Road Trippin'

Friday, July 2nd (Hiking in the National Park)

High Point: Hiking the Tetons

Low Point: The crowds near Hidden Falls

Today we wanted to do some hiking before picking up the dog, so we headed over to the Jenny Lake area where a 3 mile hike takes you around the lake and up into the mountains to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. We had the option of paying a ferry to let us skip the first 2.5 miles, but we figured the girls could handle the walk and we wanted to actually be on a trail. It was a beautiful path with some ups and downs but nothing too strenuous.

Looking out at Jenny Lake from the Loop Trail

Mike & Christine: Jenny Lake Trail

Elizabeth: Making her way toward through the woods

Julia resting along Jenny Lake

They recommend bear bells or a radio to make noise while in bear country, but we didn’t need one ‘cause we had Julia. She spent the hike in a rambling, stream-of-consciousness review of the major plot points from the 7th Harry Potter and the entire Percy Jackson series (back and forth and in no particular order).

We saw a few people along the way, but not too many until we reached the Falls area where the boat dropped off dozens of people and the trail suddenly became a superhighway. We had lunch at Inspiration Point where you could look out at the mountains and lakes.

Hidden Falls

The last half mile before Inspiration Point can wear you out!

Lunch!

Are we inspired or just tired? Lunch at Inspiration Point

We did take the ferry back so we’d have time to drive through some other parts of the park before getting Buster.

The last time we visited, we stayed at the Signal Mountain Campground, so we drove through there and looked around a bit before driving up to the Signal Mountain Overlook, where the mountains and trees motivated us to steal Julia’s mp3 and turn off her Wicked sountrack and rock out to some John Denver Rocky Mountain High. It’s awesome watching your children try to pretend they’re not with you even when nobody else is around.