Pictureblog: Grand Teton & Yellowstone

Last weekend (the labour day weekend) I was in Idaho/Wyoming visiting the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National parks in the rockies. I flew from Atlanta to Salt Lake City, Utah. From there it was a three hour drive to Pocatello, Idaho where I joined three of my friends.

We left early in the morning on a three hour drive through scenic roads on our way to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. We reached Jenny lake campgrounds at around 9:30 and started looking for campsites. We found one of the last few camping spots in the camp ground and started pitching our tents. Having having stayed out on a few treks/hikes in India, pitching tents in the wild or staying at Bhatr Mane's (the priest's house) I must this say was a very different experience. The camp in the 'wilderness' had neatly marked out campsites with a table, a fire grill and space to park one car! Not to mention the toilets which could be found every few campsites!

Once we were done pitching our tents we walked to Jenny Lake where a ferry would take us across the lake to the trailhead.

Jenny Lake and the ferries

Getting down from the ferry we began hiking up the trail. Again this was a US style neatly laid trail including signposts with directions and distances every now and then. The first few miles were crowded and felt a bit like walking up the mountains in a queue. Back in Atlanta, in my apartment complex, sometimes I spend days before I run into someone who lives in the same complex and talk to them. In contrast, this outing in the wild had dozens of people who were hiking with us and were quite willing to say hello and start a conversation. And this being a long weekend there were more people then there would have been usually.

Our destination was lake Solitude which was 7.2 miles away and an elevation gain of 2500 feet. You can see many small streams of water flowing down the mountains all along the hike. The most significant of this was Hidden Falls. Unfortunately this was barricaded and you couldn't take a dip in the water India style.

Hidden Falls, One of the better Water falls along the trail

The trail was quite steep until we reached Inspiration Point. Inspiration point was a mile into the hike and a major attraction in the area. Inspiration point overlooked Jenny lake and offered a breathtaking view. Thankfully many hikers came only to see Inspiration point and hence the trail become a little less congested beyond here. But still there were too many people for my liking and every few minutes you had to stop and move out of the way to let people pass.

Inspiration Point

Another view from Inspiration Point. You can see the water leading to Hidden Falls among the trees

From Inspiration Point, it took us almost about 3 hours to walk upto Lake Solitude. For large parts the trail was flat. But it was quite hot and due to the elevation we were feeling the sun a bit more. Along the route we had to pass/walk around several mountains (or peaks?) .

The view along the trail. You can also see some of my fellow hikers ahead

About 2.7 miles before Lake solitude there is a fork in the trail and the hike becomes quite steep. The trail also becomes a little more rugged (probably due to less use) and for all my 'this trail is too easy' bravado earlier, my totally unfit body started feeling the strain. From here I was stopping every 15-20 mins until we finally reached Lake solitude about 3 hours after we began the hike.

A view of the Grand Teton mountains around Lake Solitude

We finally reached Lake Solitude just around the time my legs were ready to fold up and all my Powerade supplies were nearly over! Compared to Jenny lake, Lake Solitude is quite small. It's importance probably arises due to the fact that it is a good turn back point for a day long hike and gives the hiker a sense of having reached somewhere. Nevertheless it is very serene and offers a nice view of the Grand Teton Mountains.

We were there for about 45 mins. Sandwiches for lunch and a power nap followed. One of my fellow hikers, mike, entertained us with his eerie snoring while lying down on the rocks under the hot sun! Though the Sun was hot the water was quite cold and even the idea of a dip froze me up. But there were several Americans around who dived into the frigid waters.

Finally around 3:30 we started back for the Trail head. The last ferry across the lake back to the campground was at 6:00 and if we missed it we faced an extra two miles of hiking.

Small but Serene, Lake Solitude

Even at the start of our return we knew it was a big ask to make the 7.2 mile walk back in 2.5 hours. My legs were already hurting from the climb up and the initial 2.7 mile hike down is quite strenous. I kept twisting my ankles while trying stop myself from running down too fast. By the time we reached the aforementioned fork, 2.7 miles down from Lake Solitude, We had less than 1.5 hours and walking back to the ferry by 6 appeared increasingly tough. But the prospect of having to hike an extra 2 miles motivated us. We walked pretty much non-stop and had to literally run for the last half mile and made the ferry at about 6:15 PM. Boy! were we glad to make the ferry!

After that it was back to the campsite. We cooked some good old maggie for dinner, warmed ourselves around the fire for a while and put our tired bodies to sleep in our tents at about 9PM. The temperatures dropped close to freezing in the night and I had to go out to the car to get warm reinforcements. All through the night you could hear people walking out of their tents and car doors opening, presumably for the same reason.

The next day we woke up quite early, folded our tents and started towards yellowstone. We had a nice breakfast at a scenic restaurant on the way. Our destination was The Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park. We stopped at a few places along the scenic Yellow stone river.

Yellow Stone River

Small water fall enroute to The Old Faithful

Our drive was further slowed down because the roads were crowded. Traffic slows up every now & then and people stream out of their cars to catch a glimpse of the wildlife on the sides. By wildlife I mean Moose, Bison and the occasional Elk/Deer. I even saw squirrels being counted as wild life on one of the park information boards!

While there were a lot of people in the Grand Tetons, it was surprising that we hardly encountered any Desis. Obviously the Tetons do not qualify as a Patel Point (Tch. Tch. I am afraid writing about the Tetons on my blog, with its millions of Indian readers, will make it one!). However, Yellowstone and The Old Faithful in particular, is quite the Patel Point. For those not familiar with the area, there are a lot hot natural springs in this park. The Old Faithful is one of the bigger, more regular (though not the biggest or the most regular) and most popular geyser among these. It shoots up about 17 times on an average day. You can watch a live webcam image updated every 30 seconds here and a recorded video of it here

The Old Faithful

From there we headed back to base in Pocatello, Idaho where my friend lives. I slept there for the night there before starting on my long and eventful journey (including one plane which refused to take off and a change of airline) back to ATL.

Overall, I needed the break and the mountains were definitely rejuvenating....only my legs were complaining, even two days after I was back!