• Last Blog Location

      Visited Locations

      Recent Posts

      • Eat Like a Hanoian – Street Food Tour
      • Hanoi – Running Errands
      • Dong Hoi – Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park
      • Huế – City of Tempels
      • Cooking Class in Hoi An / Vietnam

      Recent Comments

      • wolken on Hanoi – Running Errands
      • wolken on Dong Hoi – Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park
      • Timmi on Kampot – The Salt ‘N Pepper Eldorado
      • Otte on Koalas and Kangaroos!
      • Otte on Koalas and Kangaroos!

      Continents

      • Asia (17)
      • Australia (34)
      • Europe (3)
      • North-America (32)
      • South-America (38)
      • WorldMap (125)

      Tags

      About us Adrenaline Alaska Beach Bear Beard Beer Bike Camping City Crafts Drinks Facts & Figures Ferry Flower Food Friends Gear Glacier Gold Hiking Homeless How long? Kayaking Mosquitos Museum Music Pacific Relax Road Trip Scary Scenic Sports Stone Trekking What If Wildlife

      Contact

      tindy [at] tindy [dot] de
    • 21.08.2013Hiking in Teton National Park

      20130911-210537.jpg

      Grand Teton National Park is located just south of Yellowstone and you pass right through it when leaving Yellowstone by the south entrance. The Grand Teton is the highest mountain (4197m) and the national park is a classic destination for mountaineering. Not less impressive are the neighbouring peaks of the 40-mile-long Teton Range.
      With “only” 9 million years of age the Teton Range is fairly young, especially compared to the Rockies (over 70 million years) or the European Alps (around 300 million years).
      After entering the park we followed the scenic Teton Park Road to get an impression of the majestic mountains that quite suddenly rise up along the valley:

      20130912-112655.jpg

      As we approached the mountain range we got close looks at the most prominent peaks. Here for example Mt. Moran (3842m):

      20130912-112732.jpg

      Here a view of the central Teton peaks neighbouring Mt. Moran:

      20130912-112756.jpg

      Tini cooling off in String Lake, a popular picnic area 🙂

      20130912-112806.jpg

      View over Jenny Lake with Mt. Teton and the Cathedral Group in the background:

      20130912-112816.jpg

      View along the Teton Range before we headed back north:

      20130912-112835.jpg

      20130912-112847.jpg

      20130912-112907.jpg

      20130912-113035.jpg

      Back at Lizard Creek, our campsite, we prepared a delicate pasta dinner with the following sauce ingredients:

      20130912-113010.jpg

      Fittingly the pasta was accompanied with beers brewed with 100% Rocky Mountain water:

      20130912-203753.jpg

      After stuffing our bellies we browsed through the pictures we had taken that day. We felt the urge to not only experience the mountains from a distance, but to hike right into them. A day hike supposedly not too long was quickly chosen from our guide book. Expecting a 6-7 hour hike we started out the next day with a visit to the Colter Bay Village were we first had breakfast.

      20130912-113133.jpg

      While driving to String Lake, the trailhead of our hike, we again passed by Mt. Moran,

      20130912-113105.jpg

      and Mt. Teton with Mt. Owen to its right.

      20130912-113117.jpg

      20130912-113149.jpg

      In between Mt. Teton and Mt. Moran the mountain massive appears, consisting of the three peaks: The Jaw, Mt. Saint John and Rockchuck Peak (from left to right). Our trail started on the left of The Jaw into Cascade Canyon and after surrounding the three peaks comes out on the right side of the Rockchuck Peak through Paintbrush Canyon.

      20130912-113238.jpg

      20130912-113215.jpg

      As we prepared to start our hike at about 10 am, a park ranger informed us, that a bear sow with her cub had been spotted in the area several times in the last few days and had even started to approach people for food. Loud yelling and making noise should however be sufficient to keep her away while hiking.
      With that warning in mind we started hiking around String Lake and passed Jenny Lake.

      20130912-113309.jpg

      20130912-113323.jpg

      20130912-113346.jpg

      On the banks of Jenny Lake we learned that even burnt down trees can still serve a useful purpose:

      20130912-113400.jpg

      20130912-113416.jpg

      Our first short break was at the Hidden Falls:

      20130912-113643.jpg

      And after a narrow and winding path…

      20130912-113747.jpg

      we reached Inspiration Point (2195m). Time for pictures!

      20130912-113824.jpg

      20130912-113843.jpg

      We continued along the Cascade Canyon and found many more places predestined for posing in front of a beautiful landscape 🙂

      20130912-113917.jpg

      20130912-113928.jpg

      View into the canyon:

      20130912-113947.jpg

      And some more posing in front of an impressive background. Interestingly many of the other travellers watched us climb the rocks for the pictures and as we continued on, they were queuing to take the same picture 🙂

      20130912-114005.jpg

      More views from along the canyon:

      20130912-114051.jpg

      20130912-114116.jpg

      For some time we had heard whistling from all sides of the path, however without seeing the whistlers. During a short stop we finally spotted the culprits which we identified as pikas. They were whizzing around, cutting down tall grass and dragging it back to their nest. After hiding away and waiting some time, we managed to get some close-up shots of this action:

      20130912-114156.jpg

      20130912-114208.jpg

      20130912-114225.jpg

      Watching those little fellows was just amazing. It was so much fun to see them take off into the brushes, then see a tall flower first shaking, then falling, and several seconds later the little pika appearing with his prey on his way back to the nest.
      Still fascinated by our observations we could not believe our eyes as just shortly after we saw a big fat marmot also posing on a stone in the sun:

      20130912-114306.jpg

      After a short while he took off towards his burrow, where Andy managed to sneak up on him and get these very close-up shots:

      20130912-204432.jpg

      20130912-204500.jpg

      20130912-114321.jpg

      20130912-114349.jpg

      Heading up towards Lake Solitude the trail got rockier. Here Tini was once again waiting for Andy who couldn’t resist taking pictures of nearly everything (stones, flowers, plants, animals, …)

      20130912-114401.jpg

      20130912-204943.jpg

      Some more feathered wildlife:

      20130912-114428.jpg

      And finally we present you: Lake Solitude (2754m).

      20130912-114457.jpg

      And off course, more joyful posing:

      20130912-114953.jpg

      20130912-114930.jpg

      After our brake in which we had some sandwiches and fruits we started getting a bit worried about the quickly changing weather conditions and it was here that we first realized that the hike around the mountain peaks was not the 5-7 hour hike we initially intended to hike.
      Since turning around and hiking the same way back is rarely an enjoyable option, we decided to continue the hike anyway and headed up Paintbrush Divide (3245m and first peak from the left):

      20130912-115011.jpg

      View of Mt. Teton disappearing in the dark clouds:

      20130912-115027.jpg

      Another marmot checking out the weather conditions and presenting himself in the “position of attention”:

      20130912-115045.jpg

      20130912-115106.jpg

      For a change, an ordinary crow…

      20130912-115126.jpg

      And on and on the steep trail kept going. Tini shooting ahead while Andy was still taking pictures of everything…

      20130912-115139.jpg

      For example the beautiful view of Lake Solitude:

      20130912-115154.jpg

      Or this interesting beetle:

      20130912-115217.jpg

      View back of Cascade Canyon with the cathedral group in the background:

      20130912-115249.jpg

      And a closeup of Mt. Teton:

      20130912-115301.jpg

      And another view back of Lake Solitude:

      20130912-115438.jpg

      More impressions from the way up:

      20130912-115456.jpg

      20130912-115524.jpg

      Here a mixture of resting and waiting for Andy 😉

      20130912-115537.jpg

      20130912-115554.jpg

      20130912-115608.jpg

      20130912-115625.jpg

      20130912-115652.jpg

      A short brake before we …

      20130912-115712.jpg

      saw that there was more rocky trail to overcome:

      20130912-115842.jpg

      Here another look back before we almost reached the pass:

      20130912-115908.jpg

      20130912-205312.jpg

      Finally the view of the other side of the pass,

      20130912-115929.jpg

      and one last look back:

      20130912-115952.jpg

      From here on there were no more climbs, the rest was “just” downhill.

      20130912-120019.jpg

      The trail continued along the windy ridge:

      20130912-120030.jpg

      Where we portrayed our exhausted and sweaty but happy faces, before we descended into Paintbrush Canyon:

      20130912-120050.jpg

      The trail crossed fields of debruis,

      20130912-120103.jpg

      fields of snow,

      20130912-205420.jpg

      20130912-120119.jpg

      and again fields of debruis.

      20130912-120133.jpg

      And once we reached more hospitable regions, we started seeing more wildlife again. This little creature remains unidentified so far:

      20130912-120212.jpg

      We reached the treeline:

      20130912-120237.jpg

      And spotted more feathered wildlife:

      20130912-120259.jpg

      Those boots were definitely made for walking…

      20130912-120317.jpg

      We reached Holly Lake (2868m):

      20130912-120334.jpg

      And finally caught a glimpse of Leigh Lake down in the valley:

      20130912-120506.jpg

      But there was more trail to hike and now that it got brushey again we kept yelling our “Hey Bear” outcries to let the bear know we are on our, or his way.

      20130912-120527.jpg

      A short break for the tired legs:

      20130912-120549.jpg

      Continuing through the woods we could feel we were almost there…

      20130912-120618.jpg

      And after a seemingly never-ending trail, we finally reached String Lake:

      20130912-120635.jpg

      Here we saw posted Bear warnings:

      20130912-120646.jpg

      And after around 9 hours of hiking the “Do Not Run” warning seemed very funny to us, as we wouldn’t have been able to run anyway.

      20130912-120707.jpg

      Finally we arrived at the trailhead feeling that we had extensively experienced the Teton National Park. Later on we checked our little guidebook for the hike we had accomplished. It turned out to be a 2+ day hike, involving at least one night of camping. Milewise we estimated the trek to be around 20 miles. No surprise each of us drank almost three liters of water and we were entirely exhausted. Our happy but very tired faces:

      20130912-120720.jpg

      Driving away we watched the clouds gather along the mountain peaks and felt very lucky that it didn’t rain on us during the hike. We headed straight to the shower-house with warm water in Colter Bay Village where we washed off the days sweat and exhaustion.

      20130912-120737.jpg

      20130912-120800.jpg

      After a very sound sleep we left Teton National Park the next morning and again enjoyed some beautiful sceneries, this time from the distance:

      20130912-120815.jpg

      20130912-120831.jpg

      20130912-120843.jpg

      20130912-120908.jpg

      20130912-120924.jpg

      20130912-120942.jpg

      20130912-121000.jpg

      20130912-121012.jpg

      20130912-121030.jpg

      20130912-121043.jpg

      20130912-121107.jpg

      20130912-121118.jpg

      20130912-121136.jpg

      In Jackson Hole we visited the famous Bunnery for breakfast:

      20130912-121204.jpg

      While Andy had some delicious Eggs Benedict, Tini enjoyed some sweet pancakes and a crunchy granola parfait. Unfortunately she ate it so fast that there was no time for a picture 🙂

      20130912-121214.jpg

      The last sight on our way west were the antler arches that decorate the four corners of Jackson Hole’s town square. Each of the four arches consists of around 2000 Elk antlers. The elk naturally shed their antlers each year, so no animals were harmed for this sight 🙂

      20130912-121230.jpg

      20130912-121242.jpg

      Addon (23.09.2013):

      The interactive Google-Map of our trek:

      The elevation profile of the trek:

      Teton_Trek

      38.950061-119.802091

      This entry was posted in North-America, WorldMap and tagged Camping, Hiking, Wildlife
      • Comments

        1. wolken says:
          16.09.2013 at 17:21

          Another great blog with wonderful photos of the scenery. We enjoy sharing the memories with you.

          Aunt Judie and Uncle Peter

          Log in to Reply
    • Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      You must be logged in to post a comment.

    • ‹ Older Post Newer Post ›

        TRAVEL-BLOG TINI & ANDYSee where, and what we were up to