Grand Teton National Park

Since we didn't feel comfortable climbing bare hills the day before, we started our day by hiking to the Dubois scenic overlook. In hindsight, we could have driven...but that is not what this trip is about. It's actually about eating.

Once on the top, we ate our breakfast with the panoramic view of the Wind River Range on one side and the Wyoming Badlands on the other. With the soft morning light, we had some delicate shadows and pale orange light to make our view even better. However, we didn't have time to dawdle - we were planning on getting a campsite in Grand Teton National Park and it was the Fourth of July.

Our approach to the Tetons from the east was stunning as the mountains just seemed to appear from nowhere. We pulled into Colter Bay at 9:30 and had to wait in line for a bit, but we were successful in our mission. We had a place to camp on the Fourth of July!

After setting up camp, we returned to the Colter Bay Visitor Center and spent the rest of the morning and afternoon wandering around the network of trails on the shore of Jackson Lake. We first hiked the lakeshore loop, which offered fantastic views of the peaks and the lake. On the connecting beach between the two loops we had a picnic and watched the SUPs paddle on by.

In the afternoon we kept to the Colter Bay area and hiked first to Swan Lake and Heron Pond where we saw both swans and herons as well as a beaver. Lisa's goal was to not see a bear and she was still successful after that venture.  We then had a great dinner at the Colter Bay Ranch House and wandered along the lake shore until we saw some goings-on in the amphitheater. After a ranger talk on the importance of fire in the ecosystem, we hit the hay early and slept intermittently due to the fact that the ten percent chance of rain meant that it would rain all night long...

The morning was cool and the ground was saturated, but we donned our hiking boots and headed to the Leigh Lake trailhead. We then walked along the shore of String Lake to the outlet bridge into Jenny Lake. We then hiked the Lake Perimeter, which was on a bluff overlooking the glacial pond before we started to climb in elevation towards Cascade Canyon. Once we arrived at the bottom of the U-shaped canyon, the trail flattened considerably and the scenery was breathtaking. We had never seen the Tetons from within the mountains and we were surrounded by sheer cliffs, jagged mountain peaks and numerous waterfalls. It rivaled the Yosemite Valley for pure natural scenery!

We eventually had to tear ourselves away from the canyon since the trip is really about eating...we ended our day at the Colter Bay Cafe where we split a pizza. Luckily it was huge and will double as breakfast. We will be off to Yellowstone in the morning.