West 2016: Jenny Lake

Day 11, Monday, August 15, 2016

One of the activities that I most wanted to do at Grand Teton was to take the boat across Jenny Lake, and hike up to Inspiration Point.  I knew that there was going to be a lot of congestion in the area, because they are renovating the parking lot and services there, so we got up early to make sure we could get a parking spot and a spot on the boat.

The river near Jenny Lake

 

Jenny Lake

The boat ride was nice – a relaxing, short trip on a gorgeous lake.  The mountains in the background are stunning.  Once you get off the boat, you can choose how far you want to go.  The entire hike up to Inspiration Point, with a stop at Hidden Falls is about .9 miles each way.  However, the trail to Hidden Falls was closed for repairs when we were there, so I didn’t get to see it!  My mom didn’t want to hike all the way to Inspiration Point, so I pulled away from her with the agreement that I would meet her wherever she happened to end up.  That works fine with an out and back trail.

Mountains along the Inspiration Point Trail

Mom – Inspiration Point Trail

Me – Inspiration Point Trail

 

The trail is a gentle uphill at the beginning, but the last bit of it is steeper switchbacks along the side of a mountain.  You will need to be patient about passing, as not all spots are quite wide enough for two.  Once you are at the top, at an elevation of 7,200 feet, the view is amazing!  You look out over the lake and see the boats coming and going from the dock down below.  It is well worth the exertion! I found a family to take my photo and spent a bit of time enjoying the view. A little Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel was excited to see me; he wanted me to feed him…

Switchbacks up to Inspiration Point

 

Me at Inspiration Point

 

Piddles and Elwell at Inspiration Point

Jenny Lake from Inspiration Point

A Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel at Inspiration Point

On the way down I saw two different pika and spent some time getting photos of them.  It was fairly quiet since it was still relatively early, so I got some good photos before another group of people came along to scare them away.  I loved seeing those little guys!

 

Pika!

 

Pika!

On the way back I ran into my mom at another viewpoint and was impressed with how far she had made it.  She got her own view to enjoy while waiting for me to come back down.

 

Mom and me – Inspiration Point Trail

Mom and I took the boat both ways, but you can hike all the way around the lake for an additional 3 miles.  Next time I visit I want to do that!  Plus, I still need to see the falls.

Jenny Lake and Inspiration Point were certainly worth the visit!

Costs and Fees: $15 per person round-trip for Jenny Lake boat shuttle.

 

West 2016: Cunningham Cabin

Day 10, Sunday, August 14, 2016

In Grand Teton National Park, I visited the Cunningham Cabin, which is a homesteader’s cabin that was built sometime between 1888 and 1890.  J. Pierce Cunningham arrived in Jackson Hole from New York in 1885, and spent his first years in the valley trapping.  He got married and then decided to try his hand at homesteading, staking a claim for 160 acres.  The cabin was constructed in the dogtrot style, with two small cabins joined with an open breezeway – it was a style common in the eastern states.

The Cunningham cabin with the mountain view

Unfortunately, ranching was difficult on 160 acres in the West, due to the fact that ranchers had to supplement feed for their cattle in the winter.  They needed enough land to grow enough hay to last the winter, which could be up to 6 months long.  Cunningham purchased an additional 140 acres in 1897 at $1.25 per acre.  In 1918 he increased the size of his ranch again by purchasing 240 acres from a neighbor’s property to the north.  Cunningham had to produce and store 200 tons of hay each winter.

The cabin has a dark side too…  In fall of 1892, two wranglers showed up at the cabin to buy hay for their horses.  Cunningham struck up a deal for them to stay over at the ranch for the winter.  However, rumors began spreading that the men were horse thieves.  A man who claimed to be a U.S. Marshal arrived in April 1893 with three deputies from Idaho, and convinced several local men to join their posse.  The cabin was surrounded and the men were gunned down when they left the cabin.  Although Cunningham wasn’t directly involved, he admitted that he felt that the brands on the men’s horses had been altered.  Interestingly, neither the allegations against the men nor the identify of the supposed U.S. Marshall was ever proven…

The view of the mountains from the cabin window

After World War I, beef prices dropped a lot, and many ranchers were no longer able to make a living. Cunningham and his neighbors proposed a petition for the federal government to purchase the valley’s ranches for inclusion with the new Grand Teton National Park.  He wasn’t successful.  Luckily John D. Rockefeller had fallen in love with the area, and he created the Snake River Land Company to purchase private land and donate it to the park.  Rockefeller ultimately purchased and donated 32,000 acres in the Jackson Hole valley, including Cunningham’s ranch.

To get a close up view of the ranch, you just have to walk a short, flat trail.  The entire loop is 0.3 mile, if you want to explore all the areas where there were once outbuildings, but the remaining cabin is the only structure that remains.  The day that I visited there was a herd of horses on the other side of the fence, so I went to say hello to them too.  They looked so beautiful with their stunning mountain backdrop!

This view! Horses and Mountains!

 

Horses near the Cunningham cabin

 

A juvenile mountain bluebird at the Cunningham cabin

 

This cabin is well worth a quick visit!

That evening in Jackson, Wyoming, we had dinner at King Sushi.  The food was fantastic!  The kids at the next table whose parents were paying no attention to the fact that they were kicking me – not so fantastic!  We also wandered around downtown Jackson for a bit, getting photos at the famous elk antler arch on the main square (each corner of the square has an arch).  We also poked around in some shops, and found lots and lots of taxidermy animals.  The dressed up critters!

 

 

Just. So. Much. Wow

 

Costs and Fees: $30 per vehicle at Grand Teton National Park (free with a National Parks Pass).  Many areas of Grand Teton do not require you to pay the fee.

Distance for the Day: Cody, WY – Jackson, WY (3 hrs, 58 min, 177 miles)

Hotel for the night: Motel 6 – Jackson, WY

 

Grand Teton NP History

Grand Teton National Park is one of the 10 most visited National Parks in the United States – approximately 3,270,076 people visit each year (2016 stats). It is about 310,000 acres, and it is located 10 miles (16 km) south of Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming.  The park protects the major peaks of the 40-mile-long Teton Mountain Range, along with parts of the Jackson Hole valley.  On February 26, 1929, President Calvin Coolidge established the park.

Human habitation within the park boundary goes back about 11,000 years, when hunter-gatherer Paleo-Indians used the land in the summer for food and supplies. In the early 19th century, when white men first arrived, the Shoshone tribes lived there.  It was popular with fur traders between 1810 and 1840, because of the beavers that lived in the rivers there (before they were almost trapped to extinction of course).  Grand Teton National Park is named for Grand Teton, which is the tallest mountain in the Teton Range at 13,775 feet.  The mountains were named by fur trappers coming through the area, who called them les trois tétons (the three teats), and of course it stuck, and we Americanized the name.

The first view of the Teton Mountains

Geologically, the rocks in the park are some of the oldest in the United States; dated at 2.7 billion years.  The Teton range has several glaciers too, and the park contains the upper main stem of the Snake River, which flows north, and eventually flows into the Columbia River.

The area was isolated for so long that the ecosystem is much better protected than some other areas of the U.S., so some of the same species have been found there since prehistoric times.  Animal species that are found there include bison, moose, elk, mule deer, marmot, pika, Grizzly bear, black bear, osprey, coyote, cutthroat trout, beavers and river otters.  The Teton range is also home to the threatened whitebark pine tree.

Grand Teton National Park is really an outdoor-person’s paradise.  There are over 200 miles of hiking trails, many of them back-country trails.  There are over 1,000 car camping sites.  A paved trail through the park provides easy access to the valley areas by bike or roller blades.  You can boat or float the rivers, fish, mountain climb, and cross country ski or snow shoe in the winter.  There is enough to keep you busy for awhile…

The park has also preserved a lot of the history from the days when homesteaders lived in the valley and built ranches and small communities.  There are several historic buildings throughout the park that you can visit.

Mom Sign Posing

We spent two days there, and we did and saw a lot in those two days!  I will tell you more about my visit coming up!

 

Too Much Fun, So Little Time

I got back from vacation last Sunday, and between trying to get caught up at work and home, plus recovering from a knee injury I got from having fun, I haven’t had much time to get anything posted!

Today I hiked the Ape Cave, a lava tube in Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It was so fun, but harder than I expected! Thankfully I didn’t do any more damage to my still healing knee.

 

Me! With a really cool dead tree

I promise to keep catching up on posts soon, including my Ape Cave hike. Happy Weekend Everybody!

Chain Lakes Hike

September 5, 2016

Last year, Labor Day dawned not looking so great…  Per the typical Pacific Northwest forecast for a holiday weekend, it was supposed to be cloudy with a decent chance of rain.  I almost didn’t go on this hike, because the weather in the mountains can be so much more volatile than in the coastal areas.  I am so glad I went anyway…

The Chain Lakes hike in the Mount Baker area of the North Cascades is an 8 mile loop hike.  Depending on which direction you go, you can make it a bit tougher or easier. I did the toughest route, with a steep ascent (and stairs!) at the very end. I hiked past Mazama Lakes, Iceberg Lake, Hayes Lake and Bagley Lakes.  They are all stunning!  There are steep ascents and descents throughout the hike, and even on a very cool day with light rain, I found myself heating up and cooling down enough that I had to stop several times to shed layers and then put them back on.

 

The Mount Baker Wilderness

 

The trees shrouded in fog

 

Me hiking in the fog

The rain and clouds that day obscured the views of the mountains, but if you hike on a sunny, clear day you get spectacular views of Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan.  I thought that the clouds and the fog made for some pretty neat views though!  Be prepared to see batches of snow all year long – there are years when it never fully melts.

Two of the lakes on the Chain Lakes Loop – and a little snow!

 

Me hiking the Chain Lakes Trail

 

Purple Fireweed was a bright spot on a dreary day

The hike has a total elevation gain of 1,700 feet, and the maximum altitude is 5,400 feet, so it is a fairly difficult hike.  That said, I can’t wait to hike this trail again – it is one of my all time favorites!  Maybe next time the mountains will be out!

West 2016: Yellowstone Tidbits

Day 8, 9 & 10, August 12, 13 & 14, 2016

Yellowstone is such a big park that even with the series of posts I have done, there were still things I wanted to share that didn’t seem to fit somewhere else – so here they are:

Continental Divides:

The Continental Divide is the line that goes down through the Americas, and separates the river systems that flow into the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.  The divide runs through Yellowstone National Park, and there are several places where they have signs showing the elevation of the divide at that point.

Mom and me at the Continental Divide

 

Me, Piddles and Elwell at another part of the Continental Divide

Fun cars:

This Ranger’s car was a Prius with a park scene!  He kept showing up wherever we were that day, so we joked that he was following us.

What a fun car!

 

Parkitecture:

The Old Faithful Inn is huge and hard to photograph, due to all the hordes of people roaming around.  Maybe next time I can get there early in the morning or late at night…  But I was in awe of this view up into the upper floors.  Wow!

The inside of the Old Faithful Inn

Lakes and Rivers:

Not all of the water in Yellowstone is a geothermal feature.  There are lakes and rivers that are stunning.  Lake Yellowstone is the largest Lake in Yellowstone, and also the largest lake above 7,000 feet in elevation in North America.  It is at 7,732 feet in elevation.

Lake Yellowstone

 

Another view of Lake Yellowstone

 

Me at Lake Yellowstone

 

The Shoshone River, flowing from Yellowstone to Cody, Wyoming

 

Piddles and Elwell enjoy Lake Lewis. They didn’t enjoy being attacked by ants…

 

Volcanic Eruptions:

Yellowstone is a land of volcanoes. One of the Visitor’s Centers had an amazing exhibit showing the size of the past volcanic eruptions of the Yellowstone volcanoes.  Think for a moment about the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State on May 18, 1980.  I felt it as a child, living a couple hundred miles away.  In the photo below, the small red cube in the corner of each of those larger cubes shows the amount of ashfall from Mount St. Helens.  The larger cubes are the amount of ashfall from the Yellowstone eruptions.  Wow.  Mind blown…

 

Yellowstone eruptions, compared to each other and to Mount St. Helens eruption

 

I am returning again to Yellowstone soon, so although this is the end of the series from my summer 2016 trip, there will be future Yellowstone posts I’m sure!  I hope you enjoyed.  Coming up – the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, and Grand Teton National Park!

 

West 2016: The Sad Story of Jelly

Day 9, Saturday, August 13, 2016

Into every life, a little trauma must fall.  And apparently, this was the trip for car mishaps…

When Mom and I got our car at the airport, we were assigned to a white Subaru with a little damage.  It had been pelted in a hailstorm a few weeks previously – great conversation starter by the way…

Then there was the unfortunate, may or may not have happened, mishap with the car rolling away when I left to take some photos…

And then there was Jelly…  Poor, poor Jelly…

One of the mornings we visited Yellowstone, we drove up earlier than usual to see the early morning wildlife.  We got up and left Cody for the hour long drive to the park.  It was a beautiful drive on a beautiful morning…

 

Early in the drive, there was a bunny on the side of the road.  He was facing AWAY from the road and the car, and I actually spoke outloud to him and told him not to turn around… Alas, it was too late…  The bunny, who we later named Jelly (for the old Yogi Bear cartoons – Jellystone Park), turned around and jumped into the car.  I heard the thunk…  But I saw nothing in the rearview…

We kept driving, and head in the entrance gate, show the ranger our pass and exchange pleasantries and make our way to the first restroom in the park.  On the way back to the car, I discover why I never saw Jelly in the rearview…

 

 

UGH…

So I do what any self-respecting woman with a travel blog and a morbid sense of humor would do, and I get out the camera…

 

 

My mom returns to find me documenting my find…

Being the no-nonsense mom that she is (she also has a pretty morbid sense of humor), she figures I’m not about to remedy the issue, so she takes matters into her own hands…  So I documented that too…

 

This has to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of my mom.  In 150 years, when she is no longer with us, I am totally using this pic at her memorial service…

 

 

A few days later, we discovered that we are actually unwitting felons, because we transported game into the park without a permit… Sorry about that, Yellowstone peeps!

 

Rest in Peace Jelly…