Frommer's National Parks of the American West - Don Laine [210]
A half-mile north of the Snake River Overlook is the recently repaved road to Deadman's Bar, a peaceful clearing on the riverbank. Many float trips launch here, and there is limited fishing access.
Cunningham Cabin, 1¾ miles north of Deadman's Bar, is a nondescript historic site at which homesteaders Pierce and Margaret Cunningham built their ranch in 1890. By 1928, they had been defeated by the elements and sold out to Rockefeller's Snake River Land Co. You can visit it at any time.
If you head down the highway in the other direction (south) from Moose Junction on U.S. 26/89/191, you can turn east on the Gros Ventre River Road 5 miles before you reach Jackson and follow the river east into its steep canyon—a few miles past the little town of Kelly, you leave the park and enter Bridger-Teton National Forest.
In 1925, a huge slab of mountain broke off the north end of the Gros Ventre Range on the east side of Jackson Hole, a reminder of nature's violent and unpredictable side. The slide left a gaping open gash in the side of Sheep Mountain, sloughing off nearly 50 million cubic yards of rock and forming a natural dam across the Gros Ventre River half a mile wide. Two years later, the dam broke, and a cascade of water rushed down the canyon and through the little town of Kelly, taking several lives. The town of Kelly is a quaint and eccentric community with a large number of yurts. Up in the canyon formed by the Gros Ventre River is a roadside display with photographs of the slide area and a short nature walk from the road down to the residue of the slide and Lower Slide Lake. Here, signs identify the trees and plants that survived or grew in the slide's aftermath.
Organized Tours & Ranger Programs
The Grand Teton Lodge Company (☎ 800/628-9988 or 307/543-2811; www.gtlc.com) runs half- and full-day bus tours of Grand Teton ($33 adults, $16 children) and Yellowstone ($52 adults, $30 children) from late May to early October, weather permitting.
The excellent Teton Science School, P.O. Box 68, Kelly, WY 83011 (☎ 307/ 733-4765; www.tetonscience.org), offers a curriculum for students of all ages, from integrated science programs for junior high kids to adult seminars covering everything from botany to astronomy. Classes take place at the newly renovated Stokes Family Learning Center in Kelly, and younger students can stay on-site in log cabins for some of the programs. The school's Wildlife Expeditions (☎ 307/773-2623; www.wildlife expeditions.org) offers tours that bring visitors closer to the park's wildlife. These trips range from a half day to a week, covering everything from bighorn sheep to the wolves of Yellowstone.
Within the park, there are several interesting ranger programs. They include a ranger-led 3-mile hike from the Colter Bay Visitor Center to Swan Lake as well as a relaxed evening chatting with a ranger on the back deck of the Jackson Lake Lodge, with the Tetons as a dramatic backdrop and a spotting scope for watching moose and birds. There are numerous events during the summer at Colter Bay, South Jenny Lake, and the Moose Visitor Center. Check the daily schedules in the park's newspaper, The Teewinot, which you can pick up at any visitor center.
From Moose, rangers lead visitors out to the "lek"—the mating ground of the strutting grouse, whose males' displays are dramatic to say the least—during the springtime mating season. In winter, guided snowshoe hikes begin at the Moose Visitor Center.
At the Taggart Lake trailhead, there are wildflower walks led by rangers who can tell you the difference between lupine and larkspur, daily in June and July, and guided morning hikes to Hidden Falls from Jenny Lake (you take the boat across the lake), among