The thing about these places is that , while they are beautiful , the tallest peak in Colorado , which tops out at 14,440 , isn ’ t overly noteworthy in passing , despite being 600 feet higher than the Tetons . One has to wonder what makes this mountain range so special compared to the rest of the Intermountain West .
There is one factor , which I happened to notice while flying around Colorado , Utah , and Wyoming . The Tetons are a “ fault block range ,” which means that a fault line causes the mountains to rise and the valley to sink . I happened to take a special liking to the Sangre de Cristo Range in Colorado and Wasatch Range in Utah , later finding out that these rather steep mountain ranges share a characteristic with the Tetons .
There is something else going on in Wyoming that is one of a kind . The Yellowstone hot spot basically sits in one place , and the earth ’ s crust moves over time . Over a rather extended period of time , the earth ’ s crust slid from roughly Boise , Idaho to where Yellowstone is today , along with its supervolcano having conveniently blown its top a number of times creating the Snake River Plain in Idaho . That , in turn , allows for Pacific moisture to come in to the Tetons , uninterrupted by those north-south mountain ranges I previously mentioned , and now the ingredients exist for tons of lovely powder at Grand Targhee and Jackson Hole , along with the formation of glaciers .
Grand Teton National Park contains a number of named and unnamed glaciers . All of them are in retreat , and many are not the easiest to spot while taking a day trip along the highway in Jackson Hole . Nonetheless , they are a remnant of more powerful forces in the past that mixed with all of this lovely volcanic and tectonic activities to aid in making already large mountains even steeper . One may note that while there are glaciers in the Tetons even today , the nearest glaciers are in the Wind River Range , and a few tiny ones in the Absarokas and Big Horns . All other mountain ranges around the Tetons are presently devoid of glacial activity , which is an indication of the snowfall that the Tetons receive .
To help frame the magnitude of the Tetons , I took a German pilot up in my antique aircraft , first around Alpine , Wyoming , where he noted that it looked like “ Lake Constance in Switzerland ,” which is a large , yet low elevation lake bordering Germany . Later , we overflew the gnarliest sections of the Tetons , and he casually noted : “ If you like flying here , you ’ d like the Swiss Alps .” These mountains are the closest I have found in the Lower 48 to what exists in Switzerland .
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