Jenny Lake

View of Jenny Lake from Inspiration Point

Yesterday we traveled back over Teton Pass to get to Grand Teton National Park - our goal was to go to the Jenny Lake area and hike up to the Hidden Falls, something we did 25 years ago.  Absolutely gorgeous day.  25 years ago there wasn't boat service to the falls and at that timeframe we hiked up to the falls and returned the same way. This time we wanted to take the boat over - saving our energy for the hike up to the falls, then continue hiking farther up to Inspiration Point, a lookout over the lake and then hike the trail around Jenny Lake back to the visitor's center.  While crossing the lake in the park's boat - you could see how crystal clear the water was - at 10 feet deep you could see the rocks on the bottom.  And cold - this lake was formed from the glacier melts thousands of years ago and is fed by the continuing snow melt off the mountains.

Runoff from Snow Melt 

Rocky Pathway

Beautiful scenery, again, lots of people, but was able to have enough quiet time to look at the river and falls, but many times had to stop in the trail to stand aside waiting for someone to pass, the trail only wide enough for one person.  And very rocky.  Dave said he remembered more ground cover and tree roots that had been worn down by feet in the path.  Yesterday's path was very rocky, not so much tree roots but small granite rocks where you really had to keep you eye on the path and your footing.  It's a good thing we have REAL hiking shoes - would have really killed us if not.

Hidden Falls

You could hear the roar of the falls from far away and became very loud as we got near it.  We traveled on to Inspiration Point - turned around and started our trek back around the lake. While staring at the falls, we saw people going by with climbing equipment - ropes, hooks (like clips) on ropes, helmets on.  Huh?  Well, as we stared in the direction they were going - we saw theses tiny little ants (really, they were the climbers) going up and going down the mountain - WAY UP THERE! Almost like Alpine climbing.  Amazing to see. Had a wonderful leisure hike back around the lake and within 1 mile of the visitor's center we heard thunder, a storm was approaching over the Tetons towards us.  Wind had picked up and we started to walk faster.  Saw lots of markings that bears are in the area - fresh paw marks and teeth marks on downed trees.  Dave made a funny that it was the bear's appetizer, we were the main meal.  Nope.  Made it back to the truck and within 5 minutes of our drive back to Jackson to get to the pass, heavy down pour.  We were absolutely pooped.  By the time we crossed back into Idaho from the pass, the rain had stopped and it was sunny again.  Too tired to cook, what should we do for dinner?

Ride a horse, save a cowboy!

We decided to eat at a brewery right down the road from where we are camping, had a fantastic dinner and some great beer to go with it.  Saw two men ride their horses up to the brewery, tied up the puppies, and sat in the back while they had a pint or two.  We teased them when we came out that where were the horses beer? The men said that they are trying to get the owner of the place to put in actual tie ups for the kids - how about signing a petition?  Go for it.  Victor is a nice quiet town that really caters to the outdoorsman.  In the winter there are numerous ski trails and snowmobile trails as well as skijoring trails - these are trails for people on skis being towed by either dogs or horses, or snowmobiles.  Wow.  We imagine that winter is really booming here - 3 breweries right here in town.

We are now ready to move on to other adventures.  Got everything done that we wanted to do, and then some.  We will move on now towards Salmon, Idaho - about a 3 hour drive from here - by the end of the week.  Will spend time looking at historical things from the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06 before moving again to Glacier National Park in upper Montana.  Loving it!