August 25
Plenty of park visitors like to get moving around 9 AM. That was fine for the few hardy folks who were on the Cascade Canyon Trail by 7:30 AM. Since the sun comes up in the east, its beams go up-canyon, making for good photographs. The other canyons with trails (Paintbrush, Death Valley, etc.) also run east-to-west. The lone downside was the view at Inspiration Point, since it looks out to the east. Afternoon sun is best for this spot. For those not familiar with accessing Cascade Canyon, there is an easy way and a harder way. A boat shuttle goes from the Jenny Lake VC area to a dock at the start of the canyon. Or, you can walk 2 miles around Jenny Lake. Do the math. That is 4 miles of hiking along a shoreline whose scenery does not change, for which you probably want to save that energy for the canyon itself. By 11 AM when I caught the shuttle for the ride back, every boat coming over was full. Plenty of people opting for the easy option. Yes, you need to pay $20 (adult) for the roundtrip, but it was worth it. Least Chipmunks were staked out at Inspiration Point, hoping any human would feed them the various berries which could be found on the trail. They could get those berries themselves, but a guess is it feels good to be waited upon. A couple from England asked me about my Quest shirt. They have a recommendation for folks coming to England for holiday (for us Americans that means vacation). Check out Bath, Wales, and the Lake District, not just London. I intend to take up their suggestion.
Hidden Falls is aptly named. Or it was. Now everyone heads there once they get off the boats. But it is a sight. Plenty of batteries were being drained by all the photos being taken.
I was then going to hike in Death Canyon, at the south end of the park. But turns out the access road was more than miserable, it was 4 mph miserable, for a mile or so, each way. I gave up after 100 yards. That put me going to Jenny Lake Lodge and the Leigh Lake Trail. This is 1 mile each way from the lodge, skirting the shores of String Lake. Then one of those moments which is all about luck presented itself. I stopped with a group of people to watch a mother elk and her young calf cross the lake. All the kayakers on the lake paused to watch as well. The water was only four feet deep, so they did not have a problem. This was a thrill.
Back on the main road I saw 60+ vehicles stopped in a grassy section. I went to the first parking lot, parked, and walked back to the commotion. Turns out as I was walking a mother grizzly bear and her cub had come out of the brush on one side, walked across the road, and went into the forest on the other side. Timing is everything, right? A ranger told me this was Bear 399, the park’s most famous denizen. She is 27 years old and loves to be around the main roads of the park. In 2020, she had four cubs. This year only one. She even has her own website. Be on the lookout when you come visit the park.
I then headed up Signal Mountain and came across a gigantic bull elk. Good thing these guys are more interested in eating grass than having it out with a member of the human species. Granted, I had no intention of aggravating him.
There was still an hour before the Visitor Center for the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway closed, so I drove up to that building to get the Passport Cancellation stamp and click the buttons on my GPS device (for Guinness World Records). The building will not be open tomorrow at 6 AM as I drive by it on the way into Yellowstone. Many of the hillsides along the parkway still show the burned trees from the 2016 Berry fire, which spread into Grand Teton and Bridger-Teton National Forest.