A Spectacular Weekend in the Tetons

 

I've had a few weekends this past week... Although not the Saturday/Sunday kind.  I had one of my weekends on Wednesday and Thursday which was the best one by far!  Then I had a quasi day off on Saturday and Sunday although I technically worked both.  And now, I have Monday and Tuesday off!  Although this is weird as well because the weather forecast is for rain both days.  I was hoping to get out into Yellowstone to explore but that may have to wait a bit.

 

I work the night shift now.  That means its absolutely normal for me to be sitting up this late at night blogging, right?  Also totally normal for me to be sitting in the middle of a hotel lobby taking advantage of free wifi, right?  Wrong.  It's really weird.  And totally abnormal but I'm pretending that its okay because I have no other choice. 

 

 The picture up above is my newest purchase.  I went into Jackson on Wednesday and bought hiking shoes!  I had no idea what I was really looking for in a pair of hiking shoes but I tried on a lot of them and decided to take the advice of the helpful man at the store.  He heard what I told him about the kind of hiking I would be doing and the location of my hikes and suggested I try the pair he brought up from the secret shoe cache.  Even though I wasn't a fan of the color, he pointed out that comfort is most important and also that there hopefully wouldn't be many people out on the trail in the first place to see my shoes or care about the color of them. 

His advice turned out to be right and it allowed me to experience one of the best hikes I've had in a long time.  I had heard a lot of people recommend the trails around Jenny Lake.  I decided to hike up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point.  However, that turned out to be much more of a feat than prior hikers in the area because a section of the trail was closed due to some type of landslide and the reconstruction of the trail.  So I had to make my way back down and all the way around to see Inspiration Point.  After a quick break for food and water and an absolutely gorgeous view, I decided I wasn't quite done hiking yet for the day.  

 

  I retraced my steps to the string lake trail and considered my options.  The decision was clear to me - leave the crowds of people behind and continue on to see some of the more beautiful lakes in the park.  I hiked around the west side of Jenny Lake and took the trail around to the east side of String Lake.  The water was so inviting!  Clear, blue, cold, and sparkling.  I had to take my shoes and socks off and wade in water.  It was cold but so refreshing!  I also couldn't have asked for a better view.

 

 I wanted so badly to continue on to Leigh Lake but I was running out of daylight and energy and decided to turn around before I regretted not doing so.  I knew I still had 3 more miles left to travel and I didn't want to short change that portion of trail.  Turns out that was a good decision.  I was hiking alone and the sign at the beginning of the 3 miles Jenny Lake stretch warned of bear attacks.  I decided to pull out my phone and play some loud music to scare away wildlife.  The first song that came on was Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off"... apparently the wildlife like that song as much as I do!  I rounded a corner in the trail and some elk were standing in the middle of the path grazing.  When they heard me, instead of running off like I had hoped, they simply looked at me with interest and curiosity!  I imagined they had never heard Taylor Swift before and were considering sticking around to hear the rest of the song!  Eventually they did run off but only after I yelled at them and made more noise.

 

I was absolutely exhausted after my hike but my soul was refreshed.  When I got home I calculated the length of the route that I traveled.  As it turns out, I went 11.1 miles!!  I was proud of myself.  And excited by the fact that my new shoes were so comfortable!  I didn't get any blisters and I had really good traction on the trail.  It was a good day.

 

 (below: String Lake trail looking back toward Inspiration Point)

 

 

 (below: river section connecting String Lake and Jenny Lake)

 

Keep reading, I had a lot more pictures than I did words in this blog.....

 

 

Tonight I researched restaurants in West Yellowstone.  My friend Bonnie recommended an Italian place called Serenity.  It looked good and was open late so I decided to check it out.  It was totally worth it!   I had feta, basil, and sun dried tomato crostini as an appetizer, butternut squash ravioli with brown butter, cinnamon, and walnut glaze, and salted caramel crème brulee for dessert. 

You'll have to check out the picture of my dessert below.  It didn't look like crème brulee to me but it tasted great so I didn't question it.  Maybe they made the dessert differently in some parts of Italy?  Or Montana? 

OH!  I visited another state!  I'm in Montana right now, not Wyoming.  Its pretty neat that I can drive 45 minutes and be in a totally different state.

I hope to find a place closer by my house with wifi so I don't have to poach it from places in town. 

My inspirational quote for the night is, "Life's short.  Eat Dinner for Breakfast."  ;)

I'll let you know how it works out for me...

Fun Stress

 

There's so much to do and so little time!!!  So much that its stressing me out.  I'm only here in Jackson for another couple of days, yet so much of the town and the park remain unexplored...  On Saturday I drive to Yellowstone.  I'm going to be much more isolated there than I am here and I won't have a Starbucks to sit in and write blogs.  However, I will still find ways to post here whenever I can.

 

Last weekend I went hiking up a place called Avalanche Canyon in Grand Teton NP.  It was one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done and so I posted a million pictures and bragged about it despite the fact that it was also the worst hike of my life.

 90% of the trail wasn't even a real, park designated trail.  It was what we rangers call a social trail.  That means it wasn't well marked and one can easily find themselves lost if not careful.  Well, apparently, we weren't careful enough.  We tried to follow the rock cairns by the side of the trail but there weren't nearly enough of them and all the fallen trees laid across the trail from the previous season's avalanches made it hard to relocate the dirt path we were trying to follow. 

Another thing that made the hike difficult was several boulder fields over which we had to scramble and in which there wasn't any hint of a trail.  So a lot of that involved guess work and keen observation skills both up and down the mountain. 

We hiked for about 8 hours round trip.  We went up to 9,000 feet elevation where the air is more rare than it already is here and the rocks were loose enough that one wrong step could send you slipping and sliding all the way back down the mountain side!

The part of the trail that we could see was also covered by brush and sticks and pokey things that tended to slap at my legs as I walked by so that when we were done I was bleeding and scratched.

All in all, I would say that's not something I plan to spend a lot of time doing in the near future.  Although it was extremely beautiful, and there were no other people on the trail the whole day, I think I'll plan to stick with the more well-traveled paths while I'm here.  I'd like the opportunity to finish my training in one piece and to explore other parts of the park and the world in the coming weeks/months.

 

Above is the waterfall we hiked to.  I forget the name of it again...   Something like Shoshobe Falls I think.  Anyway, it was a nice reward at the end of the hike and a nice place to sit and rest before beginning the hike back home.

Today I made it into Jackson again.  This town is really neat.  It's got an old western type feel with a modern twist.  There are a lot of green spaces and parks.  The main park has 4 giant arches each made out of collected antlers!  I had my picture taken in front of one just to play tourist.

For the rest of my afternoon I'm hoping to visit a thrift shop recommended by a friend here.  Apparently its got a lot of really nice clothes donated by rich people who bought them at full price, wore them once or not at all, and then donated them because they bought the next newest item and had no need for the "old" item.

I also need hiking boots and maybe a souvenir t-shirt.  We'll see what I can find.

Tomorrow the plan is to actually wake up early enough to hike Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point/Jenny Lake.  Its a hike I've been wanting to do since day 1.  Also one I need to do before I leave for Yellowstone!  Once I get to my new park home I'm sure there will be many more hikes to add to my list. 

OH! One more comment before I finish here... The night sky here is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Its unlike anything I've ever seen before being from the East coast with all its light pollution.  Here, with no lights and a new moon, the stars are brilliant and brighter than I've ever known possible.  No picture with a man-made camera could ever do it justice.  The constellations jump out to me and the stars twinkle just like in the children's song.  I've seen shooting stars and what I believe to be the Milky Way, although I'm no expert for sure...  The long moments I've spent standing out staring up at the sky with my jaw dropped in wonder re-affirmed to me the presence and proof of God and the fact that I daily underestimate Him and His power.  Its nice to feel small sometimes.