Hiking around Jenny Lake in the Tetons

Sunday 8/19

We are the king and queen of flexibility: we had planned to stay 5 nights in the Tetons, but we're leaving this morning early.  But, before leaving completely, we decided to hike around Jenny Lake which has fantastic views of the Tetons along the way.  This was no trivial hike---about 9 miles all together.  It's one of the most popular hikes in the park, so even though we started at 8:45am, we had a fair amount of company.  A whole bunch of people boarded the ferry to avoid so much walking which made hiking nicer for us.  We took the optional climb up to Inspiration point (almost a 1/2 mile up and then back again) which was lovely, overlooking the Cascade Falls.  Everything was so green along the way----miles of lush thimbleberry bramble overflowing onto the path (like flattened-out, tart raspberries), along with sage brush and every size of pine tree imaginable, from 18" Christmas tree wannabes to hundreds-of-feet tall lodge pole pines and everything in between.  One of the low shrubs smelled like cinnamon….between the pine and the cinnamon, I was flooded with thoughts of Christmas, and all the things I'm going to bake when we're together with my family in Florida this coming December. 

Nils at the base of Cascade Falls

Of course someone felt inspired to make an important-sounding business call from his cellphone and then send a text from up there.  On a Sunday?!  Surrounded by all that splendor?  He really couldn't think of ANYthing better to do in that gorgeous spot?   Sigh.  We came down from the point of inspiration and kept walking around the lake for the next, oh, 3 hours.  Saw only a handful of equally intrepid hikers.  (the less hardy---or should I say foolhardy?!--just took the ferry right back to the starting point.

About 2/3rds of the way around, and still smiling....

I was too tired to smile much more by the end of 4 hours, 18 mins and 27.49 seconds on the trail.  We were plumb tuckered and could have done without the final mile and a half even though it was all beautiful.

We got to the now-crowded parking lot and hoisted our tired selves into the truck---we were on our way to Jackson, and the Jackson Whole Grocery store.  Wow!!!  It was fantastic and huge, like going to Whole Foods.  We stocked up big time and spent over $200.  Because we parked around the corner from the store (it's not so easy finding parking when you are hauling a 28 foot trailer behind a big truck) we had to carry everything about 1/4 mile.  Or at least it felt that way.  Only the incentive of great food kept me going at that point. 

We were not sure where we were going to camp for the night….only that we wanted to be on the way to Flaming Gorge.  We saw some camping places on our way out of Jackson, but they were too crowded and/or too expensive.  Then, out of nowhere came that most welcome of signs, "Camping 1/2 mile".  It was a sign put up by the National Park Service and when we turned into the unassuming little road, we found ourselves right on the Snake River with a view of the mountains behind us.  For $15/night!  It was a little hot at our campsite so Nils immediately undertook a cooling dip in the river.  It was so shallow and so VERY cold that he waded out calf deep, put his hands down on the rocks about 2 feet in front of him and then gathered up the fortitude to lower the rest of himself (into a push-up) for about a half second in the freezing water.  That was enough to  cool him off pretty fast, but the effect was temporary.  On his second cool-off venture, I walked down to the river too--it's only about 20 feet away-- with the long-handled bath brush and stood in about 5 inches of numbing water to scrub our hike off of my feet and legs...the dust from the trail actually made its way through the mesh of my boots, through my thick socks and onto my feet.  I was a mess from mid-calf down.  To wash the rest of me I used warm water in the RV….I'm not a big fan of ice cold bathing, unless it's over 95 degrees out and I'm totally over-heated.   

I made a gourmet feast with fresh cactus leaf, tacos, avocado and a green salad with roasted curried cashews (which I roasted and curried myself) and sliced apple and fresh cherries in it.   YUM.  Should have taken a picture of THAT!   I may just have to write an RV cookbook for vegetarians.

We started a puzzle (of the Tetons, appropriately enough) and had a relaxing evening in a gorgeous spot.  We will probably stay here another night, which means we can go back into Jackson for anything else we've forgotten.