Grand Teton

  Grand Teton Brewing Black Cauldron Lagers and light ales for summer, dark brews in winter. That's as much an established principle — or cliché — as white wine with white meat, red wine with red. But for its summer seasonal, Grand Teton makes the very darkest sort of ale, a Russian imperial stout. Let's play along and see what it's up to. Black Cauldron pours very dark, practically black, with a dark tan head. It has a slight citrus and dried-fruit nose, but this beer is really about roasted flavors (from two varieties of caramel malt and a little bit of rauchbier -style smoked malt)

Jackson Hole aficionados Kudos on Chris Reynolds' wonderful article on family-friendly Jackson Hole ["All This Can Be Yours," Aug. 5]. My family and I have been traveling there off and on for 30 years, and the beauty of this area never fails to amaze. We have found so many free or moderately priced things to do that we return often. Add to his list the Elk Country Inn, a sister property to Cowboy Village. Really nice people, locally owned and convenient to all activities.

The rain poured down all night as if it would never stop. The lightning flashed and the thunder crashed. We didn't mind, not even when the power went out. We were snug in our log cabin in the middle of Grand Teton National Park, wondering how all the animals, not to mention campers, were faring in the storm. Even the kids were glad we'd chosen a cabin that night rather than a tent. The next morning, with the rain gone, they couldn't get outside fast enough.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO JACKSON, WYO., AND GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK From LAX, United offers nonstop service and Delta and United offering connecting (change of planes) service to the Jackson Hole, Wyo., airport. WHERE TO STAY Cowboy Village Resort, 120 S. Flatcreek Drive, Jackson; (307) 733-3121 or 800-483-8667, http://www.townsquareinns.com . Dozens of log cabins with kitchenettes, close together, with indoor pool and grassy playground next door. About six blocks from town square.

Joe Albright has seen eagles, deer and moose around the guest ranch, a few miles from the Grand Teton National Park boundary, that he and his wife bill as "Your Own Private Wilderness." He hopes that things don't change if helicopters carrying sightseers start flying. Environmentalists and some local residents want to ban helicopters that would give tourists a bird's-eye view of the area's rugged beauty, saying the noise and low-flying aircraft could disturb animals and tourists who want quiet.

THE Grand Tetons held sway over me for 20 years -- before I set ever eyes on them. The breathtaking backdrop for a mythic American landscape has been etched on my consciousness since, as a 10-year-old, I sat mesmerized by a Saturday matinee showing of "Shane," an archetypal little-guy-versus-bully story. And the Jackson Hole, Wyo., landscape, personified by the overpowering Tetons, is as essential a character as any in the 1953 film.

The number of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would be reduced 39% under a judge's ruling that the vehicles dirty the air and displace wildlife. The National Park Service proposed that 318 snowmobiles be allowed in Yellowstone per day and 50 be given access to Grand Teton. The public can comment until Nov. 17.

Officials reopened some parts of Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park as firefighters nearly contained a 1,028-acre fire in the scenic region while workers battled to keep a blaze from a town in Washington state. Firefighters in Oregon took a needed rest as cooler weather and some rain helped extinguish what was left of several fires that had burned thousands of acres. About 500 firefighters completed a fire line around the Grand Teton fire, which had destroyed four cabins and some outbuildings.

A sudden late summer snowstorm killed three mountain climbers and injured two others on 13,766-foot Grand Teton mountain in Grand Teton National Park, a park spokesman said today. The climbers belonged to two teams, one from Jackson and the other from Seattle, both of which began their assault on the mountain in sunny weather Wednesday. Park spokesman John Krambrink said the winterlike blizzard struck the top of the Grand Teton on Wednesday evening with winds blowing in excess of 80 m.p.h.

You can book a four-night stay at a mountain lodge within driving range of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and take 25% off the cost of the room. The deal: Togwotee Mountain Lodge, 16 miles from Grand Teton and 49 miles from the south entrance to Yellowstone, has a Spring Solitude package that takes a quarter off the cost of lodge rooms for a four-night stay. This is good for stays between now and June 21. Info: Togwotee Mountain Lodge, 27655 Highway 26 & 287, Moran, Wyo.; (866)

Rolling through Jackson Hole on the way into Grand Teton National Park for the first time, I spotted a boy on the cycle path alongside the road. His family was a few yards behind him, and the Tetons were off to his left, their ragged, snowy peaks jutting above the Snake River and miles of meadow. The boy was taking it all in, his helmeted head tilted back. His legs were pumping. And his arms were off the handlebars, thrown out in scarecrow fashion. He was the King of the World, astride a shiny bike instead of a doomed ocean liner.

  Grand Teton Brewing Black Cauldron Lagers and light ales for summer, dark brews in winter. That's as much an established principle — or cliché — as white wine with white meat, red wine with red. But for its summer seasonal, Grand Teton makes the very darkest sort of ale, a Russian imperial stout. Let's play along and see what it's up to. Black Cauldron pours very dark, practically black, with a dark tan head. It has a slight citrus and dried-fruit nose, but this beer is really about roasted flavors (from two varieties of caramel malt and a little bit of rauchbier -style smoked malt)

You can book a four-night stay at a mountain lodge within driving range of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and take 25% off the cost of the room. The deal: Togwotee Mountain Lodge, 16 miles from Grand Teton and 49 miles from the south entrance to Yellowstone, has a Spring Solitude package that takes a quarter off the cost of lodge rooms for a four-night stay. This is good for stays between now and June 21. Info: Togwotee Mountain Lodge, 27655 Highway 26 & 287, Moran, Wyo.; (866)

The number of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would be reduced 39% under a judge's ruling that the vehicles dirty the air and displace wildlife. The National Park Service proposed that 318 snowmobiles be allowed in Yellowstone per day and 50 be given access to Grand Teton. The public can comment until Nov. 17.

Russell Dickenson, 84, who worked for the National Park Service for nearly 40 years and served as the agency's head during two administrations, died Feb. 19 of cancer at his home in Bellevue, Wash. He was named head of the service in 1980 during the Carter administration. He replaced William J. Whalen, who was fired by Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus after a stormy three years during which Whalen came under fire from conservation groups and park service employees complained of low morale.

The word camera means room, and a camera obscura is a darkened room with a lens set in the wall, or just a tiny hole, through which an inverted image of the world outside can be projected on the interior. Aristotle delineated the principle, and Leonardo da Vinci provided an early working diagram for a camera obscura, the device that Abelardo Morell employs in his photographs. For this picture, Morell rented a room with a view at a lodge.

For nearly three years, the Bush administration went through contortions trying to prove that snowmobiles were compatible with the winter environment in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Finally last week, a federal district judge in Washington, D.C., cut through the sham and restored a Clinton administration ban on the noisy, polluting machines. The ruling is being challenged by the Wyoming state attorney general, the Snowmobile Manufacturers Assn.

Two teams of nearly frozen climbers made peak-bagging history in Grand Teton National Park last week, scoring the first winter ascent of the Grand Traverse, the park's showpiece climb of the Teton range's 10 principal summits. For years, the trail had stopped climbers cold during the winter months until a pair of climbing teams finally came out on top.

THE Grand Tetons held sway over me for 20 years -- before I set ever eyes on them. The breathtaking backdrop for a mythic American landscape has been etched on my consciousness since, as a 10-year-old, I sat mesmerized by a Saturday matinee showing of "Shane," an archetypal little-guy-versus-bully story. And the Jackson Hole, Wyo., landscape, personified by the overpowering Tetons, is as essential a character as any in the 1953 film.

An experienced climber died on Grand Teton National Park's 11,618-foot Disappointment Peak when his rappel anchor failed and he fell 50 feet, officials said. Frank Olding, 40, of Seattle was part of a three-person climbing party that was ascending the peak's East Ridge, park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said. His climbing partners were taken off the mountain by helicopter.