519 miles

The route takes us for 28 miles on a paved road through the breathtaking mountain landscape of the Teton National Park. The jagged peaks tower more than a mile above the Jackson Hole Valley and form the youngest mountain range in the Rocky mountains.
We then climb slowly over a paved highway to the Togwatee Pass (9,658 feet) which crosses the Continental Divide. The Great Divide follows the same route as the TransAmerica cycling Trail. That coast-to-coast route follows the highway but we will make a left turn and travel along gravel roads into the Shoshone National Forest with its picturesque Pinnacle Buttes just ahead of us.

A rapid downhill follows before the route climbs the long and strenuous Union Pass at 9,212 feet. A monument at the top of the pass marks the transition on the Continental Divide from the Wind River drainage to the Green River drainage. This is also the start of the Snake River drainage making Union Pass the headwaters of the three major river systems of the western United States (Green/Colorado, Snake/Columbia, and Wind River/Missouri drainages). This central location and the relatively easy transition to and from any of the three drainages has made it an important location for thousands of years. The pass was historically used by Native Americans and the early mountain men including the Astor Expedition in 1811 on its way west. On their return journey, fearing hostile Indian activity near Union Pass, the Astorian’s chose a more southern route and discovered South Pass which you will cross a few days later on our expedition.