Grand Tetons recommended reading

Almost any local library can order a book for you from another library almost anywhere in the US. There is sometimes a small fee for this service.

Photo below of Oxbow Bend, and the mist we typically kayak out into in the morning, by Fred Hanselmann

http://www.hanselmannphotography.com/Pictures_of_the_tetons.html)

Before a trip to the Tetons, borrow these from the library:

The Story Behind the Scenery has basic and detailed geology infomation. They wrote one for each of the major National Parks, including Grand Teton and Yellowstone.

Grand Teton National Park: - Where Lightning Walks is a large format photo album. Photographs by Pat O'Hara, Text by Tim McNulty

Wapiti Wilderness, by Margaret and Olaus Murie, pen-and-ink drawings by Olaus Murie, is their tale of living in the Tetons wilderness, where Olaus conducted studies of elk and other wildlife that in effect sometimes became a part of their household. It includes stories of pioneers, with detailed exerpts from the diaries and letters of Beaver Dick Leigh. If you know how to read a topographical map you can find Olaus's "place of enchantment" where the ouzel is the "very spirit of the place."

If you like it, also read Two In The Far North about their previous work and adventures in Alaska.

At least chapter 5, The Song of the White Pelican, of The Abstract Wild by Jack Turner.

One Day at Teton Marsh, by Sally Carrighar, builds a drama around the lives of beavers, moose, birds, ducks, and even a mosquito.

To help plan when to have Tetons trips, try

For Everything There is a Season, a week by week chronicle of the sequence of events (blooming, birthing, weather, etc.) in the Grand Teton-Yellowstone Area by Frank C. Craighead, Jr.

A Guide to Exploring Grand Teton National Park (RNM Press) was written by Ranger naturalist(s) Olson and Bywater.

They have lots of info about birds, wildlife, trees and wildflowers as well as a basic map with trail distances.

Plants of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, by Richard J. Shaw has most of them. The photo of the Lady's thumb knotweed (an aquatic plant) we saw blooming on the edges of some lakes in September, giving the impression of a pink mist floating on the water, isn't half as pretty in the book as in real life.

At Cascade Canyon wildflowers you'll find pictures of Penstemon, Silky Phacelia, Western Serviceberry, Cascade Mountain Ash and Columbine in June and fall colors of Asters, Mountian Ash and Aspen in September.

Plants of the Rocky Mountains (Kershaw, MacKinnon, Pojar) has more pictures than most field guides, including spring/fall and or close ups and general pictures. The start of the wildflowers section has a collage, by color, of all the ones described with page numbers to find larger pictures and read details.

One favorite Rocky Mountains field guide to flowers, trees, fish, birds, mammals and more is The National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Rocky Mountain States.(Peter Alden) We also use Rocky Mountain Wildflowers (Mountaineers Books).

Our copy of A Guide to Field Identification - Birds of North America is well worn and we also use Field Guide to Birds, Western Region (Little, Brown), as well as the three volume Audubon Society Master Guide to Birding.

The Grand Teton Association has most of the above books for sale, and lots more to tempt you. http://www.grandtetonpark.org/

We bring the Colter Bay map and trail guide and the Cascade Canyon map and trail guide along with the U.S.G.S. topographical maps.

Yellowstone details: http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/resourceandissues.htm

National Wildife Federation

birds, mammals, amphibians, insects, reptiles...

and mating calls ringtones...

http://www.enature.com/home

Clark: "...bison were so numerous and loud that the men had difficulty sleeping."

The Journals of Lewis and Clark

Table of Contents is at:

http://lewisandclark.state.mt.us/Journals/

campfire tales of Jackson Hole (history)

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/grte/contents.htm

A Place Called Jackson Hole A Historic Resource Study of Grand Teton National Park

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/grte2/hrs.htm

Grand Teton geology fieldnotes http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/grte/

The Grand Teton National park brochures https://www.nps.grte/planyourvisit/brochures.htm

Teewinot, the park newspaper, is at: http://www.nps.gov/grte/parknews/newspaper.htm

A place called Jackson Hole

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/grte2/hrs.htm

is a Grand Teton Historic Resource Study

Including chapters about prehistoric peoples; fur trappers; explorers and scientists; prospectors and miners; pioneers; homesteading, cattle ranchers dude wranglers, tourists and conservationists.

A National Public Radio program about Mardy Murie is at: http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_860015.html

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1189

How to ID Birds Learn some of the secrets of bird identification using silhouettes, posture, flight pattern, size and habitat, in addition to key field marks.

Where to Bird, Bird Guide, Gear Guide, Attracting Birds, Conservation Links

http://www.naturesound.com/corepage/core.html

Featuring the Sounds of Birds, Frogs, Mammals, and Insects

http://www.enaturalist.org/index.php

The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History is a national, non-profit nature education organization with headquarters in Jamestown, New York, birthplace of world renowned artist and naturalist, Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996). Our mission is to create passion for and knowledge of the natural world in the hearts and minds of children by inspiring and guiding the study of nature in our schools and communities.

http://www.wolf.org/wolves/index.asp

The International Wolf Center advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wild lands and the human role in their future.

http://www.otternet.com/index.htm

Otternet is the largest resource on the Internet for otter information. We have in-depth species profiles giving you tons of information on all 13 species of otter. We also have habitat overviews for the five continents otters live on; there you can find which otters live in each country, what the threats to them are, and their conservation status.

http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/

Bald eagle feeding habits, nesting & young, feathers, eyesight

National Park Service on-line books

Glimpses of Our National Parks

Histories of various National Parks are at: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/park_histories/index.htm

Grand Tetons chapter is at:

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/glimpses1/glimpses21.htm

Yellowstone chapter is at:

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/glimpses1/glimpses3.htm

Yellowstone National Park, Its Exploration and Establishment, by Aubrey L. Haines (with original water colors by Thomas Moran),

starts at: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/index.htm

The diary of artist Thomas Moran is at: http://www.nps.gov/yell/historyculture/thomasmoransdiary.htm

FAUNA OF THE NATIONAL PARKS OF THE UNITED STATES

ECOLOGY OF THE COYOTE IN THE YELLOWSTONE By ADOLPH MURIE

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/fauna4/fauna.htm

Yellowstone in the Afterglow, about the effects of the 1988 fire

http://www.nps.gov/yell/publications/pdfs/fire/htmls/intro.htm

See also Yellowstone

For info about the next Outdoor Club Grand Tetons trip go to Grand Tetons

Grand Tetons trip pages index has brief descriptions of most of the pages about the trip.