The Sound of Sunshine

Day 11 – Grand Teton National Forest, Wyoming

The road heading south out of Yellowstone
with the Tetons looming in the distance.

After four very full days at Yellowstone, it was time to move on today.The original plan for today was to drive down to Grand Teton, do an easy hike, a scenic drive, and set up camp.However, the hike in Teton that we heard about from Mark (the man we met hiking in Yellowstone) sounded too good to pass up.So we needed to find a way to fit it in.What we decided to do was wake up real early, get to Teton as early as possible, do everything we had planned for today, and when that was done, do the biking we had planned to do on Day 13.I know, it sounds crazy.But we thought it was worth the try.

Breakfast on the beach.

So we got up at quarter to five (I know Dad, that’s not early), packed up our tent, and headed for Teton.Our campsite in Yellowstone was actually in the southern part of the park, so we were in Teton within no time (it’s actually only 2 miles between Teton and Yellowstone).We made it to the spot of our first hike by 7, and had a fantastic breakfast of cold Pop-Tarts and OJ as we watched the sun rise on to a tranquil Jackson Lake and the impressive Tetons behind.A pretty awesome breakfast.

Sunrise at Colter Bay of Jackson Lake with the Tetons behind. An incredible sight.

After this, we talked with a ranger for a while about our plans for the park and he thought we had a great trip planned.He pointed us to our first trailhead and we were off.The trail we wanted to take started in the northern Colter bay region of the park, and moved southward following the shoreline of the Lake.It was described as an easy/moderate 9 mile hike and the ranger confirmed that it was fairly flat and well marked.But as Amy and I have found, there is no trail that we cannot screw up somehow and make more difficult.Foreshadowing.

We started off the hike and realized that the mosquitoes were gonna be bad.We sprayed each other down, but realized we had grabbed an almost empty can.Mistake 1. We pressed on, and the hike was going well.It was a beautiful morning and the views of the lake and the mountains behind were unbelievable.

We got to the first junction and took the right fork.Mistake 2. This turned out to not be the main trail, but a spur hikers had developed to get down to the lake.We took it thinking it was the real trail. And when it stopped, we kept going down the shoreline until it was painfully apparent we were nowhere near where we were supposed to be.We weren’t lost or in any danger; backtracking our steps would have been easy and with the lake and the mountains, it is always easy to know which way you are going.But we just knew we had to be close.So we pressed on for over an hour through meadow/forest until we finally got to the trail – right where we had left it. So basically we had spent an hour plus walking in a big circle (yes the map was out, no to the GPS.We will learn).

The view of the Tetons over the lake from Hermitage Point.
Notice the looming clouds that weren't there earlier.

Once we got back on the trail, the hike was great.A little rocky and covered in horse poo, but a nice morning walk with incredible scenery. We finally made it to our destination – Hermitage Point on the end of a peninsula into the lake – after about three hours of hiking (including our “scenic detour”).The view was spectacular –kind of.The lake was incredible.It was so clam it was like glass.The mountains are breathtaking.The really seem to just rise out of nothing.We did notice some clouds brewing over the mountains, but thought nothing of it.

The trail was a giant loop, so we continued on back towards the trailhead.The trail wound through both open meadow and forest, and along the way we saw a few deer, chipmunks, squirrels, and geese, as well as some amazing wildflowers of all different colors.Not too long into our hike back, we began to hear the rumble of thunder, the wind picked up, and the temperature started to drop.Before too long, we started to feel sporadic drops of cold mountain rain.

In all of the literature about visiting these mountain parks, they all say “weather can change quickly, without warning, and drastically.”They aren’t kidding.The drops turned to a steady rain, which turned to a downpour, which turned to hail, which turned back to rain, which turned to heavy rain with very high winds.We went from a nice hike, to hiking with a purpose, to running, to taking shelter under a tree, to saying, “Screw it, we’re already wet and it’s not stopping.Let’s go.” I guess that this can’t be a mistake, since there was no way for us to see us coming, but I think it shows that this hike was doomed.

Back at the Visitors' Center, views of the mountains obscured
by the rain and clouds.

It wasn’t all terrible. We had almost made it back to the trailhead when we saw a mom and her two kids huddled against the shore below the trail.They had been out canoeing and also got caught in the storm.The kids were freezing and scared so they came with us while their mom rowed back to the marina where we met her and returned her children.

On top of Signal Mountain, no longer
bitter enemies.

After this we were wet, cold, and unhappy.We wanted to be angry, but weren’t sure who to be mad at so we decided to be bitter enemies for 6 minutes.This time was mostly consumed with our scenic drive up to the top of signal mountain. The two viewing points from the top gave great views of both the south and east, where the land is very flat and covered in sagebrush, save for a few rivers, ponds, kettles, and moraines, and to the west, where there were amazing views again of the lake and the Tetons. Before we left for the trip, Mr. Taves had described how this range seems to just rise out of nothing, from flat land to mountains without any foothills in-between.I could kind of picture this, but the actual views were beyond anything I could have imagined.

Amy heading back towards the car after a great ride.

Amy drove the rest of the way down to our campsite, which is in Jackson Hole, south of the park.Jackson seems like a very cool little town, especially if you have plenty of disposable income.Since we do not, we drove straight on through to our site a little outside of town.The site is nothing special, so I won’t spend any time discussing it.We set up camp, had some lunch/dinner, and decided to get ready for our bike ride.

The Moose to Jenny Lake trail.

For our ride, we started at the southern end of the park, in a place called Moose, and rode north 8 miles to the park’s Jenny Lake visitor center.It was late afternoon, early evening as we were doing this, so the sun was just starting to make its descent behind the mountains.The bike path followed the road north through the sagebrush meadows that lead up to the mountains.It was quiet except for the occasional bird call and incredibly beautiful.The path was nicely paved so the ride went great. The only negative was not seeing any moose or elk.But we have two more days for that.

We headed back towards camp as the sun, which had since reappeared, streamed over the mountains. We cruised down the highway, windows open, enjoying the sun as Buckwheat Zydeco (best road trip music ever) and Michael Franti blasted on the speakers. We ended our day with our new tradition of an ice cream for Amy and soda for me.A nice trat after our very long day.Tomorrow, we raft the snake river (just like in Oregon Trail!!!).