Around the Grand Teton - Hiking the Teton Crest

August 1 to 10, 2003

Boy Scout Troop 634

Reisterstown, Maryland


August 1: Seven scouts aged 16 to 19 and three adults flew from Baltimore to Salt Lake, arriving around noon. Met my Uncle Pete to whom we had sent our stoves and fuel bottles, then headed up to Little Cottonwood Canyon, where we went on a six mile acclimating hike to a mountain lake. Excellent views of the canyon and the valley beyond and gave us a taste of the high alpine adventure that awaited us in the Tetons. Spent the night in a motel in Ogden Utah.

August 2: Drove from Ogden thru part of Idaho and to the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Spent the afternoon touring the upper loop at Yellowstone, including Mammoth Hot Springs, petrified tree, and the upper and lower Yellowstone Falls. But, the highlight was being held up about 45 minutes while a large herd of buffalo crossed (and recrossed and crossed again!) the road. Pretty neat! Camped in the Bridge Bay Campground near Yellowstone Lake.

August 3: Spent the morning and early afternoon touring the geyser basins, including Old Faithful. Geysers are interesting, and, sometimes, spectacular. We then headed south to Colter Bay Campground in Grand Teton National Park.

August 4: Our high adventure trek begins (after dropping two vehicles at the far end), with a ride on the tram at the Jackson Hole Ski Area. This lifts us 3600 feet in just ten minutes. We begin our trek at the top of the tram (altitude: 10,450). Although warm in the valley (80 degs), it is COLD and windy at the top of the tram! We head out on the tail pretty quickly, and it warms up a bit as we get away from the crest of the mountain. On this day we take it easy, covering just 4.5 miles and losing about 1500 vertical feet of altitude. Camp in the Granite Canyon group camping area which lies in enormous, beautiful high mountain meadows. This site was perhaps the most beautiful of the trip, and quite unexpected.

August 5: We depart camp along the Teton Crest Trail to the camping area on Death Canyon Shelf. This was a 6.6 mile hike of spectacular mountain views both in the distance to the Grand Teton, and down into Death Canyon. We also spent some time at Marion Lake, where a couple of scouts tried some fishing and a couple of us braved the cold water for a short swim.

August 6: This was a long tough day, but one of incredible views, as we passed through the wildflower filled Alaska Basin, and then up and through Hurricane Pass, ending up in the group camping area in the South Fork Cascade Camping Zone. This was an 8.2 mile hike that seemed longer - going down the South Fork of Cascade Canyon took a long time! There was a snowfield adjacent to Hurricane Pass, and we were lucky that the wind was not too bad there. We spent about forty minutes there, just admiring the views!

August 7: Another difficult day as we headed up to Paintbrush Divide and then down Paintbrush Canyon, passing Lake Solitute along the way. We camped at Holly Lake. The hike was 9.3 miles. We spent some time swimming and fishing at Lake Solitude, which was truly gorgeous, as was the climb from there up to the Divide. In fact, the entire five day trip was just one great scene after another. Truly magnificent. Coming down into Paintbrush Canyon we did encounter two snowfields that we had to cross and had a very scary, very close call as a boulder two feet in diameter came tumbling down the slope passing only 15 feet from one of our scouts. It was simply a natural occurence that there is no planning for or preventing, but it definitely scared us. After reaching camp, some guys went swimming in Holly Lake as well as fishing, and adjacent to camp we had a wonderful view of Jackson Lake (see picture below).

August 8: All downhill on this day, as we headed back to the valley level at Leigh and String Lakes. The hike was 6.2 miles, and about two miles from the end we came upon a bear blocking the trail. We watched for about 20 minutes as it ate some berries, etc, and then eventually wandered down into the woods (see picture below). It was a great way to end the trip! After reaching our cars, we headed to the Gros Ventre campground. After setting up camp, we went into Jackson for a shower and a steak dinner!

August 9: Took a half day rafting trip on the Snake River, and then stayed the night at a motel near the square in Jackson.

August 10: Drove from Jackson back to Salt Lake, where we caught our flight back to Baltimore. It was a wonderful, wonderful trip. Most of the scouts with us had started backpacking with Mr. Art and myself when they were 12 years old. Now they are 17, 18 or 19 years old and this was the finale of our trips together as they move on to college, work, etc. We have had many, many great times together over the last 6 years, and they are a great group of guys. This Grand Tetons trip was a magnificent way for us to conclude our scouting adventures!

Note: Larger versions of the first four pictures are not currently available.

Our first trail view

Camp on day 1

Marion Lake

Nearing Death Canyon shelf

Death Canyon

Flowers in Alaska Basin

Grand & Middle Tetons from Hurricane Pass

Entering Cascade Canyon from Hurricane Pass

The Grand from North Fork of Cascade Canyon

Down Paintbrush Divide

Jackson Lake from camp near Holly Lake

A bear below Holly Lake


Click on a picture to view a bigger version