Grand Tetons - Round I

In mid-June of 2008, my daughter Kelly and I planned a 5 day trip in Grand Teton National Park. This was the first I had been on the trail in more years than I can remember. We arrived in Jackson Hole on Sunday evening, June 8. I flew from Minneapolis and Kelly hopped a plane from Colorado Springs. We spent the night at a nearby lodge and got up early the next day to buy supplies before we headed into the park.

Grand Tetons

We arrived at the park around 9:30am and set up our camp - a small, two-man tent at the Colter Bay campground. We decided to do a short hike from Lake Jenny to Inspiration Point (about 6 miles RT). We hit the trail around 11:30am and found many others on the path. The weather started out cloudy, but soon turned to rain and wind. Once we got to Inspiration Point, we decided to head up Cascade Canyon for awhile. As we progressed, the trail soon disappeared - covered by the still record snows from the winter. Much of our hiking up the canyon was over snow mounds. I don't think either of us wanted to turn back and so we headed all the way to the end of the Canyon before returning to Inspiration Point. By then, it was getting close to 6pm and we were wet and tired - taking a much longer hike on the first day than we should have. So we headed to the lake shore to catch the last ferry across Lake Jenny. We made it by merely minutes, cutting off another 2 miles of hiking from our day.

Kelly on the Cascade Canyon Trail

Views from the Cascade Canyon Trail

To say that we bit off more than we should have the first day at 7,000 ft. is an understatement. Returning to the campsite, we were tired and cold, but excited about the days of hiking to come.