Grand Teton Day7

This day was only 6 miles to back to the trailhead. All downhill. Easy!

pika

In the morning I saw a super cute pika. He was eating leaves.

As a Japanese, I got know pikachu before I learned about pika. 

For those who don't know picachu is a main character of poke-mon. Poke-mon is a shorten term of pocket-monsters. Pikachu is one of small monsters. "Chu" is crying sound in Japanese. So I assume pikachu is named after pika and mice. Actually pika is not a rodent, but close to rabbits. Anyway, the fact pika is cute is solid.

On the way we saw many many wild huckleberries and ate a lot. Mr.N who grew up in Montana especially love huckleberries and he kept eating more than me. We saw a group of three women who each carried a big basket to collect huckleberries. Wow. That size per person? Ambitious!

Then Mr.N shared memories to get bored when he and Ms.L went huckleberry picking. Mr.N would say, "I am bored." Ms.L answered, "Too bad." hahahaha.

Indian Paintbrush

Then I realized that I had not taken a picture yet.

I guess the reason why the divide was named Paintbrush Divide was there are a lot of Indian Paintbrush in the area. They are pretty color. 

I strongly think that paintbrush fits in the scene of Paintbrush Divide. Somewhat isolated, harsh environment at the Paintbrush Divide this colorful beauty of Paitnbrush resides there. This contrast is not a mismatch, but it is a complete suit. I even think lonely mountains is getting enchanting power from these flowers. 

Then we came back to the trailhead and found our shiny blue car. 

First reward of the tough backpacking was taking a shower! There is shower and laundry place inside the Grand Teton Park. Several times I had taken showers after multiple day backpacking, but this was one of the best shower I had ever had. Really good thing about this shower place is NO limit of the shower time. After 5 days of no showering, I wanted to wash my hair twice, then intensively wash body. It is nice to have unlimited shower! First person is $4.5 and after second person is $3 for shower. Not bad. 

As a second reward we went to a nearby town, Jackson, and ate a bison burger. It was good but not great. The restaurant didn't ask us how it should have been cooked. I realized after eating it was well done. Mr.N and I both wanted it to be rare. It was still good meal after days of camping food, though. Then we had cappuccino followed by grocery store for shopping food for the next backpacking trip. 

After filling tummy, we headed for a next destination, Wind River Range where we did the second backpacking.

Grand Teton Day6 no.3

Now time to descend from the top of Paintbrush Divide. 

At the visitor center before backpacking, park rangers wrote "ICE AXE Required!" on the dashboard for paintbrush divide. We asked rangers and they said it was needed. I didn't want to turn around due to snow patches and didn't want to be sorry. Always it is better safe than sorry. So I bought a nice ice axe and carried all the way.

Near Paintbrush Divide

What I saw was in the left picture. 

Are you KIDDING?

I carried an ice axe 4 days for this....?!, which easily can be even avoid by walking on dirt?

It is nothing! 

This time Mr.N was right. Park rangers always warn people it is dangerous and then actually it is not. 

Well. It was a nice opportunity to get an ice axe. I bought a really (yes REALLY) light ice axe, so actually it was not bad to carry it. It is an Italian brand. Italian outdoor brand are very good, especially for mountaineering-related stuff. There must be very good alpinists there. 

Since I carried my ice axe all the way, I did use it even though it was not necessary. I even thought about I slip intentionally and use an ice axe to stop slipping for practice, but I noticed there was not enough snow for such exercise. 

It was better than the opposite surprising....safely passed the Divide and now we headed for our campsite, Outlier. Yes, the campsite name is Outlier. I was thinking about the name is just for us. In fact Outlier campsite is only one site, and reservation only. 

Holly Lake

To go to Outlier campsite, there are two routes. We took a route to go through Holly Lake. I wanted to go to Holly lake, because Ms.L said it was gorgeous. Ms.L came to Grand Teton a day before we came and secured a campsite. It was very nice of her. Then she did a day hike to Holly Lake. Actually Holly is Ms.L's identical twin sister's name. I admire Holly as a talented artist. 

In the evening Holly Lake was sitting there very quietly and peacefully. The color is emerald green. It was transparent and shining at the same time. It was a round-shaped lake just like made by expanding the emerald green stone on the ring. 

This pretty lake fits with Ms.H's image. Artistic and pure. I was glad I took this route. 

According to National Geographic map, Outlier campsite is supposed to be 1.5 mile from Holly Lake. 

sign for Outlier campsite

Descended and descended a lot, but there was no hint for Outlier campsite. Finally 2.5 miles of walking from Holly lake we found the campsite. The last (mentally) additional 1 mile was really tough. It was like I was told to run 1 more mile after I finished the full marathon. If you are a runner, how hard it was, because already the last mile of marathon was tough. Not only this time but I had found many wrong things on National Geographic maps. I extremely wish there were Tom Harrison maps for everywhere as I wrote before here. 

deer

At the campsite, a cute visitor was there. She seem to live near the campsite. She licked my pee.....she must be craving for salt. Mr.N said that it is common for deer to lick human's urine in Glacier National Park in Montana. 

After dinner it started raining, I was very tired so went to tent and slept. 

Grand Teton Day6 no.2

As we climbed, the Lake solitude got smaller below. Lake solitude is both beautiful at the lake shore and in the distance. I couldn't help stopping and look back the lake time to time (and I can take a breath as well, hehe).

Lake Solitude

The majority of day hikers go to Lake Solitude and not further, so now it was very quiet and only a little backpackers were on the trail. Very quiet and nice. 

Pretty Valley

Looking back is a pretty Lake solitude(picture above). Looking ahead is an amazing U-shape valley (left picture). This portion is wonderful. On the trail a hiker was descending into the Lake solitude, probably he started hiking very early, and said hello to us. Then he said, "beautiful!" with his hands up. His posing is just right to describe this beauty. Absolutely no argument in front of this stunning scenery. 

Paintbrush Divide

Then finally, finally......FINALLY we arrived at Paintbrush Divide!!! Wonderful feeling with awesome mountains. The other side of paintbrush is like a hole. Surrounded by mountain all the way 360. In the hole there is a blue lake coming from glacier. I would describe this rapturous blue. I know it is unusual usage of adjective, but one of my favorite songs is called rapturous blue. So every time I see amazing blue, I remembered the phrase rapturous blue.

At the divide we took a long break here and ate snack and enjoyed view. After 10-15 minutes I heard hikers coming to the divide from behind. The guy coming close said, "Wooohoooo!"

They turned left and came to the top......and they are the guys we were all close all the day! On the trail you see hikers and greet and often leave by saying "see you at the summit. Usually you never see them at the summit. However, this time we did! The guy said to me, "See you at Paintbrush Divide" at 7 in the morning. Then we saw each other at the summit at 4 p.m. indeed. They were two guys. One is from Washington D.C., the other is from Florida. 

The guy from DC, who seems leading a hike, said to his companion, "We are 2 hours ahead of schedule, so we can rest here about 15-20 minutes."

Wow. So precisely scheduled. I like to hike leisurely and spontaneously, but also I liked his style a lot as a scientist and a Japanese.

Usually hikers are nice. Also we had sense of camaraderie by sharing pain of the day (+/-4000 feet under the hot temperature). I felt good to have such fellow hikers on the way. 

After enjoyed being at the top, it was time to descending to a campsite. There was still 2.5 miles to go. 

Here, the most important point. Descending side of Paintbrush had snow patches. Rangers told us to bring ice axes. However, from the top we didn't see much snow. Well, we would see...

To be continued...

Grand Teton Day6 no.1

This day's itinerary was 15 miles! So we got at at 5 a.m. and started hiking at 7 a.m. Morning was wet and I saw some rain clouds not too far from Sunset lake. I was a little concerned about thunderstorm, but that the thing of long backpacking. You have no choice of weather, but you have opportunities to see many aspects of nature.

We left the pretty Sunset lake in the wet and started climbing the hill. Sunset Lake is pretty both under sunny or rainy. On the way of climbing, we saw two hikers. Their itinerary was quite similar to ours. 

The guy asked me, "Are you going to Paintbrush Divide today?"

I said, "Yeah."

He said, "I saw you have an ice axe. We are going too! See you there."

They also planned to go to Paintbrush divide on the day. Actually we passed them, then they passed us, many times of the trail all the day. It was very nice to see fellow hikers on the trail. 

After the first climb of the day we reached the Hurricane Pass. This is the boundary of National Forest and National Park. Again we were entering National Park. The view here was memorable. Tetons showed up in the morning sun. The light after the rain was bracing and it made the Teton look more magnificent.

Magnificent

The hurricane pass was ah-maz-ing! Not only massive Teton, but also some glaciers and beautiful color water under, lovely meadow, and Teton canyon can be seen. I think now this is one of my favorite places in the world!!! Extra point for this region is that day hikers can't be here, because too far away from any trailhead. So it is very remote. This is one of the gems of Teton.

 

After the pass we descended 4000 feet. It was a gorgeous trek. 

Then, now climbing again. This time climbing up to Paintbrush Divide. At the visitor center the rangers had recommended backpackers to bring an ice axe due to snow patches. I chose to be better safe than sorry, and carried an ice axe all the way. So I had been rather hoping some snow patches, but we would see.

By descending 4000 feet we were in the forest and now Teton was hidden, but by climbing again, Teton showed up. They are astonishing from everywhere. I always think great mountains are beautiful from every direction under any weather. One of them is Mt.Fuji. 

By climbing the valley got way below. I climbed and climbed by looking at the pretty meadow. One point 10+ day hikers were stopping on the trail and looking down the meadow. I wondered why. We overheard that there were two moose in the valley. I had never seen moose, so I got excited and searched based on their description. Well, some of them had binoculars, so it was easier for them. 

Moose here

Finally I got a picture of moose's antler....I am not sure if I can say this is my first witness of moose. I would not. It was too small.

If you could find moose in the left picture, you have very good eyes! You can click picture if you want to see in a large scale. 

Lake Solitude

Then we reached Lake Solitude. There were some day hikers here, so it was not very "solitude", but still very nice to be there. Actually those day hikers are quite hardcores. If you come here for day hike, it will be 14 miles with a lot of elevation gain. 

We ate lunch here and (of course) Mr.N jumped into the lake. It is a great description by Mr.F1, "Mr.N is a polar bear." Mr.N goes into cold water any time of the year. 

Then we started the final stretch of climb to the Paintbrush Divide.

To be continued...

Grand Teton Day5 no.2

Marion Lake

After finishing lunch at Marion Lake, we started climbing toward Fox Creek Pass. 

Actually less than a mile from Marion Lake, Teton Crest trail leaves Grand Teton National Park and goes into National Forest. 

This day going into National Forest, coming back to National Park, then again going into National Forest, then camp in the National Forest, more specifically, Jedediah Smith Wilderness. Technically, national forest doesn't require any permits to camp, so there is no restriction about "permit zones" enforced in the Teton National Park. 

I prefer more Sierra permit system: with permit you can camp anywhere within the vast area. You only state on a permit where to start and exit. For example, a permit for John Muir Trail allows you to camp anywhere between Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney which is 200+ miles. In this way, if you have extra energy at 4 p.m., you can go a couple of miles more. If you are tired, you can stop at 3 p.m. anywhere. Oh well, there is a different system in each region.

Quite a view

After about a mile in the National Forest, again we came back to the Teton National Park. This region was quite memorable. Suddenly the vast open area view came into my eyes. Teton range in the distance ahead. Dry meadow and rocky mountains are at both sides. One straight trail going straight towards the Teton. Blue sky is above. What a......WHAT A VIEW. 

I was enjoying the view and feeling grateful. I was thinking, "Wow I am soooooo lucky to be here!"

To be honest, this variety of views were unexpected and really nice. Because most Teton brochure and ads are only focused on Teton mountains. I didn't know such interesting scenery every single aspect of Teton. I am so glad I did Teton Crest Trail by backpacking. 

This "zone" is Death Canyon Shelf zone for backpacking permits and this is super competitive to get it. I understand why. 

So colorful

Not only mountains, but also wildflowers were blooming. It was hard to capture in one picture due to various colors. Pretty. 

Then we again left National Park and entered National Forest. We headed for Sunset Lake for camping.

Sunset Lake

Since we arrived at Sunset Lake later than most people camping there, there was not much good spot. One spot we took first was good view, but immediately I notice that it was insane.  Why? I was surrounded by 100+ mosquitoes even with DEET. 

I suggested changing the spot. Then Mr.N got upset. I knew how different the mosquito situation. Even a slight breezy spot has no mosquitoes, which is next to 100+ mosquitoes site. 

Mr.N insisted everywhere is the same. I insisted how different each spot is. I am extremely prone to being bitten by mosquitoes, I have experience about mosuquito +/- campspots.

 Then, we found a breezy spot. There is a drastic difference between the previous spot. I knew why the first spot was empty. Mr.N was finally convinced....phew. 

The spot seemed to be a marmot's favorite spot and I saw marmot was looking at me from behind a rock, then he lay down. He was adorable!

Then we ate pasta with Japanese sauce (mentaiko, meaning cod roe), which was delicious, looked at sunset from the tent, then went to bed. 

The next day would be 16 miles +/-4000 feet.....

To be continued...

Grand Teton Day5 no.1

Monument Plant

This day's hike was started with 700 feet uphill to the Mt.Hunt Divide (elevation 9710). Since we started hiking at 7:30 a.m., nobody was on the trail. Crisp cool air made me feel very pleasant.

Here and there in the Teton, I saw monument plants. First I saw them near the trailhead to go to Amphitheater lake. Ms.L taught us they are monument plants. They spend 20 years to bloom and only one year of bloom and die. 

Some monument plants were near the Mt.Hunt Divide. They seem as if they really enjoy every moment of their life. It is short but they are standing tall, strong, and cool. 

Mt. Hunt Divide

 

 

Chilly air really fits the brown mountains with green tall monument plants. How precious the scenery is. 

The brown and grey rocky mountains are magnificent.  There are some lines in the mountains. I can see the long history there....then I realized the fact: are these really youngest mountains in the world!?

Pika

We were contemplating at the top for a while and enjoyed the quiet time. Then suddenly someone said, "Peeeeeee!"

Pika! On the top of the rock of the 10000 feet!

Looking at the gorgeous view and telling his friends something. Cute!

Many talus are offered in the Teton and I really enjoyed seeing pika. They are truly adorable. 

over the divide

From this top long downhill were followed. Well, downhill is not difficult (suprising?), so I extra enjoyed the view. 

After the divide, geology was clearly changed (right picture), and different type of green hills and mountains showed up. I am not a geologist, but I admired how beautiful each geologically different creatures (mountains) are. I felt like mountains are alive by seeing mountains after mountains. Each mountain looks different on the same day. On the same day in  different time, mountains' appearance change drastically as if they have emotions. 

On the trail in this morning, the next wildlife I saw was deer. I was probably the first person of the day on that section, because dayhikers are hardly there in this section. Therefore the deer didn't seem to expect human. Besides Mr.N and I were not talking but walking quiet. Deer was surprised and ran away by climbing the hill. Sorry deer! Deer was cute. 

Marmot

Then next wildlife on that morning was a marmot. Sometimes marmots are chubby or even fat. Looks like they eat as much as they can before winter comes. 

One point I saw a really fat marmot. He tried to run away, but he was having a hard time running fast. It was funny and cute. 

Wildlife in the Teton is simply amazing.  

Marion Lake

Then we arrived at Marion Lake. Mr.N was planning to swim in Marion Lake since long time ago. Generally it was hot in the day time, so good for him. I always feel chilly just stopping on a trail, so I watched him going into the lake. 

The lake was very calm and beautiful green. I actually thought that this green was mysterious. It is like this green is as if I was being drawn into the green, because of its magical green. 

We ate lunch here and wanted to stay a little more, but we had 9 miles to go, so we started walking again. 

To be continued...

Grand Teton Day4

From this day we started 3 night/4 days backpacking of the Teton Crest Trail!

First we did a car shuttle. Kindly Ms.L helped us to do that. We parked our car at the finish point, at String Lake trailhead. Since it was a rental car, we took a picture of car so that we can find the car. Then we headed for the trailhead near Phelps Lake with Ms.L's car. At the trailhead, we took pictures with Ms.L and said goodbye, then started hiking. 

This day's hike short: 6 miles, +2000 feet elevation gain. 

Phelps Lake

First trails goes along Phelps Lake. Lake is very clear and I could see the bottom. It was pleasant to walk along the crystal clear water. 

Soon we saw a group of dayhikers who talked to us. They were a little hyper, because they saw a bear. Their picture clearly indicated that the one was an adult black bear. They said it was a cub, but it was too big for a cub. Anyway we said okay and would be careful. However, we didn't see a bear. Probably those chatty dayhikers all cleared up bears. 

After Phelps Lake, the uphill started. Phelpes lake got lower and lower. One point on the flat trail, there was soooooooooooo many bear poops. Bears look like they love to use a flat trail as restroom.

Columbine

Columbine

Going up, more flowers showed up. They were all pretty and colorful. One of my favorite on this trail was Columbine. The flower is pretty both looking from above or side (pictures left and right). White color is transparent and looks so vulnerable and pure. I got a little sad the Columbine high school, which got famous for the tragedy was named after this pretty flower. 

Pretty

Purple Columbine

Enjoying flowers, we climbed a lot. Looking back in the middle of switch back, Jackson Hole was far below. Wow. So pretty. This beauty blew away my tiredness.

On the slope of switch back, I found purple columbine! It was very rare. It was my first time seeing them and only this particular point had purple ones.

After this switchback, we had to stop and camp. In Teton, the permit system is interesting. There are multiple zones for camping for backpackers. Each zone has about 3-5 mile long along the trail. There are developed campsites exists (flat dirt, very obvious) in the zone. If it is flat and not disturb plants much, it is okay to set a camp in the zone as well (and not too close to water or trail). Our permit zone this day was in the Open Canyon. 

Campsite

After the switchback, Open Canyon camping zone will end soon, so we searched for a good spot. Then we found this as you can see in the left picture. Nice home for a night with great view. Talus was just next to the meadow. Talus residents? Pika! A lot of pikas' homes to ours. They occasionally came out and communicated. This day we set up camp around 4 p.m. and were able to have nice relaxed evening.

Grand Teton Day3 no.2

Only a less than a mile to the Amphitheater Lake from Surprise Lake. 

Then Amphitheater Lake! It was 3000 feet elevation gain, but I didn't feel any difficulty. Probably because 1) trail is not rocky and easy to walk, 2) trail is not straight up, switchback is offered

About 1), I mentioned that on a previous entry, but 2) is also a big factor to make a hike easier compared to hikes in East. There is not a single switchback in the East, so I was appreciating how generous the Teton National park made a trail full of switchback. I had never thought about this until I lived in the East. It is funny! 

Amphitheater Lake

Amphitheater lake is very gorgeous. High mountain and really calm water at the bottom. It was a beautiful day with blue sky. We had a great time sitting at the shore and eating lunch and chilling. 

Mr.N and Ms.F1 jumped into a lake. It makes sense people who grew up in Montana are not afraid of cold water. To me it is too cold! I was wearing a jacket even on a sunny day on a warm rock. 

Behind us sometime pika were communicating, "Peeeee!" 

Pikas look like rodents but closest animal is rabbits. They are so cute! One of pikas ran behind us with carrying grass. They dehydrate grass and store for winter food. Cute cute cute.....

After we enjoyed being at a beautiful lake, we started descending. Some clouds came and thunder sounds were generated in the distance, but nobody cares in this area. It is common to have a short thunderstorm in the afternoon, people just continue to hike. 

Eating eating

On the way back there were two nice meetings. One is greedy squirrel. He got a stash and he was so focused on eating pine cone. Cute! It must be really yummy.

Another meeting was two 82 years old women, twins. 82 (if I remember correctly, anyway 80-something) girls who went to Stanford, which means that they are really clever, especially considering the era they went to college, were hiking strong. Wow. Even more surprisingly, one of them will climb Grand Teton in a few weeks and will beat a record of the oldest person who climbs Grand Teton. It is super impressive and I though I also want to keep hiking until such kind of age. 

This was a very beautiful hike. 

Bison

After the hike, we drove back to our campground. On the way, we saw a bunch of bison. There are babies and kids! 

Two babies were captured in the right picture. Babies have lighter color. Baby bisons are so cute! 

Bison crossing the road

 

 

 

Baby running

 

Luckily, we encountered the bison group crossing a road from one side of grass field to the other. All cars stopped for bisons, but they might be scared, they ran to cross the road. After running and reached the other side of the field, bisons seemed to feel secured and relived, and stopped running and started walking. 

The running bison, especially babies were very cute as you can see in the picture above. 

Then we stopped by Oxbow Bend Turnout. There is a famous photo taken by Ansel Adams in the Teton. Ansel Adams is a famous photographer who took many beautiful ones in the wilderness in the West. First time I heard his name was when I went to Ansel Adams wilderness. It is in the Eastern Sierra. My favorite spot in the wilderness is Thousand Island Lake which reside within the Ansel Adams Wilderness. 

At Oxbow Bend Turnout

His famous picture in the Teton contains Teton mountains and snake river. The specific point he took it was Snake River Overlook, but Oxbow Bend Turnout was also great. It was drizzling when we stopped there and the drops turned out shiny in my picture. In any weather, there is beauty there. I am glad that Teton offered a variety of weather, including sunny, cloudy, thunder, and drizzling, but not rainy days. Rainy days are also pretty, I admit, but I also confess not very happy for hiking.

Mr.N and I took many pictures and Ms.F1 and Ms.L focused on eating chips for the first half and then switched to taking pictures on the latter half. 

I asked Mr.N, "Oh they are eating chips, maybe bored, should we hurry up?"

Mr.N said, "They are spoiled by beautiful view in the West, so it is okay."

Then Ms.F1 wanted alcohol for evening, so we went to general store. Ms.F1 bought wine, Mr.N bought beer. 

At the campground we had campfire, had salad, soup, alcohol, etc and had fun. Suddenly at 8:30 p.m, strong winds came and rain came so we ran into the tents and slept. 

We had great day with spectacular scenery.

Grand Teton Day3 no.1

This day we went day hiking. 

To avoid parking far away from a trailhead, we had planned to get up early at 6 a.m. (although we woke up at 6:30). 

Teton range and prairie

Our plan was to hike up to Amphitheater lake from Lupine Meadows Trailhead. On the way from Colter Bay campground to the trailhead, the morning view was pretty. Big Jackson lake, and continuous Teton range on the right. The left is big prairie. 

 

Geology here is interesting. One side high mountains at over 13000 feet (~4000 meters) and the other side vast flat prairies. You could get an idea from the picture above. According to a park brochure, Teton fault rose one side and the other dropped by earthquakes. The mountains were eroded by rain/glaciers. Surprisingly these mountains are one of the youngest in the world! Wow. 

The parking lot at the trailhead was not crowded this day. It was unexpected, compared to the day before. We realized that this day was Monday. That means still people living in the driving distance come here for weekend is the majority of the crowds. Luckily we were able to park right in front of trailhead in the shade.

trailhead

The left picture is the sign at the trailhead. 4.8 miles to the Amphitheater lake, and +3000 feet elevation gain. 

I started walking and immediately felt how easy to walk on a trail in the West compared to East. Not rocky at all. No need to use hands to proceed a hike. That's what I remembered all the hikes in California, Colorado, Utah, Montana, Arizona, and all the West. It is nice. 

All the way to the lake, there were many many colorful pretty flowers. These below are the representative, but X1000 times of flower there. From red, yellow, blue, to violet, I thought I saw all the colors I knew and beyond. It is very pleasant to hike such a pretty trail even if that was a continuous uphill. 

Ms.F1 told us that she would be slow, because she was still in the process from surgery, but actually she did great. She was leading the hike! 

Lakes and Jackson Hole

On the way not only pretty flowers, but also beautiful lake and vast Jackson Hole valley was visible. In the right picture Bradley Lake and Taggart Lake are visible. Over the lake and forest, immense Jackson Hole valley is seen. Over that another mountain range stands. 

I had never seen this sort of scenery: different kinds of geological features in one sight. That moved me with surprises and wonders.

Mr.N and Ms.L taught me that there are many elk in the valley in the winter. Wow. So dynamic. 

Now we reached the Surprise Lake. Ahhh. So beautiful. Blue transparent water surface reflecting massive mountains. The mixture of white, grey, and green makes such a touching view. If I have three colors of ink, I never create such beauty. This is magical. I wanted to see this style, which is very Western, for a long time since I moved to East. WONDERFUL.

Surprise Lake

There are official backpacking campsites here. It would be nice to spend a night here. Mr.N and I was enjoying the view here, but we noticed that Mr.F1 and Ms.L went straight to the Amphitheater lake. Good, they were goal-oriented. We started walking to catch them up.

To be continued...