Having returned to Grand Teton National Park, we decided to take a hike around one of the prettiest lakes in the park, Jenny Lake, named for the Shosone wife of early mountain man and settler, Beaver Dick Leigh. The lake (6783 feet elevation) is a natural lake formed by the glacial movement from Cascade Canyon to form a terminal moraine which contained the melt water. We started at String Lake which is about 40 feet higher than Jenny Lake and hiked alongside a rapidly flowing creek between String Lake and its entrance into Jenny Lake. We also hiked through the remains of the 1999 Alder Fire which wiped out the forest surrounding the northwest shoreline of the lake giving rise to a jumble of fire damaged trees lying helter-skelter like giant pick-up sticks among the fields of wildflowers rising to meet the sun.
We hiked to Hidden Falls, just below the entrance to Cascade Canyon on the northeast side of the lake. Then continued our trip past the Jenny Lake Visitor's Center, where we stopped for lunch, and on around the lake, back to the parking lot at String Lake. A total of 8.0 miles, long hike, but shaded on the south side by conifer forests and with very little elevation change. A long hike, but satisfying after so many days of walking the pathways around the geysers of Yellowstone.
The temperatures, even at this elevation, are warm ... particularly in the direct sunlight. Evenings and early mornings are cool, but the day quickly warms. The sun on the lower reaches of the Tetons is melting ... we can see the change in just over a week's time. Summer has arrived in the Tetons.
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