The Teton Crest Trail Traverse started as a way for Jim and I to acclimate before climbing the Grand Teton which we will attempt in a few days. The traverse ended up being on of my favorite trips. Jim and I already have plans to repeat the traverse in 2024. (2023 is already booked with adventures.)
The Teton Crest traverse is full of amazing views. Just when you think you can put your camera away, you walk around a corner or crest a ridge and gasp at the beauty before you.
The swimming lakes are spaced perfectly so everyday around lunchtime you can enjoy a quick dip and cool off.
A quick dip for Brooke sometimes took over 2 hours. The advantages of being a super strong hiker.
This trip was especially nostalgic for me because of the people that joined us.
Fay and Beth were the first people to take me climbing without Jim. We did a 7 day trip into the Northern Pickets. I was nervous but Fay and Beth easily have 100 years of mountain experience between them so I was definitely in good hands. I had an amazing trip. The girls showed me that I was stronger than I thought. Capable of so much more than I believed.
It was the first of many girls trips. And just another adventure for Fay and I. Fay was there the minute I met Jim. Both of these women also joined Jim and I on our honeymoon.
Over 10 years ago, Beth moved out of Washington state to take care of family. Though we email, this was our first trip with her in years.
Fay has been struggling with body issues for the last several years. We all thought age was finally catching up with her, she turns 80 in a few weeks, but she was stronger at the end of the traverse than at the beginning. This trip reminded me of how much I miss our adventures together. We are both explorers at heart. We do day hikes regularly but I thought our big adventures were a thing of the past. Obviously not.
Rounding out are group were Kevin and his lovely wife, Maria. Kevin is always up for a traverse. Long or short, on trail or off, he doesn’t care. Maria is a hoot and we rarely get graced with her company. It is always a treat when she is along.
Brooke was a last minute add. It is so fun having her around. She has become an unbelievable strong mountain woman. Jim thinks she might be more obsessed with the mountains than he was at her age. She is definitely happiest when she is heading for a summit.
Our trip started at 6am on Sunday the 14th, with Jim, Brooke, and I sitting in line at the ranger station waiting for them to open so we could improve our campsites and get a permit for Brooke. Though we were there 2 hours before the station opened, we were the 4th party in line. The first party got there at 4:10am. At least we got to watch the sunrise on the Tetons.
The rest of our group arrived around 4pm. We did the car shuttle and were in bed before 9pm. Every one anxious for tomorrow to come.
In the morning, we drove to Teton Village, Jackson Hole Ski Resort, and took the Aerial Tram to the top of Rendevous Peak. This cut off over 4000 feet of gain. We were all pretty excited to skip the hike up the ski slopes.
From the top of the tram, we headed off leaving all the other tourists behind.
We had been told that the wild flowers were in bloom but it was still a shock when you see all the colors.
As Fay and I hiked along, I took in the scenery. The south end of the National Park was more rollie than I expected with lots of outcroppings and grassy meadows.
After a few hours of hiking, we came to our first lake. It took our team no time at all to strip down and jump in. The day was hotter than we expected for being at 10,000 feet.
Marion Lake was so beautiful with high walls on one side and grassy, tree covered slopes on the other. The trees supplied much needed shade. By 2pm it was really hot.
As we left Marion Lake, the clouds began to form and we thought we were in for our first afternoon thunderstorms.
But after another 30 minutes, the clouds gave way to more sunshine. During our 4 day hike, we got rained on for only 30 minutes and during that rain storm the sun was beating down on us. The rain felt so good that Jim and I didn’t even put on our rain jackets.
After Marion Lake, the trail crosses into Jedediah Smith Wilderness. This is one of the two spots where the traverse exits the National Park. We have no idea why this beautiful area was not absorbed into the park to start with.
There were sooooo many wildflowers in bloom. Super surprising for midAugust.
It was here that we got our first glimpse of the Grand Teton. It made my stomach flip a few times. “We would be climbing that in a few days?”
Instead of freaking out, I choose to simply follow Fay down the trail and take in the local scenery. But when we started to hike along the Death Canyon Shelf, the local scenery was dominated by the huge, rocky peak in the distance, The Grand Teton.
Because of our early morning visit to the ranger station, we were able to score a permit to camp on the Death Canyon Shelf. This is one of the most coveted camping areas in Grand Teton National Park for a reason. Look at the view.
In the morning, we hiked down the shelf. It was like a beautiful stroll in the park. Why couldn’t all hikes be like this.
The shelf ended way to soon for all of us. It was the fastest 3 miles any of us had every strolled. The time just flew by. I had to look back to verify that the shelf was actually 3 miles long.
With the beautiful shelf behind us, we all hiked in silence for a while taking in what we had seen. Then one by one I heard the people in front of me say “WOW!” as they rounded the next bend. When I got there I couldn’t hold back a gasp of my own. Alaska Basin was laid out in front of us and so beautiful. Rock slabs with babbling brooks. A perfect basin.
How was this area not claimed by the National Park? We were once again in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness area. You don’t even need a permit to camp here. Why were there not people camping everywhere?
Just before Sunset Lake, our group split into two. Fay, Kevin, and Maria headed down to the lake for lunch and an afternoon swim. Fay even had time for a short nap. Brooke, Beth, Jim, and I took a side trip to climb The Wall. How could we pass up a peak called The Wall. And a wall it was.
Looking north the wall went at least a half a mile. See if you can find me on the wall for scale.
Looking south on The Wall. No idea how far it went that way.
Straight head was an amazing, deep blue colored lake.
After taking in The Wall for over 15 minutes, we all hurried back to our group at Sunset Lake. I arrived just as Kevin and Maria were leaving and Fay was packing up.
Now we had to climb out of Alaska Basin and head to Hurricane Pass where we would re-enter the park. In the hot afternoon sun, the switchbacks seemed to go on forever.
Thankfully there were some amazing rock formations to keep us entertained. This area looked so much like Monument Valley in southern Utah. This formation was named “The Battleship”.
Hurricane Pass was another jaw dropping view. How many views can one day produce?
This might be the best place in the park for seeing all three Tetons up close and personal.
I must have stopped 20 times to take pictures on the switchbacks. First, of the Tetons, then of the basin. No wonder this basin was also a highly coveted camping zone: South Fork Cascade. We weren’t lucky enough to score a permit for here. We would have to just soak it in as we hiked through it.
As we hiked down the trail, it became clear why this was called South Fork Cascade. Look at all the waterfalls cascading down the South Fork of the river.
The South Fork Cascade camping zone is huge with several thousand feet of loss. In the end, we camped at one of the last sites in the zone. Our permit was for the North Fork and we didn’t want to risk not making it and having to camp outside the camping zones. That would be really bad form.
The next day as we were leaving the South Fork, we were treated to one last amazing waterfall.
As we neared the turn to the North Fork, we were inundated with day hikers. We had reached the part of the trail which is only 5 miles from civilization. Instead of hiking out, we turned left and started climbing up the North Fork with Lake Solitude on everyone’s mind.
Lake Solitude turned out to be a popular destination for day hikers. It was unbelievable. And big enough for everyone to share. It took our group less than a minute to strip down and jump in. Brooke, Beth, Kevin, and Maria swam around for 20 minutes.
I think Brooke went swimming 4 times before she decided she had to get dressed and start hiking to catch the rest of us who left over an hour ago.
The view of the Grand Teton down the North Fork was worth one or two stops as we climbed out of the basin heading for our high point of the traverse, Paintbrush Divide.
As Fay and I were approaching the divide, Fay kept looking up at Paintbrush Peak. Fay had promised herself there would be no peak bagging on this trip. Her knee wasn’t doing well and her whole goal was to just complete the traverse. But this peak was calling to her. When we reached the divide, she sat down to determine if what we could see was the real summit.
After we all concurred that the summit was indeed only 300+ feet above us, Fay took off.
We spent a good 30 minutes on the summit. Taking pictures and smiling ear to ear.
Brooke and Jim kept trying to figure out what peaks we were looking at.
Once Brooke identified a rock outcropping below, she had to scramble down for some photos.
We returned to Paintbrush Divide slightly before Kevin and Maria showed up. They had taken a break down the trail where they could watch us climb. Good thing we all wear such bright colors. At least this family does.
From Paintbrush Divide, we could look down on Upper Paintbrush Basin, our camping destination for the night. I was lucky enough to score this camping zone back in February when the website went live. All the good zone were taken in less than 5 minutes. It was a crazy 5 minutes.
Before we got to the basin, we had to descend a trail blasted into the peaks face. There were trail crew coming in again the next day to work on the rock staircase. It is going to be amazing when they are done.
Our campsite in Upper Paintbrush Basin was everything I could hope for. Everything anyone could hope for: a view with running water nearby, no other campers around, no bugs (they all were hanging around Brooke), and great conversation with loads of laughter. A perfect last evening for our traverse.
Soon after we left camp the next morning, we saw our first day hikers. As we started to descend into the valley, we got a view of Jackson and Leigh lakes. Civilization was not far away.
Before we knew it we were in the trees and taking our first break. Brooke took this opportunity to say goodbye to everyone. She had an additional day planned so she could ambitiously scramble up the Middle and South Teton tomorrow before catching her flight. Jim questioned if this was something he would have done at her age. His guess was no. He probably would have only climbed the Middle Teton. Both was a bit much.
Brooke did climb both and tuck in a lake. She had to run down the trail. 7400 foot descent. She reached the car at 5pm. We dropped her at the airport around 5:30. She had a 6:55 flight. Perfect! Her flight was then delayed 2+ hours. Dang! She could have tucked in another lake and strolled down the trail.
Before we knew it we had hit the bridge across String Lake which marked the valley floor. The trails here are so beautiful graded. You almost don’t notice when you are hiking uphill or descend down the trail. The trail architects are amazing here.
We were definitely back in civilization. The lake was full of kayakers and swimmers.
We tried to add to the swimming population but the lake was so shallow. The swimmers in our group had to walk out quite a ways before getting in. When they came out of the water, they had sand everywhere. Check out my tan lines.
After completing our car shuttle, we weren’t ready to say goodbye to each other so we had an early dinner. Eventually, we had to part. I got a little teared up. This was one of those trips that I never wanted to end.