Hiking in Grand Teton National Park

I had the opportunity to visit Wyoming this fall for a work trip! Since it’s Wyoming (totally out of the ordinary and awesome), and since I knew I’d be in Jackson, which is at the opening of the Grand Teton National Park and not far from Yellowstone National Park, Johnny decided to accompany me (I’m so glad he did for many reasons – more on that soon!).

First, I need to share these unreal photos of our hike in the Grand Teton National Park. This park is gorgeous, out of this world, amazing! Every single picture we have from the Tetons looks like a painting.

Johnny took the lead for finding a great afternoon hike – I visited three schools in the morning, and hosted a dinner for a college counselor and a WAC alum that evening. We had about 4-5 hours to play in between.

We chose Taggart Lake Trailhead, since it was between 5 and 7 miles, perfect for an afternoon hike.

Every single site for Grand Tetons and Yellowstone has a “Be Bear Aware” warning — bears are extremely active in this area (both black and grizzly), and it’s important to know how to act. We carried (Johnny carried) bear spray, and we were instructed to make lots of noise to deter a bear from crossing our path. Luckily, we didn’t see any bears on our hike!

We did see tons of birds (an up-close Downey woodpecker, a mountain bluebird, black-billed magpie) and later in the trip we saw moose, elk (TONS of them, in the road. Deer have nothing on these large awesome beasts), and lots of bison.

I managed a 5-6 mile hike in boots. They were certainly made for walkin’. And climbing. And downhill sprinting. This path was all over the place and super awesome.

We paused by this lake for a good deal of time, sitting on a fallen tree that worked perfectly as a bench for two. It was neat to feel almost absorbed into the landscape, like we were a natural part of it.

It wouldn’t be a hike without a yoga pose or two! Dancer near the beginning of the hike, by a waterfall.

I couldn’t get over the scenery. We were greeted by lots of aspen pine and tons of sagewort, which is very aromatic, it smelled so nice!

After our hike, we sat on top of nearby picnic tables and ate a trail mix snack. We brought snacks and water with us, but I was too nervous to eat our food on the trailhead. We definitely had to stop to drink a few times, there are some sweet inclines on this trail!

Afterwards, we packed up and headed back to Jackson for me to host a dinner. Little did I know at this point about what would happen the next day!

Stay tuned…