Piccola's Projects: Wy (Grand Teton Nat'l Park)

Grand Teton National Park was larger than I initially thought it was. There were road closures due to high bear activity (grizzlies with their cubs near the road) and signs were posted everywhere by trails that grizzlies frequent the area. I bought bear spray, but was still not comfortable going on many hikes by myself in this park.

This was supposed to be a moose habitat, but I could not get close enough to see if this was a moose or not.

Here is my bear spray. A bit of advice... Don't wait until you get to a national park to buy the bear spray. VERY expensive!! I am just glad that I haven't had to use it...yet.

The Grand Teton range flanked the main roads to the park. There were 2 roads - the main road and the side road which lead to Lake Jenny. I took this road first.

This is from the Albright View Turnout.

This tall peak is Grand Teton.

There are a lot of animals that inhabit these plains, including coyote, ground squirrel, pronghorn, and badger. I saw pronghorn and ground squirrels, but no badgers or coyotes in this park.

A glacier 3000 ft thick once filled this valley. As the glaciers retreated torrential meltwaters washed and spread the rocky material (sand, gravel, cobble) throughout the valley. Rain and snow perculate quickly through the cobbles, leaving little moisture for soil. You typically see desert sagebrush on these outwash plains.

This is the Windy Point Turnout.

And this is the Teton Glacier Turnout.

More than any other erosional force, the great Ice Age glaciers sculpted the mountain skyline. Today, a dozen glaciers flow from cirques cut by these Ice Age giants. The Teton Glacier (below and northeast Grand Teton) acts like a giant conveyer belt. Below the glacier there is a wall of rock, transported by moving ice. The glacier moves at a rate of about 30 ft/year. To be called a glacier, snowfall compacted into ice has to flow under the pull of gravity. To stay the same size, snowfall at the top has to equal the melting at the bottom.

Here is Jenny Lake.

I had the option to hike around the lake or ferry across to get to the trailhead. It was already 2:30 PM and the last ferry came back at 5 PM, so I opted to ferry both ways to save time. The boat is called the Jenny Leigh III, and it took about 10-15 minutes to get across.

I decided to hike first to Hidden Falls, and then loop up and around to Inspiration Point, just a couple of miles round trip with about 400-500 ft of elevation changes.

Marmot were all over the place. Not too afraid of humans!

This is Hidden Falls.

And after climbing up, I reached Inspiration Point, which provided excellent views of Jenny Lake.

This was a rainbow in the water from the sun and boat on the way back via the ferry. The boat arrived just as I finished the hike. Although there was plenty of room for one person such as myself, they took the partially filled boat back, and so I, along with many others, had to wait another 15 minutes for the next boat.

Here are some more views of the gorgeous alpine mountain range from the road.

The mountain across the lake is Signal Mountain.

And these plains and lakes are from the Jackson Point Overlook.

It was about 6 PM by now and the sun was just starting to come down and create interesting shadows and light on the water and mountains. I stopped down by Signal Mountain Lodge and the lake to view the mountains from there.

Then I came to the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, which actually holds services on Sundays!

What a view from the chapel!!

The Jackson Lake Dam and Reservoir was not far away. I got out to walk down by the dam. There were swarms of small black insects. Yuck!

At this point I was on the main road heading up through Grand Teton toward Yellowstone (the 2 parks are basically connected). The mountains are getting ready to go to sleep.

Elk were feasting on the grass.

And there was no shortage of buffalo!

It was getting late, but I decided to walk down to the Cunningham Cabin.

Saw a few chipmunks looking curiously up at me.

These views are from the Snake River Overlook. There are supposedly a lot of bald eagles that nest by the Snake River, but I did not see any. In fact, along with snakes and antelopes, I haven't seen any eagles the entire trip!