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Spread Creek

A Stream with Two Mouths

Creek in Grand Teton NP, Teton NF, Rocky Mountains in WY

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Length

17mi

Geographic Name Origin

Half a mile west of the Elk Ranch Flats Turnout on U.S. Highway 26, 89, 191, the gravel bedded Spread Creek earns its namesake. The tributary divides and spreads into two Snake River confluences or mouths! This extremely rare, double feature signifies active and complex geologic changes that have occurred under Grand Teton National Park (see Geology Animation). Renowned geologist J. David Love closely studied and was fascinated by the sensitive stream bed channeling in this dynamic area. He believed the feature formed because of Teton mountain building occurring west of the Teton Fault, erosional fill, and the accumulation of sand and gravel on the valley floor, along with a sinking or subsiding Snake River valley (Good 1996, 21-26).

Further Research and Reading

Geology Animation: Grand Teton National Park. NPS, 2011. https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=284FBD86-155D-451F-67761B00753A120B.

Illustrations and Maps

Geologic Map of Grand Teton National Park in (Love 1971 page 121)

Sources

Good, J.M., K.L. Pierce, and Grand Teton Natural History Association. Interpreting the Landscapes of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks: Recent and Ongoing Geology. Moose, WY: Grand Teton Natural History Assoc., 1996.

Love, J. David, Kenneth Pierce, and John Calvin Reed. Creation of the Teton Landscape: A Geologic Chronicle of Jackson Hole and the Teton Range. Second. Moose, WY: Grand Teton Natural History Association, U.S. Geological Survey, 2003. Alternative public domain 1971 edition available at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52838/52838-h/52838-h.htm#c37.or

McPhee, J. Annals of the Former World. Annals of the Former World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.