Grand Teton National Park

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If we had made it to “the Tetons” any later in the year, we would have frozen to death.  Just kidding!  Truthfully, most of the park roads won’t be accessible in the next few weeks because of snow and road closures.  It didn’t snow while we were here, but it got pretty damn cold at night. 

We woke up the first day to a perfect unobstructed view of the Teton mountain range.  Snow was just starting to accumulate on the tippy-tops of the mountains and the forest below was turning fall colors. As we drove closer to the park, we spotted cows, horses, and elk in the surrounding pastures.  We couldn’t wait to see the larger and more dangerous animals- from the safety of the car, of course.  The Tetons and Yellowstone are home to herds of bison, grizzly bears, coyotes, moose, and wolves- which were recently reintroduced to the parks. 

Entering through the south entrance at Moose (yes the town is actually called Moose, and you guessed it, there are a lot of moose there) we stopped at the visitors center and picked up a map of the park.  We were ready for a good hike after being in the car for two days!   

We took the main road into the park and turned off at south Jenny Lake.  Our intention was to hike the 2.5 miles around the lake to Hidden Falls and back, but we didn't make it all the way.  We were still sluggish and out of breath from the increase in elevation; we hadn’t given our bodies time to acclimate to the altitude, but we did a pretty good job anyway.  The lake was at 6800 ft and the trail just kept goin’ up! 

 I’d say we hiked about 2 miles out when we decided to turn around.  The forest was getting a little dense and the sun was going to fall behind the mountain in another hour.  Also, we came upon a big turd, which scared me.  It was probably just a giant elk poop, but in my mind, it was a grizzly bear poop, and he wasn’t far behind… I wonder if anyone has written a poo encyclopedia, because we could sure use one…