Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway
Grand Teton National Park, WY

The Teton Range, for which the park is named, dominates the landscape with its jagged, glacially-carved peaks that rise without foothills from the west side of the park.

But there's more to the park than the Tetons. There's Jackson Hole, a level valley carpeted with silvery-green sagebrush shrubs that forms the foreground for the mountains. And there are lakes: at the foot of the mountains, thick conifer forests encircle seven sparkling lakes. There's the Snake River: tall cottonwood and spruce trees line the river that bisects the valley into east and west halves. And wildlife: a diverse array of large and small mammals, a few hardy reptiles and amphibians, numerous birds and several kinds of native and introduced fish inhabit the park, along with countless kinds of insects and other invertebrates.

Although the park was originally established to protect the Teton Range and six of the piedmont lakes, the Jackson Hole valley was later included in national park designation. Grand Teton boasts both unusual scenery and large concentrations of wildlife. Grand Teton and the Rockefeller Parkway are adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, and lie at the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which is the largest nearly intact ecosystem in the temperate part of the world.