West Trip Day 9: Jenny Lake Hike

Tuesday, June 22

The Tetons are an impressive range of mountains. Here's some quick info about how the Teton Mountains got their name (feel free to giggle childishly)

French fur traders came to the region in the early Nineteenth Century. Focusing mainly on three of the largest peaks--Grand, South and Middle--they referred to the range as "les Trois Tétons" or "the Three Breasts." That is the origin of the current name, Grand Tetons.

We chose our campground at Gros Ventre because it was centrally located to both the town of Jackson Hole and much of the hiking in the area. Gros Ventre, we came to find out, is French for "big belly." If you look at the picture below you may see the resemblance body laying with a face on the right and a "big belly" to the left.

Can you see the face and big belly?

One of the best spots to hike is an area called Jenny Lake and we set out to hike it first thing this morning. Our hike started ominously as dark clouds moved in just after breakfast. By the time we reached the parking lot it was raining pretty steady. Nonetheless, we put on our rain gear and soldiered on.

About a half an hour into the hike the rain let up and then stopped completely. This worked out great because it meant that this normally busy trail had only the hardcore hikers (like us). On the way we saw many marmot. If you've never seen one of these, they look a little like a groundhog, but have the curiosity of a squirrel.

While this trail was not steep or challenging, it made up for this in length. The best part of the hike was a short side hike (1 mile) we did to a waterfall. The temperature of the waterfall from the melting mountain snow dropped the temperature of the air about 10 degrees. We posed for a few pictures before returning to the trail around the lake.

By the time we finished this hike (about 7 miles) we were all pretty tired. We decided to have some dinner at a nearby pizza bar. We had some good laughs as the kids all ordered a bottle of root beer. Luke, in particular, seemed to enjoy the "look" of drinking from a bottle like this.

That night we had our first campfire in Wyoming and cooked some giant marshmallows and smores.