Snake River became a critical waterway for the fur trappers and later, as a part of the Oregon Trail, for hundreds of thousands of settlers traveling from the east to Oregon.
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Oxbow Bend Snake River Grand Tetons 0129
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Oxbow Bend Snake River Grand Tetons 0132
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The view at Oxbow Bend on the Snake River, as a storm settles over Mount Moran in late September.
Oxbow Bend Snake River Grand Tetons 1087
Oxbow Bend on the Snake River, with Mount Moran in the distance, taken in the early afternoon on a beautiful autumn day in late September.
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Middle Teton Black Dike Grand Tetons 1025
Middle Teton is the third highest peak in the Teton Range. This image taken from Cottonwood Creek to the east shows Middle Teton Glacier and the Black Dike, a basaltic intrusion running in a straight line up the mountain.
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Grand Teton Mount Owen 1371
Grand Teton, Mount Owen and Teewinot, with Disappointment Peak at the far left.
Grand Teton, at 13,775 feet, is the highest peak in the Teton Range of the Rocky Mountains. The naming of the mountain range is attributed to early French-speaking trappers in the area, who named the breast-shaped peaks le trois tetons (three teats), and the largest Grand Teton.
Grand Teton was named Mount Hayden by the Washburn Expedition (1870), but the earlier name persisted and it was adopted by the 1901 US Geological Survey map. There is a lot of controversy regarding who first climbed the peak. Although it may have been climbed in 1872 by Nathaniel P. Langford (first superintendent of Yellowstone) and James Stevenson, it was definitely climbed in 1898 by Franklin Spalding, William Owen, Frank Peterson and John Shive. Based upon a description of the climb, it is likely that Langford and Stevenson only reached the Enclosure, a small walled structure erected by Native Americans near the Upper Saddle 455 feet below the peak, beyond which the climb becomes very difficult. In fact, this section nearly killed Owen the year before in his second unsuccessful attempt.
The second tallest peak in the Teton Range (Mount Owen) was named for William O. Owen. The controversy over who was the first to achieve the summit of Grand Teton is probably the greatest in the history of American mountaineering, and it will most likely never be resolved.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website. The Banner below leads to the Photoshelter Scenic Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links:
Yellowstone Geothermal Scenery Grand Tetons
Geothermal Scenery Old Faithful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Lamar Valley & Misc Scenics Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces
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Grand Teton Mount Owen Jenny Lake 1056
The summits of Grand Teton and Mount Owen from Jenny Lake.
At 12,928 feet, Mount Owen is the second highest peak in the Teton Range. It is about 2000 feet northeast of Grand Teton, but due to the shooting position at Jenny Lake and telephoto foreshortening, it appears to be part of Grand Teton.
Mount Owen was the last of the major peaks in the Teton Range to be climbed (1930).
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Symmetry Spire Mount St. John Jenny Lake 1033
Symmetry Spire and Mount St. John rise above the northwest shore of Jenny Lake in late September.
Jenny Lake was formed 12,000 years ago by glaciers pushing rock debris through Cascade Canyon, at the far left of the image above, forming a terminal moraine which holds in the lake. Jenny Lake was named for a Shoshone woman who married an Englishman (Richard Leigh, who was the namesake for another lake just north of Jenny Lake). Jenny Leigh and her six children died of smallpox in 1876.
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Cascade Canyon Jenny Lake Grand Tetons 1034
Cascade Canyon lies between Grand Teton and Mount Owen on the left, and Symmetry Spire, Mount St. John, and Rockchuck Peak (right), from the glacial moraine at the shore of Jenny Lake.
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Mount St. John Mount Woodring Jenny Lake 1035
Symmetry Spire, Mount St. John, Rockchuck Peak an Mount Woodring (in the distance at left), from the glacial moraine on the southeastern shore of Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park.
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Cascade Canyon Jenny Lake Grand Tetons 1039
Grand Teton and Mount Owen, Cascade Canyon, Symmetry Spire, Mount St. John and Rockchuck Peak rise above Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park, from the terminal moraine on the southeastern shore.
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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website. The Banner below leads to the Photoshelter Scenic Collection where a Gallery can be selected.
Direct Links:
Yellowstone Geothermal Scenery Grand Tetons
Geothermal Scenery Old Faithful Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Lamar Valley & Misc Scenics Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces
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Click the Display Composite above to visit the Yellowstone Geothermal Scenery page.
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Click the Display Composite above to visit the Old Faithful Geyser page.
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Click the Display Composite above to visit the Yellowstone Rivers and Waterfalls page.
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