After what might have been the best night’s sleep ever, we managed to get going around 8am. We wanted to get an early start, as we had heard that the hike we had planned was the most popular hike in the park.
The drive into the park was beautiful, despite a bit of haze. We bought our America the Beautiful Annual Pass and made our way towards Jenny Lake. Apparently things are already winding down for the season in these parts by Labor Day; the “crowds” weren’t were we were headed. We caught the boat ride across the lake to shave two miles each way of your hike.
From Jenny Lake, we made our way up to Hidden Falls and then Inspiration Point. What a view! A chipmunk wanted a piece of my PB&J really badly – he must get lots of crumbs when he begs so sweetly. Although the climb wasn’t bad, the 7,000 feet of elevation made itself apparent to us (shortness of breath and feeling way too pooped out for only having gone a little over a mile). At this point, many of the casual “hikers” turned around and headed home.
We continued into Cascade Canyon and were literally surrounded by rock on all sides (Tetons to our left, and the aptly named “Rock of Ages” to the right). We saw Pika in the rock piles that were alongside the mountain faces. A beautiful stream meandered along the trail, which thankfully became a pretty flat stroll. We noticed dark clouds start to envelope the higher peaks and were worried if our visit was going to be cut short by some bad weather. JD’s desire for killer photos was cause enough for us to keep trucking.
We made it to the end of the canyon trail and took the North fork headed to Lake Solitude. We found a nice opening for photos after another half mile or so of hiking before the rain started. We donned our jackets and booked it back towards our starting point. Although the photo opps were fewer in the rain, we made it down the trail in record time. Along the way, we encountered a black fox (not sure if this is a thing or if he just looked black, but it was definitely a fox). He was trotting along the trail and got within about 10 feet of us before passing with barely a glance.
On the boat ride home, the captain told us to wait for a break in the clouds on our drive home – we’d be rewarded with some killer shots. He was right! The sight of the sun peaking through the clouds with the mountains looming large was truly something special. We rewarded our efforts with a Domino’s pizza picked up on the way home. I’m sure we’ll sleep just as well tonight as we did last night. We’ll need to bundle up for tomorrow, however, the forecast has snowflakes in it! (No joke!)
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