Gros Ventre Wilderness

Located in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.

Hundreds of thousands of people visit the Jackson Hole area every year, and yet only a minute fraction of this number ever venture into the wilds of the Gros Ventre Wilderness. Even fewer-including those who line in the area -- can claim any real familiarity with it.

The Gros Ventre is wild and steep and rugged, a paradox of softly rolling luxuriant meadows and unforgiving badlands. It is peaceful, meandering streams and narrow chasms roaring with snowmelt. It is 20 peaks over 10,000 feet and several over 11,000 feet. It is forests and meadows full of elk, moose, mule deer, bighorn sheep, and black bear, just to name a few. It is 287,000 acres of challenges, secrets, beauty and solitude.

The Gros Ventre Wilderness can be considered a youngster. Geologically speaking, the mountains are relatively new, and several active slumps are present. One of them slid into the Gros Ventre River in 1925, forming a dam and creating a lake. A major flood washed out part of this natural dam two years later, destroying the town of Kelly and lowering the lake level considerably. The site of this major landslide is now part of the Gros Ventre slide Geological Area.

The Wilderness is also a youngster in the legal sense. It wasn't until 1984 that the Wyoming wilderness Act officially incorporated the area into the National Wilderness Preservation System, although proposals for its designations were developed as early as 1953.

The Gros Ventre lies directly east of the town of Jackson, with the most western point of the wilderness boundary being less than one half mile from the city limits. major access roads include the Gros Ventre River Road, US Highway 191/26/89, and US Highway 191/189, which serve portals on the northern, western, and southern boundaries respectively.

There are over 200 miles of trails in the Gros Ventre Wilderness which pass through a wide variety of terrain and vegetation. Most trails are cleared of downfall as early in the summer season as possible, but the winter snows generally do not leave the high country until early to mid-July. Stream flows are high and swift during snowmelt runoff in June and July, along with the lack of bridges, cause many stream crossings to be hazardous.

For more information contact: The Bridger-Teton National Forest