Day 7: The Tetons

The mountains! The mountains! The mountains!

Perhaps my favorite place that we visited this entire trip- one day was simply not enough time at Grand Teton National Park. It seemed that anywhere I looked while in the park, there was always an impressive view of the mountains or a lake just waiting by for us to discover it.

Jenny Lake

With our bear spray in tow, we began the day with a quick hike that curved around Jenny Lake, continuing only for a short while on this trail, we then picked up another trail and continued, going the other direction, around the lake. While the trail had crowded areas, near the trailhead and a pullout area near the road, we quickly made our way through these areas and found ourselves surrounded only by nature. Luscious, green trees on our right, a cool, blue lake and towering, snow covered mountains on our left and a warm breeze mixed with the sunshine filled the air around us. Because there was practically no incline on this trail, we quickly covered multiple miles without even realizing it and we, reluctantly, had to make ourselves turn back, although we both would have been more than happy to continue on this one trail for the entire day.

Resting those gams at Jenny Lake

The only reason we decided against this, was because we still wanted to visit other trails in other areas of the park and there was simply not enough hours or daylight in one day for us to have been able to continue our first trail, while additionally still having time to visit other trails as well.

After returning to the car, we decided to head north to Colter Bay and we picked a trail that lead us to Swan Lake (the body of water, not the ballet). Within just a few minutes of hiking on this trail, I felt like I was looking at a National Geographic cover. The cool blue water of Jackson Lake reflected the crystal clear sky and in the distance were a group of kayakers, traveling in their radiantly colored boats and towering powerfully behind them was the gorgeous Teton mountains.

Jackson Lake

As our trail left the lake side, we began to weave in and out of wooded areas, thus giving up surprising views of the mountains, ponds, wildlife and Jackson Lake. The further we were on this path, the more Mom and I began thinking about the wildlife that roamed through this area which also lead us to think about where exactly we put that bear spray… Whenever I go on hikes, I secretly wish to see as much wildlife as I can, yet I am still just as content by completing an entire hike without running into a bear or moose (it’s kind of like how it would be cool to see a tornado in real life and not just on a tv, yet I never want to be in a situation where I am close enough to a tornado to see it). It’s really quite the paradox.

Swan Lake

By the time we finished our trail and made it back to the trailhead once again, we were exhausted, hungry and we had reached 25,000 steps for the day. On our way back to Jackson Hole, we drove through an area called Moose (where I did not see any moose) and we drove back through Grand Teton National Park. Because it was early evening, the sun was already starting to set and thus, we were given breathtaking views of the Tetons with sun rays shining in between the mountain peaks.

“The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.” -J.R.R. Tolkien