birthday camping trip.

The spring weather has fully kicked in here with pleasant temperatures and afternoon rainstorms. It seems so pretty but the summer activities haven't fully developed quite yet. Teton Park road is open but most of the campsites are not, and trails are mostly snow-covered. Not to mention they are closing my beloved "lunch break hike" up High School Butte because it's privately owned and the family wants to revegitate it. Sad! Anyway, my birthday rolled around a few days ago and I was trying to think of something fun to do that didn't involve meeting up with a bunch of friends at a bar. Most of my friends are out of town for off-season right now, so doing something simple with David sounded like the perfect option. I called around to the National Forest offices and Teton Park office and found it difficult to find any campsites that were open. Settling for the semi-boring and $20/night Gros Ventre Campground off of the road to Kelly seemed like what we should do. We drove out there, noticing a stash of RVs parked along the river. Ugh. With some bad weather rolling through, we decided to check out the road up Shadow Mountain and see if it really was "snowed in." When we reached the base we laughed as we watched a car trying to navigate through a heard of bison (they were EVERYWHERE!) to get to its driveway. The base of the mountain had three open campsites which all stared the Tetons straight in the face. There was a closed sign for the road up the mountain, but what we were looking at seemed perfect! The rain stopped and the sun peeked through the abundance of fluffy clouds. We enjoyed an amazing dinner of salmon pesto pasta (made on our camp stove) and dessert -- mocha tres leches cake -- which David made from scratch. (I'm so impressed!) It was such a beautiful evening and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else to celebrate my birthday.

paintbrush-cascade canyon loop -- backpacking.

My summer has been crazy busy and it's been hard to find time to do one of my most favorite things -- backpacking. Back in the days when I had three days in a row off every week with David, we were exploring new parts of the forest constantly. But here, juggling three jobs and finding the right weather for this can be difficult to coordinate. A little over a week ago I found time to do one of the loops that I've wanted to do since I moved here three years ago -- Paintbrush Canyon to Cascade Canyon, done as a 19.2 mile loop. Daunting, yes, and would I have liked to do it in more than two days? Yes. But at this point I've realized that a 12 mile day hike is nothing with these mountain legs that I've acquired. With David dj-ing the night before at the Tavern, we only got about 4.5 hours of sleep before we were up and at 'em around 8 am. We headed to the ranger station to find that all of the permits for the North Fork Cascade Canyon campsite were taken. This would have been the halfway point on our trip. I ended up snagging a permit for Upper Paintbrush Canyon, but that was only 7.5 miles into our 19.2 mile trip. That would mean quite a long second day. Ugh.

Wildfire smoke filled the valley and we set out on our journey up a hazy Paintbrush Canyon. It really isn't that scenic of a hike until you get up into the Holly Lake area. And it never stops going up. Whew! I guess by the time we picked out a campsite in the upper reaches of the canyon, surrounded by towering peaks, I was happy to not have to walk anymore, even if it did mean tackling 12.something miles the next day. Our lack of sleep was not so good for the stamina. Our campsite was amazing. I've never seen anything like it up there. Wow.

The next day we hiked up and over Paintbrush Divide, the highest divide in the Tetons, and dropped (way!!) down to Lake Solitude and Cascade Canyon. And Solitude it was. Such a pretty little mountain gem, tucked way back amidst the towering Teton peaks. It had rained the night before, so the Tetons were slightly visible through the mist as we traveled deeper into Cascade Canyon. Wildflowers were abundant and little streams crossed the trail multiple times. If I was a bear I would have been hanging out there, but we didn't see one.

After lots of downhill hiking, we finally reached Jenny Lake and our car and were excited to rest our tired legs with a float down Fish Creek near our house to top off an amazing weekend. What a successful, beautiful trip!

Almost all of these photos were shot on Fuji Pro 400H film. Enjoy!

solstice.

camping on shadow mountain

Last night I got to go camping on Shadow Mountain. It was a beautiful way to kick off the summer. There was a little bit of rain, but overall it was a wonderful evening. It felt so good to sleep outside again!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

I had a random (and rare) day off in the middle of the week so I called up my friend Alex to do some hiking. We decided on the famed Garnet Canyon up in Grand Teton National Park. I'd been wanting to visit what is called "The Meadows" for a long time. It's the place where people climbing the cathedral peaks (aka the gnarly Tetons) camp before or after they make their summits. It's a 5-ish mile hike up to this spot, all uphill of course. What else would you expect out here? There is a little bit of scrambling in the end to make the final pitch up to the meadows, but nothing that a semi-athletic person can't handle. There is a huge forest fire burning in the Gros Ventres right now so the smoke settles in the valley in the mornings. It was a pretty weird day with near storm-like conditions early on and then bright blue skies in the afternoon. Here are a few shots from the trip:

Smoke in the valley.

The trail up into Garnet.

The Meadows.

Spalding Falls on the right, looking up at the Lower Saddle.

This one's for you, Middle Teton.

After a great day of hiking we picked up David and headed up to Shadow Mountain for a night of camping. The view was spectacular and it was amazing to sit up there and watch the sun set behind the Tetons. Aahhh....I love this place.

A Trip to Jackson Peak

Wow, finally our first backpacking trip of the year! Between mosquitoes, lingering snow, and ever-changing weather patterns, it's been a pretty difficult year to get out into the backcountry. For this first one I chose Jackson Peak, a triangle shaped mountain that I constantly admire from the road to my house. There is a ski cabin there that people visit in the winter and I guess it's pretty fun to rip down its endless bowls when the snow is good. As far as summer activities go, there is a little lake behind it called Goodwin Lake that provides great camping, fishing, and even swimming. Standing not too much further above the lake is the summit of Jackson Peak. Located in the Gros Ventre Wilderness, this peak is pretty easily accessed. The round trip hike to and from your car is just over ten miles, making it a nice day trip or a relaxing overnight trip. We drove up the rugged road into Curtis Canyon and were soon at the trailhead. A nice hike through the forest takes you to the little gem of a lake. There are lots of campsites, so it was pretty easy to get settled in. Once we had our tent pitched, we took a nice little jaunt up the ridge to the summit of Jackson Peak. It took less than an hour to get to the top, and the views were stunning. From the daunting ridges of Cache Peak to the vastness of the valley floor below, we were in awe. We added some rocks to the giant cairn at the top, did some yoga, took some photos, and sauntered back down to our campsite. It was a great night in the backcountry sleeping under the nearly full moon. I was so happy to get out of town and spend some quality time outside. I finished off the weekend with some solid pool time, a twelve mile run, and Teton Thai. Life isn't so bad, eh?

Here are a few favorites from the trip:

The trail to Goodwin Lake.

Pond along the way.

Wildflowers.

David and the last push up Jackson Peak.

Sleeping Indian.

Giant cairn on top of Jackson Peak.

David and the Tetons.

Goodwin Lake from above.

David looking out at the view.

My heart melts for the Tetons.

Cache Peak.

Little yellow flower.

Indian paintbrush.

Dinner...mmmmm...

Looking up.

Cozy camp.

Moonrise.