les Trois Tétons National Park

Day 17

Les Trois Tétons, translated "The Three Breasts". Leave it to the French to start naming our parks. The Tétons are a mountain range, towering as a stark contrast to the plains surrounding them. Like three obelisks protecting the caldera Yellowstone. The Grand Teton peak stands over 13000ft and is accessible by only the most experienced mountaineers.
Eager to get into the park we checked out of the Wrangler Inn, went across the street, and had a nice hot breakfast of bacon, eggs, yogurt and toast. We actually felt like normal people who eat hot breakfasts. The car ride up the the Téton entrance took us about 25 minutes, we set up camp and decided to check out the tram from the Téton Village up to an overlook with some restaurants. Unfortunately the tram was closed for a private party at the top. What a waste of a drive.
We spent the rest of the afternoon with a rented canoe on Lake Jenny, at the base of Cascade Canyon. Stopping for a short walk up the Cascade Trail to see a few waterfalls, and to jump into the water from some rocks on the shore. The water was freezing! Like stop your heart, steal your breath cold! We jumped a few more times, and headed back to the dock, ready for some dinner.
On our way back to camp we passed our neighbors, a couple of lovely young ladies who had been looking for a hatchet all afternoon, had finally gotten one and were having difficulty cutting their round of wood with it. I put on my best plaid lumberjack shirt, and headed over to save the day. After multiple attempts I failed to chop the wood. We decided it would be a waste not to burn it, so Ally and Lisa offered to share it and some marshmallows in exchange for some campfire conversation. How could we refuse?
The evening was perfect, Lisa and Ally turned out to be avid beer girls, and hop heads to boot. They brought over a growler of double IPA, and a growler of a pale red. Despite the large quantity of cardboard, wood scraps and lighter fluid, we failed to get the large un-split-able log to ignite. After a few hours of choking on smoke, and fighting with the log, we took the citronella candle we had brought and set it on top of the log to provide some light, and something to look at. Still playing with the lighter fluid we made a discovery. With enough heat, once ignited, the wax of a candle will not only sustain itself, but will emit enough light and heat to simulate a camp fire. Te four of us got a kick out of the bugs that would fly into the flame, then plummet into the boiling black wax. Leaving this world with a sound akin to sizzling bacon.
We said our goodnights, and went to bed. What a great way to spend an evening.

Day 18

5:30am

Our original plan for the Tétons was to hike the Paintbrush Canyon trail and camp at Lake Solitude half way. We had to toss that plan out the window due to the heavy winter that the west suffered. The hike would require ice axes and crampons, which we do not have, nor have any training with. We decided to instead hike the 9.2mi Cascade Canyon trail to Lake solitude. 9.5 X 2 = 19 miles. This hike was definitely going to take us the entire day, and the earlier we started the better.
We got on the trail by 7:00am after a quick breakfast of chocolate doughnuts and coffee. The Cascade Trail is the second half of the Paintbrush loop, and consists of a pleasant walk around Jenny lake, a steep ascent into the lower Cascade Canyon, a gradual elevation gain up to a final steep climb to the lake. As we started the hike along Jenny lake we had the opportunity to see an eagles nest, unoccupied, and get a beautiful view of the snowcapped mountains reflecting off the surface of the water. Once in the canyon the entire hike was along the length of the Cascade River, which was fed by hundreds of small waterfalls "cascading" down the canyon from snowmelt.
During this hike I seriously felt like batman, my belt held my knife, bear spray, revolver and my speed loaders. Better safe then sorry. Even though my little .38 caliber handgun would only make a bear or moose more angry it's all about peace of mind. At nearly the half way point through Cascade Canyon we had the pleasure of encountering one of the most dangerous animals in the park. The moose. This particular moose was just off the trail grazing on the low weeds of the river a mere 25ft from us. We of course where very carful about getting to close or being threatening, as she had a small calf feeding with her. After about 10 minutes we decided it was a good time to leave because the calf was getting curious about us, and mommy was getting slightly more aggressive.
The higher and higher we climbed into the mountains, the thinner the trees, and we soon started seeing patches of snow. Which quickly turned into fields of snow, and eventually snow was everywhere. Winter in July. The temperature dropped some 40°, and we started seeing marmots in their winter coats. Soon we arrived at Lake Solitude, partially frozen in the middle of this winter wonderland. Arrival at Lake Solitude was not as solitary as we hoped, there were about twenty other people standing in the snow, or sitting on the rocks peaking out of the edge of the lake. One of the girls there attempted to get to some rocks, not realizing she was walking on snow that hung out over the water. Of course one of her legs went through the snow and got stuck between two rocks submerged in the water, myself and another gentleman had the opportunity to race to her rescue, pulling her out of the hole, and the water. I'm sure it was a cold walk back for her.
Our hike back was much faster than anticipated, even stopping to photograph a bull moose we arrived back at the parking lot by 4:00pm, tired and sore, ready to do nothing the rest of the day. Fortunately that didn't happen, and we decided to wind down from the hike we would head into town, eat some Wendy's, and watch the new Harry Potter movie at the Teton Theater, which only has one screen. This was a perfect way to relax and catchup on some much needed sitting.

MILEAGE:

Driving-

This trip: 80
Total: 2578

Walking-

This trip: 22
Total:128.5