Karen HealeyWe spent the past two days at Grand Teton National Park. Because of the tremendous amount of snow that the area received over the winter, certain areas of the park were still not open. Still, we found plenty to do.
Our first stop in the park was at Jenny Lake. We had hoped to take the ferry across Jenny Lake, which would save us about 4 miles of hiking, and hike to Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point, and some of the Cascade Canyon Trail. Unfortunately, the Cascade Canyon Trail still had waist high snow and we do not have snowshoes. Because this trail was not accessible, the Jenny Lake ferry was not operating, except as a tour boat, so no short cuts for us. We were still able to get to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point but the hike was obviously longer. From the parking lot, we hiked the Hidden Falls via Jenny Lake Trail, adding on a detour to Inspiration Point. There was still some snow on the trail, which made it interesting, by we kept dry. The waterfall was breathtaking. The pictures do not do it justice.
After our hike, we drove up the Teton Park Road, the main road through the park, coming back on Rt 181, stopping at several overlooks on the way. We were hoping to see bison or elk, and we did, but only from a distance. We did see Pelicans, more specifically, American White Pelicans! I had always thought that pelicans live in warmer climates only, but it appears that they migrate north to raise their young. While you can find American White Pelicans in Florida, Texas, and California, the ones we saw were probably from the west coast.
We visited the Mormon Row Historic District, where Mormon Settlers in the early 1900’s had farmed the land. This barn is the T.A. Moulton Barn, and is a popular subject when photographing in the area.
There were scattered thunderstorms in the area all afternoon, but driving the scenic route allowed us to stay dry, although we skipped a few overlooks.
The next day, we hiked the Taggart Lake and Bradley Lake Loop Trail. This trail had a lot more snow than the hike we did the day before. At one point, we had to climb a snow laden hill that bore the clear imprint of someone who slid their way down on their butt. The views of Taggart Lake were beautiful, but the trail did not approach Bradley Lake unless we took another trail through way too much snow!
We had missed a couple of overlooks the day before due to the weather, so we visited them after our morning hike. The first picture is from Schwabacher Landing and the second one is from the Blacktail Ponds Overlook.
The following were closed but we would love to do these drives on a future visit.
Moose-Wilson Road – closed for construction
Signal Mountain Summit Road – panoramic views of the Teton Range, Jackson Hole, and Jackson Lake. Has lots of turnouts, ending in the Jackson Point Overlook. Closed due to snow.
Grand Teton is a beautiful national park and we look forward to coming back some day to explore it further.
