Grand Teton – Jenny Lake

Today was devoted to Grand Teton National Park.  We started our adventure at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center, which is a very nice visitor center, to get hiking maps and find out where the moose hangout. (Mom really wants to see a moose.) The Ranger was nice and circled the areas on the map were moose are usually sited and said he would text them shortly to make sure they were out.  Unfortunately we did not see any moose today.



Hidden Falls (taken with point and shoot)

Our first hike was at Jenny Lake.  We took the shuttle boat across the lake, instead of doing the 2.5 mile hike to get half way around the lake.  From the shuttle boat drop off point we did the 1 mile hike up to Inspiration Point which passes by Hidden Falls.  The hike to the falls was moderate hike; however the hike up to Inspiration Point was a steep half mile climb up 400 feet with multiple switchbacks and a narrow trail. I ended up hugging the mountain on the last bit of the trail because it was a very rocky, steep, narrow path with a steep drop off.  However it was worth it, at an elevation of 7200 ft. the view was across the lake was breath taking.  At the top we stopped to eat some granola bars and take pictures of the very brave inquisitive chubby chipmunks. The chipmunks would run across people’s feet, and come right up to people and stare at them hoping for crumbs.  I helped a nice group with their camera and chatted with them a bit.  After that we started back down but not the way we came up, we took the horse trail, which is a much easier trail and decent.  The group I helped with the camera met up with us, since I had a map and followed us back to the boat dock.  On the path down we saw a woodpecker and some animal I could not identify.  Once to the boat dock it was back across the lake and on to find a place to eat.

We ended up traveling up to Signal Mountain Lodge to eat. We had a hot lunch at their restaurant, in Yellowstone we were eating cold lunches served cafeteria style. The price was about the same and the food was good.  From there we decided to head back down the road to Laurence S. Rockefeller Preserve, another prime location for moose.

The road to the preserve is very narrow, and past the preserve turns into a dirt road. We did a the short 2 mile loop instead of doing the full loop out to Phelps lake because it looked like a storm was going to roll in.  It would be just our luck we would get out to the lake which is 3 miles out and it would start pouring and we would have to walk the 3 miles back in the rain.  The short loop was nice, part was along a small river and part was a wooded path. Sadly we did not see any moose on our journey.  Once we finished the hike we followed Moose-Wilson Road, part of which is a dirt road out of the park to Teton Village. Teton Village is mostly just for hotels and access to skiing in the winter.  We then continued on back to Jackson.

Since we got back at a reasonable time today, we ate at the Bunnery in Jackson and then got ice cream from Moo’s.  We also walked around the town a bit then headed back to bed and breakfast. We got back just before a storm rolled through and were treated to a full rainbow.  It was good end to the day.

Wednesday we will head back to Grand Teton in search of moose.