We just got back from our trip to Grand Teton National Park. Greg had an Optometry Convention there. So most days he attended lectures while I enjoyed the park! We stayed at the 49er Motel right in the middle of Jackson.I spent three days hiking in Grand Teton National park. I was fun to be there and see so much beauty. People come from everywhere to see the park and I spoke with people from many places in the USA, and heard many languages and accents from many other countries. The last day we even met one of our good friends from Pocatello on the trail!
The first day I took the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake and hiked all around the trails there. I saw Hidden Falls, a very high beautiful waterfall,
then I hiked to inspiration point with a view of the lake and valley. I hiked down another trail for a little while, then came back and finally I found the trail to Cascade Canyon.
Cascade Canyon was a beautiful valley with the towering Grand Teton Peaks on both sides with their glaciers at the tops. Many of the glacier had waterfalls coming down from them.
The bottom of the valley had a big rushing stream that cascaded over rockfalls and through shady forests.
The valley was lush with pine and aspen trees and dozens of kinds of wildflowers including 4 kinds of columbine, monkey-flower, lupine, mountain hollyhock, penstemon, thimble-berry, monks-hood, and many more.
I also saw three moose! A young moose was eating water plants in a slow part of the river. Then in a forest, I saw two bull moose about 15 yards from the trail. They had big antlers. One was standing and another was laying down in the grass.
I saw a lot of chipmunks and pikas, little round-eared bunny sized rodents. I loved the hike and decided to bring Greg back there on Saturday when his classes were over.
The next day I wasn't sure where I would hike. I drove to the trailhead to Taggert and Bradley lakes and just started hiking. I decided to hike up and see where the trail would lead. It became very steep and I was just going up and up through switchbacks on the mountain. It was very beautiful, with forests and open slopes covered with wildflowers, and a great view of the Teton valley including Taggert and Bradley Lakes.
It was hard work climbing the steep trail and I almost gave up several times, but I didn't want to waste the hard work I had already done to get so high, so I kept climbing. I finally reached Surprise Lake.
It was a beautiful little round lake surrounded by the cliffs of a high peak covered with snow. There was another lake 0.2 miles further and 300 feet higher, but I just couldn't go any further. A cold breezed coming off the cold lake felt so good. I rested for a little while, pumped some nice cold water through my water filter into my water bottles, cooled my hot feet in cold lake, and got quite a few mosquito bites as I sat there
I looked at my map again and realized that If I had started at a different trailhead, my hike would have been 2 or 3 miles shorter! That was kind of discouraging. I wondered if I went down to the closer trail head if I could get a ride to the other one where my car was parked.
So I started down. Going down the steep downhill trail was hard too! I hiked and hiked and hiked and then I heard girls talking below me. I hurried as fast as I could go down the steep trail to catch up with them. It turned out to be girls and their leaders from an LDS girl's camp from Utah. I explained my predicament and asked if they could give me a ride. There were very gracious and said they had plenty of room and were happy to help. The leaders were probably in their late 20s, and girls were about 13 or 14 years-old. They were a friendly group and laughed and teased as they hiked. The group was moving pretty fast, faster than I would have, so I had to really move to keep up! When we got to the parking lot I was very happy to sit down on a rock. Later, I calculated that I had hiked between 12 and 14 miles and had gained 3000 feet in elevation to get to the lake. The hike was listed as "very strenuous." I would agree with that! I could hardly walk when I got back to the motel!On Saturday, Greg and I went back to Cascade Canyon.
It was a beautiful as before.
We hiked further than I had gone the first day and we saw many cascades coming from the glaciers high above us on the peaks.
We finally came to a waterfall in the large stream that flowed through the canyon and that is where we stopped.
I cooked off my feet and we rested and enjoyed the cool spray.
Here I am near the falls.
Here are pictures we took on the way down:
After hiking down for a couple of hours, the trail was right next to the river. I decided to pump some more nice cold water to refresh our water bottles. Another group was also resting by the stream and watched with interest as we filtered our water. They asked a few questions about it, and it turned out they were out of water! I told them to bring their bottles over and I would get them some clean water. They were very appreciative and offered to take a picture of us together.
We went back down, and when I crossed the river the last time, I climbed out on a rock to wash some of the dust and sticky insect repellent from my hands and arms. I knelt down on a slimy moss-covered rock, and my foot slipped into the rushing water. Fortunately I didn't go all in! My boot was water-proof, so my sock didn't even get wet. It probably gave Greg a little scare! Anyway, the cold water felt so refreshing!
So the trip was great. If we go next year, we may go to Yellowstone too while we are there.
By the way, we ate some great food in Jackson. We ate ribs and a great salad bar at Bubba's Barbeque, and had wonderful food also at The Bunnery.
