The Tetons received their name from French-Canadian trappers who accompanied the earliest British expeditions into this territory. As they approached the range from the west, they beheld three towering mountains upon which they bestowed the name of Trois Tetons (Three Breasts).
Although Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park are only a few hours away from each other, they have different landscapes. Grand Teton National Park has glaciated mountains, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and forests. Yellowstone, in contrast, has mainly subalpine forests and hydrothermal features.
Stones and boulders crashed hundreds of feet down both sides of the ridge to the Teepe and Teton Glaciers below. “I think it's the most dramatic rockfall,” Horton said of his lifetime in the Tetons. But the extent to which the world-famous skyline was forever altered went unseen initially, perhaps because of weather.
The Tetons and the Snake River is a black and white photograph taken by Ansel Adams in 1942, at the Grand Teton National Park, in Wyoming. It is one of his best known and most critically acclaimed photographs.
It is beautiful and so much smaller than Yellowstone! If you have time in your trip to at least drive thru the Grand Teton national park, definitely do it. It is beautiful and a fraction of the size of Yellowstone, so very doable in a day.
Today the threeTetons-Grand, Middle and South- are best seen from the west. On the east side of the range, the view of the South Teton is mostly blocked by other peaks.