A roadside turnout on the left faces Teton Glacier, the largest in the park, clinging to the northeast flank of the Grand Teton above a ridge of moraine. Late summer shows the most gray ice and crevasses, and binoculars help. Access to minor turnouts can change near construction.
Ice, high on the Grand. Teton Glacier Turnout comes up quickly on your left, so watch for oncoming traffic, pull in if it's open, and turn left when you leave. That patch on the northeast flank is the largest glacier in the park. Find the ridge of rocky debris just below it, and in summer, once the snow melts off, look for gray ice and crevasses. Those cracks tell you the ice is still flowing, even as it melts back. Binoculars help. The glaciers you can see aren't Ice Age leftovers. The park's ten named glaciers formed in the Little Ice Age, about fourteen hundred to eighteen fifty. Something lives in that melt, too. The western glacier stonefly is a threatened insect, reported in this park only in the cold water coming off the ice. As the ice shrinks, so does the only address it's got here.
Photo: National Park Service, Grand Teton NP (cropped) · Public domain