Lakes of Grand Teton National Park
The peaks were raised in relatively recent geological time and carved by glaciers in the ica age.
Within the Teton Range, small alpine lakes in cirques are common, and there are more than 100 scattered throughout the high country.
[5] Lake Solitude, located at an elevation of 9,035 ft (2,754 m), is in a cirque at the head of the North Fork of Cascade Canyon.
[6] The park is not noted for large waterfalls; however, 100-foot-high (30 m) Hidden Falls just west of Jenny Lake is easy to reach after a short hike.
[8] Paleo-Indian presence along the shores of Jackson Lake is attested from 11,000 years ago in what is now Grand Teton National Park.
[9] Jackson Hole valley climate at that time was colder and more alpine than the semi-arid climate found today, and the first humans were migratory hunter-gatherers spending summer months in Jackson Hole and wintering in the valleys west of the Teton Range.
Along the shores of Jackson Lake, fire pits, tools, and what are thought to have been fishing weights have been discovered.
[10] Some 34 million years ago, the forces of the Laramide orogeny[b] had uplifted a broad part of western Wyoming into a continuous high plateau.
[17] Although some lakes are readily accessible, most can only be reached on foot and some are rarely visited owing to their inaccessibility.
The park has 200 mi (320 km) of hiking trails, ranging in difficulty from easy to strenuous.
[20] Only non-motorized boats are permitted on Bearpaw, Bradley, Emma Matilda, Leigh, Phelps, String, Taggart and Two Ocean Lakes.
[20] All boats are required to comply with various safety regulations including personal flotation devices for each passenger.
[22] All other waterways in the park are off limits to boating, and this includes all alpine lakes and tributary streams of the Snake River.
[21] In 2010, Grand Teton National Park started requiring all boats to display an Aquatic Invasive Species decal issued by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department or a Yellowstone National Park boat permit.
[21] In an effort to keep the park waterways free of various invasive species such as the Zebra mussel and whirling disease, boaters are expected to abide by certain regulations including displaying a self-certification of compliance on the dashboard of any vehicle attached to an empty boat trailer.
There are also restrictions as to the seasonal accessibility to certain areas as well as the types of bait and fishing tackle permitted.
[25] Six glacial piedmont[c] lakes that lie at the foot of the major peaks of the Tetons were included in the original 1929 boundary of the national park.
[30] The largest lakes in the park all drain either directly or by tributary streams into the Snake River.
[31] The lake is named after a Shoshone Indian woman who married an Englishman, Richard "Beaver Dick" Leigh.
The catchment areas of lake's inflows span the full elevation gradient of the major peaks.
A small wetland area is on the northwest side of the lake and is prime moose habitat.
Support for the name change came from then Governor Stan Hathaway, US Senators Gale McGee and Clifford Hansen, and US Congressman John S.
