We finally had a warm (relatively), sunny day at Grand Teton National Park today. So we headed out for some hiking!

We started with a 7-mile hike along Jenny Lake, headed to a spot called Inspiration Point—which is supposedly one of the park’s most popular hiking destinations. It was nice to finally see the Teton mountains not shrouded in clouds while walking along the lake. Unfortunately, when we had nearly reached the end of the trail, we were greeted with a sign informing us that the area ahead was closed. Thanks, National Park Service, for not posting that information at any of the dozen other trail markers that we passed along the way!

So we headed back the way we came, and stopped en route to explore a couple ponds that were known for frequent moose sightings. We passed a family having lunch near the first pond, and the youngest child struck up a conversation with Lori. He told her that they “hadn’t seen a moose yet, even though this was called Moose Pond”. His tone clearly conveyed that he considered this a clear-cut case of false advertising. We looped around both ponds and didn’t see any moose, either—maybe the kid was right! So we finished up our hike and had lunch.

After lunch, we hit a short 4-mile hike to Taggart Lake. The views at the lake were spectacular, so we paused for a bit to take photos and relax. It was late in the afternoon by the time we set out on our return trip, and we didn’t see anyone on the trail at all. Whenever we’re alone on trails, I get to listen to Lori practice her own special version of bear safety, which mostly consists of her yelling gibberish at the top of her lungs at short intervals to let wildlife know that we exist. It’s magnificent.

In Jackson, plenty of bars are open at 9:45PM, but not a single ice-cream shop. ='(

There was about an hour of daylight left when we finished hiking, so we drove to a couple spots where we hoped we might see a moose. Instead, we saw elk. Lots of elk.

After our day at the park, we walked around Jackson, had Thai for dinner, and then went out for ice-cream. Except all of the ice-cream shops had closed (even though Google told us that two were still open!), which made us sad.

Tomorrow morning we check out of our hotel in Jackson, but we’re not quite done with the area. We want to spend a couple more days at Yellowstone, so we’re going to move up to West Yellowstone for two nights.

Below are some photos from our day; click for larger versions:

We saw a lot of elk today. This one posed the nicest.

Lori at Taggart Lake.

Lori in a field off the Moose Pond trail loop.

This is the barn next to the famous T.A. Moulton Barn (which is supposedly the most-photographed barn in the world). I felt bad for this one, so I photographed it instead.