As you leave town going north on U.S. Highway 89/191 from the center of Jackson, you’ll pass the National Wildlife Art Museum, the National Elk Refuge, and the National Fish Hatchery. At Gros Ventre Junction, a paved road to the northeast leads to a campground and the town of Kelly. A few miles farther north is the Jackson Hole Airport, its runway recently lengthened to 6300 feet to better accommodate large jet aircraft. The runway is completely within Grand Teton National Park. At Moose Junction, about 13 miles (21 km) north of Jackson, you’ll have to choose your route to Jackson Lake Junction. Either turn onto Teton Park Road, which takes you closer to the lakes and mountains, or stay on U.S. Highways 26/89/191, which is a bit longer, yet faster and with equally spectacular views. On each road, there are lots of turnouts and several interpretive displays. The wide Snake River flows past the Tetons. Northwest of Moose Junction is a Grand Teton National Park entrance station. Visitor centers are at Moose, South Jenny Lake, and Colter Bay. We’ll describe only the eastern highway route here. U.S.
Highways 26/89/191 Continuing straight north beyond Moose Junction, the highway intersects with Antelope Flats Road, which leads to several campgrounds, the town of Kelly, and the Gros Ventre slide. Gros ventre pronounced GROW VAUNT here means big belly in French. The low mountain range here and a subgroup of the Blackfeet tribe share this name. The Gros Ventre Slide can be seen east of the main highway. It’s interesting to compare this landslide with the Quake Lake slide near the West Entrance to Yellowstone (see 36). The Quake Lake slide buried a campground and killed 28 people in 1959 as the result of a very strong earthquake. The Gros Ventre landslide occurred when the unusually wet spring of 1925 caused sandstone layers overlying slippery shale to give way suddenly, shaken by a relatively minor earthquake. The landslide itself killed no one, but two years later the natural dam it had created suddenly gave way, flooding the town of Kelly downriver and killing six of its citizens. Eighteen miles (29 km) from Moose Junction you reach Moran Junction. (See From Moran Junction to the South Entrance below.)
