Sometimes I think we are a little crazy, and yeah, we might bite off a little more than we can chew every once in a while, well here is a good example of this. We left thursday after work with the intent of driving all the way to Jackson that night. We didn't make it that far, but at 12:30 and almost to Star Valley we stopped and stayed in a campground for the night.
The plan was to get up early and be to Jenny Lake and hiking by 10:00. Well it was a little further to Jenny Lake than we thought and we stopped to get breakfast in Jackson. About 12:00 we got to the trailhead and started hiking. I have not included pictures of this section of the hike as it was something I think that Angela and I would both not be bothered if we forgot. This was one of those lessons in "we need to buy some lighter gear" Anyhow we made it to the Moraine Camping area about 6 miles, 4000 feet of elevation later and around 7:00 PM. Despite the long day, nothing beats chillin at the campsite after you worked so hard to get there. We watched the sunset while we ate dinner and then watched the lightning in the distant Windriver Mountains and were surprised when thousands of moths started flying around us and even hitting us and the tent.
During the night we were woken up at 3,5 and 6 by hikers making their bid for the top. We were a little lazy, and woke up for good around 7. This is where the pictures begin. The first two are the morning view from our tent. The first is up to the saddle and the second is down into the valley where we left Cher, yeah it is a long ways down there.
This next picture is of me about halfway between the lower saddle and the black dike with the Middle Teton Glacier in the background. This is about where we realized we were in trouble because no one else was behind us anymore and we were sucking wind pretty good.
This is a picture looking up at the Grand from the lower saddle.
This is some of the crags on the Idaho side of the Tetons.
This is where we decided we were done for this trip. It was 11:00 we were both pretty tired and we had just made it past the eye of the needle, which I was pretty happy with. If we had another night to stay in the Moraine or didn't have to be back in Jackson by 8 to prevent worrying we may have made it further, but we learned a lot, had a great time and next time we will know more about what we are up against. The upper saddle was just above us another 300 vertical feet and the top was 1000 above us.
Not a whole lot of trees up there.
Look we are still happy! We made it up to where there is a notch and flat spot on the left side of the peak. Not bad for my first try.
The token Buffalo pictures.
Saturday night we stayed with Aunt Joan and Uncle Arnold in their Condo. It sure is a different world from staying on the mountain to get a hot shower and a nice dinner. Here are two pictures from our drive Sunday.
Overall we had a great trip, a little quick and for sure we need a little more time to acclimate and to climb the Grand, but we learned and nextime will be great. Our goodbye to Wyoming was wonderfull, as we were driving down the Snake River Gorge, the Fall colors were some of the brightest I have ever seen. We took some pictures, but you know, it is never the same on the camera. Made it home about 12:30 and went to work monday morning.
