Togwotee Pass (pronounced TOH-guh-tee) is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migr ...

in the western

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

. On the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not c ...

in the Absaroka Mountains of northwestern

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

in Teton County, it is between Dubois and Moran Junction in the Jackson Hole valley. U.S. Highways 287 and 26 traverse the pass, which is approximately east of Moran Junction. The pass provides the most direct access to Grand Teton National Park from eastern Wyoming. Located between Two Ocean Mountain and Breccia Peak, sweeping vistas of the Teton Range are visible from the western slopes of the pass. A ski run (mainly a traverse) at the Jackson Hole ski resort is also named Togwotee Pass

Togwotee Pass WY1

Located in the Bridger-Teton National Forest and adjacent to Shoshone National Forest, the pass receives heavy winter

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

and is a top destination for

snowmobiling A snowmobile, also known as a Ski-Doo, snowmachine, sled, motor sled, motor sledge, skimobile, or snow scooter, is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. It is designed to be operated on snow and ice and does not ...

and

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreatio ...

. Annual snowfall at the pass often exceeds (reports of over of snow are also known) in any given winter and the road can be shut down for days at a time during blizzards. The Continental Divide Snowmobile Trail passes through the immediate area.

History

The pass is named for Togwotee, a subchief under

Chief Washakie Washakie (1804/1810 – February 20, 1900) was a prominent leader of the Shoshone people during the mid-19th century. He was first mentioned in 1840 in the written record of the American fur trapper, Osborne Russell. In 1851, at the urging ...

of the

Sheepeater The Tukudeka or Mountain Sheepeaters are a band of Shoshone within the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Shoshone.Shimkin 335 Before the reservation era, they traditionally lived in the central Sawtooth Range of Idaho and the mountains of what is ...

tribe, a branch of the

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easte ...

s. Togwotee led The Jones Expedition over this pass in 1873. Before the expedition, the pass was reported to be an important trade route for native tribes.

Climate

According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

system, Togwotee Pass has a dry-summer

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, g ...

, abbreviated "Dsc" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded at Togwotee Pass was on June 24, 1988 and July 13, 2002, while the coldest temperature recorded was on December 23, 1983.

External links

Snowmobile information

GoTogwoteeTrail
Shoshone National Forest Mountain passes of Wyoming Great Divide of North America Mountain passes of Teton County, Wyoming

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , last=Jones , first=William A. , title=THE RECONNAISSANCE Of NORTHWESTERN WYOMING INCLUDING YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office , year=1875 , pag
1
isbn=0331948184 , url=https://archive.org/details/reportuponreconn00jone {{cite book , last=Sanborn , first=Margaret , date=1978 , title=The Grand Tetons : the story of the men who tamed the western wilderness , url=https://archive.org/details/grandtetonsstory0000sanb , url-access=registration , publisher=New York : Putnam, pag
267
, isbn=0399120459 , author-link=Margaret_Sanborn {{cite book , last=Sanborn , first=Margaret , date=1978 , title=The Grand Tetons : the story of the men who tamed the western wilderness , url=https://archive.org/details/grandtetonsstory0000sanb , url-access=registration , publisher=New York : Putnam, pag
38
, isbn=0399120459 , author-link=Margaret_Sanborn