this place is magic in the fall.

Ever since I was a little girl, fall has been my favorite time of year. In Arizona, October 1st always seemed to be the first day that we could actually open our windows again after the hot summer and let the cooler air in. My mom would make loaves of pumpkin bread that would make the house smell delicious, and we would be outside carving pumpkins and playing in the backyard. Obviously my surroundings have changed since then, and I can say that fall has only become more magical for me. After growing this intense love for snowboarding, fall is the indication that winter is coming and that makes for some serious excitement in a town like Jackson Hole! It hasn't snowed yet, but the nighttime temperatures are dropping well into the teens and the days are filled with golden aspens and crisp blue skies. It's gorgeous.

My parents paid me a visit in September, which is always wonderful. We went sightseeing up in the Gros Ventres Range, hiked to Bradley and Taggart Lakes, Ski Lake, and drove to the famous Mormon Row barns. At that time fall was just setting in.

Yesterday I had the best fall day ever, starting out with a hike to Ski Lake in the morning, followed by a drive up into Grand Teton National Park where I had my first actual bear sighting, followed by a moose walking down the same slope, and a herd of elk on my way home. I swear I live in a zoo! Anyway, this place is truly magic in the fall. Can't wait to get my fall Holga roll of film back!

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.

Cliff jumping, fire twirling, and red hills.

I had kind of a killer work schedule this past week so I had to try and squeeze in the fun before work, in between shifts, etc. Last Friday we went out to the Kelly cliffs to do a little jumping. The river comes at the cliffs in a near 90-degree angle, digging away at the river bottom, making it thankfully deep enough for some sweet cliff drops. Too far to the left or right though, and you'll be eating washed stones...

Robin taking the plunge.

David getting crazy.

David, climbing up the 5.8 pitch rock to jump again!

On Monday evening, David and I continued to drive down the crazy dirt track that is the Gros Ventre Road, and met up with some spectacular red hills, Sedona style.

Gros Ventre Red Hills.


Sedona's red rocks...so beautiful!

Looking back towards the road entrance, the Tetons loomed in the mist over the farms in the valley.

Magical Tetons.

We picked a campsite next to Crystal Creek and set up shop around sunset. It was a beautiful evening.

Not a bad room for the evening.

Sunset on Crystal Creek.

The full moon greeted us early in the evening, providing magical light through the trees.

These next few images are the product of getting creative with fire. For any that know me but don't know this, I used to be a baton twirler in college and I twirled fire on a regular basis...well Monday night seemed like a good time to pick it up again :)

David's fire explosion!

Well that's all for adventures for now. I am in the start of a three day weekend and ECSTATIC about it! Backpacking for the rest of the weekend. Much love ♥

A Gros Ventres Adventure

Aah, the Gros Ventres. This wild country is unknown to most tourists, but a beauty to the people that know it. It's massive peaks and glaciated basins rival anything in the Tetons. The only thing they lack to compare is the stunning view from the highway, therefore making them less accessible. Good for us locals, right?

David and I planned a weekend trip into the Gros Ventres. The planned route was to take the Swift Creek trail up to the base of Antoinette Peak and then to loop around to camp near Shoal Falls. According to Trails.com, the round trip was 12 miles. Not too bad in my opinion. The trail description also said that from the falls to the parking lot was a six mile hike so I assumed it was six miles in as well...The trail began from a ghetto parking circle just off of the road out to Granite Hot Springs. After driving down eight miles of crappy potholed road to get to said parking circle, I knew that this was definitely going to be more of an adventure than anything in Teton National Park that I'd seen so far. As we approached the trailhead for Swift Creek, I noticed a sign that said Shoal Falls with an arrow. That would be our return trail! The Swift Creek trail was just ahead.

Getting ready to hike.

The unfortunate part of this particular trailhead was that there were two other trail sbranching out from the main sign. We veered onto the fainter one on the right, because that's what the trail guide said. Instantly we wondered if we were even on the right trail. That thought would remain in our minds until we got home and looked at a real topo map.

The trail followed the edges of Swift Creek. The water was rushing and wildflowers were starting to pop up in the meadows all around us. We even found a bird's nest with baby robins in it!

Baby robins. Photo by David Duffy.

A curious young buck. Photo by David Duffy.

Swift Creek. Photo by David Duffy.

Eventually we started to lose the trail completely. It appeared as if it had been washed out by the creek. David decided to cross the river and explore on the other side. Sure enough, there was a sign that said "Trail --->" indicating that people needed to cross the creek. The unfortunate part was that this sign was for the people returning from the upper part of the hike. Where was the sign telling us where to go?? I found out later that it's fairly typical for the Gros Ventres to have a disorganized trail system...great.

We ambled along the trail some more and then started vigorously climbing. This hill was relentless. We switchbacked up through the large valley between 11,407 ft. Antoinette Peak and Corner Peak. As I was hiking I a caught a glimpse of some pretty stunning waterfalls. All I could wonder is, "If these falls look like this, what to Shoal Falls look like?" A beautiful sight.

We climbed further and further up the trail, passing some very scenic sights along the way. The scree fields of Corner Peak and the sheer faces of Antoinette Peak were absolutely breathtaking.

Corner Peak.

Antoinette Peak.


We've gained mucho elevation. Down there is the road we drove in on. Photo by David Duffy.

After what seemed like endless climbing and a quick lunch later, we reached snow. At first it only covered parts of the trail and it was easy to navigate around or just walk through. Eventually it became impassable. We had come upon a very large basin that reminded me of the approaches to Mount Daniel that we climbed in Washington last year. We followed what looked like trail for a bit, but eventually ended up turning around. We were both so exhausted from the climbing and had been hiking for four hours by now. It was time to find a place to camp, regrettably not at Shoal Falls.

Invisible trail = time to turn around.

We descended back into a pretty little basin that we had spotted on the way up. Although it wasn't where we intended to go, it was still beautiful and we were able to set up our tent right next to a rushing creek.

Corner Peak from our campsite.

That night was spent doing what is done best in the wilderness: Building a fire, eating all of those lost calories, and quenching our thirst with some adult beverages. What was even more amazing was that it was a full moon that night. We eagerly waited for the moon to rise over the jagged crags of Corner Peak and eventually it blinded us with it's brightness. It was so bright at one point I felt like it was daytime. I can't think of a better place to be than in the backcountry on the night of a full moon.

The moon is about to rise over that ridge.

Our fire is so small in the shadow of Antoinette. Photo by David Duffy.

The next day, we began the trek back to the parking area. We were so eager to look at a map and see if we were even in the right spot the whole time. We went over to my friend Alex's ranch for the afternoon to BBQ and enjoy the sunshine. He just happens to have topo maps of the entire Wyoming/Idaho/Montana area. We found the map for our area and sure enough, we were on the right track. To continue would have meant that we climbed another who-knows-how-many feet up to the very base of Antoinette Peak. Then we would have dropped over that pass into the Crystal Creek area and continued on the trail to the falls. So much for 12 miles, is all I have to say.

Regardless of the confusion experienced on this trip, I have to say that I much prefer the solitude experienced in the Gros Ventres. The drive isn't far, and you get to weed out all of the tourists hiking in flip-flops and loafers. We will return to the Gros Ventres.