Overflowing with dramatic mountain views, glacier-fed lakes and a mesmerizing array of wildlife, Wyoming’s second-largest national park offers something to see, do and experience around every turn. The park is named for its tallest peak, 13,755-foot-high Grand Teton, which rises over 7,000 feet above Jackson Hole, the park’s lodging and restaurant basecamp. It’s also just a 10-minute drive from Yellowstone’s south entrance, though this 310,000-acre expanse is an entity all its own.
I came looking for four things…. And found them all.
Beauty - wow. Yellowstone was packed and Grand Teton was stunning and no one was here.
Chapel of the Transfiguration: The rustic Episcopal Chapel of the Transfiguration, constructed in 1925, held the first services on July 26 of that year. The Chapel provided spiritual refreshment to dude ranchers and tourists that flocked to the chapel to worship and gather as a community. Today, the Chapel continues to draw people, and services are held every Sunday during the summer from Memorial Day through September.
The T.A. Moulton barn is an iconic structure in Jackson Hole. The sunrise view with the barn in the foreground and the Teton Range as the backdrop is one of the most photographed locales in the valley. Thomas Alva (T.A.) Moulton and his brother John homesteaded on Mormon Row in 1908. T.A. built a frame house in 1915 and dry farmed grain until the state built irrigation ditches to their property in the late 1920s. In 1930, the Snake River Land Company met with the Mormon Row settlers and many sold their property with most securing lifetime leases. By the 1950s, few remained.
Chapel of the Sacred Heart is a small historic Catholic chapel on the south shore of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park, located in the Moose area near Signal Mountain Lodge. Built in 1937 and recognized by the Teton County Historic Preservation Board, it seats about 115 and was remodeled in 2003 under the parish of Our Lady of the Mountains. The chapel is open to visitors in summer and typically hosts weekend Masses from June through September, and a picnic area beside it offers views across Jackson Lake.
Highly recommend a visit.
