The first full day we had there we decided to hike the Cascade Canyon trail from Jenny Lake to Lake Solitude. It's a little over 14 miles, but the trail is relatively gentle. We read the trail is also the most popular trail in the park. In the photo below, Cascade Canyon is the distant background.
We got a late start since it was Tonya's turn to be a slug getting out of bed (I usually take that role). We decided to take the boat shuttle across Jenny Lake to avoid adding 2 miles each way to our hike. However, the last shuttle of the day left at 6:00 and by the time we started hiking it was almost 11:00. We ended up talking all day whether we were going to be able to catch the return shuttle and how far up the canyon we were going to go, kicking ourselves for not getting an earlier start. The photo below is from the boat shuttle looking up Cascade Canyon.
The first part of the trail climbs ~600 feet relatively quickly past Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. Then the canyon bottom flattens out as seen with the photo of Tonya.
Lake Solitude is a pretty lake below a ridge. The photo with Tonya at the lake is looking back down the canyon we hiked up. Grand Teton (highest mountain) is in the distance.
We didn't stay long to enjoy the view because we wanted to catch the boat shuttle and it became overcast. Just as we were leaving it started to rain and then it rained hard for about 10 minutes or so and then lightened up. When the rain stopped after 1/2 hour or so the view in the photo below opened up. The tallest mountain is again Grand Teton and the photo is taken looking down the trail.
As I mentioned earlier we were trying to catch the boat shuttle before they stopped running for the day to avoid an extra 2 mile hike. We made the shuttle with time to spare. Once we got to our car and started driving back to our campsite another storm front came through. The last photo shows the Teton Range and the dark clouds over the valley.
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