From Jackson Lake, the Snake winds in braided channels for 27 miles while in Grand Teton National Park. At Moran Junction, the river turns abruptly southwest and flows down the broadened bed of the ancestral Snake, which diagonally bisects Jackson Hole. Slower moving water insures essential habitat for numerous aquatic animals, including North America's largest waterfowl, the trumpeter swan, and plants. Beavers, otters and trout make their way past moose, who feed on primarily on plants. Native Snake River cutthroat trout, a distinct subspecies of the cutthroat, depend on the park's natural aquatic system for survival.
Trout consume aquatic insects, invertebrates and small fish.
Bears, eagles, ospreys and otters in turn feed on the trout. Low-growing willows thrive among tall cottonwood, spruce and aspens trees. Riverbanks show an ever-changing checkerboard of plant communities because of flooding and channel shifting. Were it not for these continual natural changes, spruce would dominate along the banks, crowding out the willows and cottonwoods favored by moose and beavers. The summer Snake teems with diving, wading and woodland birds.