Tag Archives: “Skywatch Friday” “Grand Teton National Park” “National Parks” “Mormon Row” “Teton Mountains” Wyoming “Jackson Hole”

Skywatch Friday – The Teton Mountains from Mormon Row

As I mentioned in my previous post, last week I spent a few days with my sister, Ellen who is a Park Ranger at Yellowstone Park. One day we ventured from Yellowstone down to the Grand Teton National Park and looked at a few of the sights. One of my favorite places is an area called Mormon Row in the valley below the Tetons.

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Long before the area became a National Park the area was settled by Mormon settlers in the 1890’s at the direction of their church. Rather than being spread out from each other they put their homesteads close to each other for community and shared labor.  They built their farms and an extensive irrigation system to water their farms.

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They stayed on their homesteads until the 1950’s when they were bought out when the land for the national park was being acquired.  Many of their buildings are preserved, especially the barns and photographers (and picture takers like me) flock from all over the world come to capture images of the buildings with the mountains in the background.

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I love the color of this stucco. 

This trip though,, the smokey hazy skies along with the shadowy afternoon light defeated me. Still, I love the area. I had an aunt and uncle who had a mountain ranch tucked deep into a valley in southeastern Idaho and their buildings were similar in design and construction to those in Mormon Row. 

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A Loo with a View 
(Sorry I couldn’t resist”

I sense that although a settler’s life is hard that it must have been a pleasant place to live in the summer with the cool breezes and the astounding view of the mountains. The Tetons are the most awe inspiring mountains that I have ever seen and I couldn’t get enough of looking at them. I am just sorry that I couldn’t capture that.

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I really love our national parks, I love that they are a precious resource and are defended by all against exploitation. We need more areas like this, not less. 

How about you, have you ever been to Mormon Row?

I am linking with Skywatch Friday