Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park is in a word: "spectacular." Snow covered mountains rising several thousand feet above the landscape. But, Grand Teton National park has been one of America's most controversial. The Teton Mountain Range and six glacier lakes were made into a National Park by Congress in 1929, but not without much anti-park sentiments from landowners in the area. John D. Rockefeller Jr. had bought 35,000 acres and tried for 15 years to give it to the Department of Interior to be part of the National Park. Congress would not approve because of local pressure. So, Rockefeller gave President FD Roosevelt an ultimatum.  It worked, FDR made it a National Monument along with another 150,000 acres in 1943. Finally, in 1950 all were combined by Congress to its current configuration as The Grand Teton National Park. Again, there had to be a compromise. The biggest of which was an agreement that in the future, presidential proclamation could never again be used to create a National Monument in Wyoming. So, Wyoming has the distinction of having the first National Park (Yellowstone) , but also the distinction of being the only state out of the 50 states in which a new National Monument cannot be created.  It is home to the Trumpeter Swan which is the largest bird in North America. It is also home to Bison, Pronghorn, Elk, and Moose. In fact, estimates are that more moose live in Grand Teton than in Yellowstone. In one of the very few "back roads" (Moose-Wilson Road) are a series of marshes. Rarely have I gone through this area without finding a moose such as the female above. Moose love to forage in ponds and shallow lakes. They dip their head into the water pull up as much vegetation as they can, raise their head and all the water comes out as if going through a sieve. Then they start chewing. This female was having a "Grand" time and seemed completely unconcerned about the controversy. To her it was home no matter what you called it.