The Teton Crest Trail

4 days and 40 miles in the wilderness of Wyoming

After getting our permits and gear in order Thursday morning, we rode the the Jackson Hole tram to the top of Rendezvous Mountain (10450 feet) to start the hike.

We saw a baby black bear from the tram on the way up! Because of all the bears, we had to pack all our food into a small airtight plastic canister with a weird locking mechanism that bears cannot ostensibly open. We had bear spray as well, but ultimately and perhaps fortunately, this little bear was the only one we saw. It was a very nice afternoon and our goal on Day 1 was to get Marion Lake, which involved a short but steep seven mile hike through Granite Canyon.

We arrived at Marion Lake early in the evening (9240 feet) and set up our first camp. Charlotte was on the lookout for bears, but all we saw that day was pika. Lots and lots of chirping little pikas.

We got a little rain that night and woke up in the morning to see a few juvenile deer alternating between fighting and eating.

Day 2 would take us twelve miles, beginning with a hike up through Fox Creek Pass and then along the Death Canyon Shelf.

Regretfully, there were not any foxes in the pass, but there were a number marmots Charlotte attempted to befriend.

 

 

 

 

Here’s a map of our overall route for reference:

This was the view ahead of us going over the pass; Grand Tetons in the center background and the cliffs of the Death Canyon shelf that we will traverse on the left.

The trail runs about 4 miles along the 200-foot-wide ledge of Death Canyon, with steep cliffs above you to the left and then falling 2000 feet straight down to the valley floor on your right.

After lunching on the ledge we headed up over Mount Meek Pass and down the “Sheep’s Steps,” (alas, no sheep) and into the Alaska Basin. After a day of steep up and down, we arrived at our next campsite, Sunset Lake, early in the afternoon.

Though it was a very nice day, right after we were done with dinner the rain moved in.

Luckily we were done for the day and were tackling Hurrican Pass the next morning, so even though it poured, Matt at least got a good night’s sleep. We woke up to very nice weather, and began the steep ascent over the pass into the Grand Teton Park proper.

As you can see the Tetons were as usual wreathed in clouds, but to beautiful effect!

After getting over Hurricane Pass (10340 feet) we descended into the south fork of Cascade Canyon…

We hiked about eight miles through the south fork of Cascade Canyon and then up the north fork to our third campsite, which was just below Lake Solitude.

Unfortunately, both the camera and our walter filter developed some problems, and we hadsaved the hardest day for last, twelve miles over Paintbrush Divide to the carpark at String Lake loomed on Sunday. We got an early start in an eerie morning fog.

It was a pretty, uh, incredible walk in light rain and fog up to Paintbrush Divide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there, as they say, it was all downhill, and after going up about 2000 vertical feet in the morning we had a long 4000 descent to the lakes ahead of us.

 

After about 72 hours out in the woods and 40 miles, we made it back to the car and on to a night at a proper resort. Though we did not see a moose on the trail, Charlotte spotted one in Teton Village.

And a final shot of Grand Teton National Park on our way out of town!