Grand Teton National Park

 

Grand Teton is located just minutes from Jackson, Wyoming (12 miles). We visited Grand Teton National Park September 17th and 18th, 2020. We stayed in Jackson, at the Spring Hill Suites, which was very nice. We strongly considered alternative hotels, but ended up choosing Spring Hill Suites because of generous cancellation policy (due to pandemic uncertainty). The other places we would have liked to try were: Huff House Inn and Wyoming Inn.

We entered the park from the north, driving from Yellowstone (about 2.5 hour drive). When entering from the north, there isn't a formal entrance with a pay station. We drove to Jenny Lake trail head and boat access area. There is really nice shuttle (10 minutes and $10 one way) that will take you to the Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point trails. 

Jenny Lake & Cascade Canyon Trail

We knew that we wanted to hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point, and then continue on to the Cascade Canyon Trail. Since this would be a very long hike, we decided to take the boat shuttle to shorten the hike. There was a line, but it was moving pretty fast, as they have several boats.  The boats do stop running on September 30th.

 

Once the boat arrives and you start your hike, the trail slopes gently upward to Hidden Falls, then climbs more steeply to Inspiration Point. The hike to Hidden Falls is 1/2 mile, and another 1/2 mile to Inspiration Point. Here is the view from Inspiration Point:

We continued on to Cascade Canyon, however did not go all the way to the fork/end. Cascade Canyon lies between the Cathedral Group (Teewinot Mountain, Mount Owen, and the Grand Teton) to the south and the St. John group (Symmetry Spire, Rock of Ages, etc.) to the north. It is a beautiful canyon in the Teton Range.

When we returned, we hiked around Jenny Lake instead of taking shuttle, which was a 2.4 mile hike (counter clockwise from the West Boat Dock back to the Visitor Center at Jenny Lake). The total hike for us was about 8 miles, and an elevation gain of 1039 feet.

Sunset at the Tetons

Taggart & Bradley Lakes Trails

The next day we parked at the Taggart Creek parking lot. Taggart and Bradley Lake are 2 glacially formed lakes. This is a 5.5 mile trail with 585 feet elevation gain. Beautiful views of Nez Perce Peak, the Middle and Grand Tetons and Teewinot Moutain.  This hike took us 3 hours. We hiked counter clockwise, which I would recommend. Towards end of hike, the Beaver Creek section of the trail was very unpopulated. We did not see many people and concerned about seeing bears (we did not). We did see a lot of coyote skat.

When you take the counterclockwise route, you can extend the hike at Bradley Lake, if you want to see more of the lake.  We saw moose along the shore of Taggart Lake (across the lake). You can see the very low trafficked Beaver Creek Trail portion on the lower part of this trail map:

Driving Tour

There is a driving tour with multiple stops and views. Here is a scenic drive brochure with different stops: 

Recommendations in Jackson, Wyoming

Highly recommend eating dinner at Snake River Brewing. The food was excellent. We were here during pandemic and they were very accommodating and fast with our take out order. Also recommend visiting Jackson Square, there are cool arches made from elk antlers. The Albertson's grocery store is great for lunch food.

Next Time We Visit...

• Amphitheater Lake Trail - 10 mile round-trip, 3000' elevation change
• Paint Brush Canyon
• Hike the entire Forks of Cascade Canyon Trail
• Signal Mountain Trail