Driving to The Grand Tetons

The drive from Yellowstone to the Grand Tetons was beautiful. We drove in from West Yellowstone as usual, but there was a much larger lineup of cars as we entered, probably because it was heading into the weekend.

From West Yellowstone to West Thumb was a known route and then at West Thumb we headed South toward The Grand Tetons. It is a very enjoyable drive and we made a number of stops along the way ending up at Colter Village where our campground/RV park was located.

Rather than expand the nearby existing Yellowstone National Park, which was established in 1872, to include part of the Teton Mountain Range, the residents of Jackson Hole and the federal government decided to create a separate park in 1929. President Calvin Coolidge signed the executive order, creating the 96,000-acre Grand Teton National Park, a few weeks prior to leaving office. In the late 1920s, John D. Rockefeller Jr. visited the park site and Jackson Hole Valley and was dismayed to learn that most of the land around the park site was in private hands. In order to conserve the land and prevent commercial exploitation, Rockefeller began to buy up land around the park under the guise of the Snake River Land Company with plans to eventually donate the land for the park’s expansion. Local and federal opposition to Rockefeller’s plan emerged upon discovery and President Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act to create the 221,000-acre Jackson Hole National Monument in 1943. The monument and park were then combined in 1950, enlarging Grand Teton National Park to 310,000 acres. However, Rockefeller’s role in this tale is not yet complete.