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...