A Long Day Hiking Jenny Lake

It was my third day in Grand Teton National Park. Another chilly night had given way to a beautiful sunny morning, and I was in no hurry to leave the campground. I spent a few hours in the van catching up on things, then sat outside enjoying the warmth of the sun before deciding to head toward Jenny Lake for a hike.

I'd found the Cascade Canyon Trail on AllTrails and transferred the route to my Garmin GPSMAP 67i. The hike looked interesting, with views of Jenny Lake, the surrounding mountains and the possibility of seeing some wildlife. AllTrails directed me to the Jenny Lake Visitor Center, where I planned to get organized and start walking.

Getting organized turned out to be more of a project than expected. I couldn't decide whether to bring my 600mm lens. I knew it would be heavy, but the possibility of photographing wildlife eventually won out. That turned out to be a mistake. I carried the lens around all day without taking a single photograph with it. Worse, I kept returning to the van for things I'd forgotten—extra batteries, food and finally my phone. By the time I was ready to hike, I'd made several trips between the van and the parking lot.

I spent about 30 minutes at the Jenny Lake visitor center, looking around and getting familiar with the area. A sign outside listed the facilities and services that would soon be closing for the season. By Saturday, nearly everything would be shut down. The trails would remain accessible, but there would be no staff and most visitor services would be unavailable.

One service that mattered to me was the Jenny Lake boat shuttle, which takes hikers across the lake to the Cascade Canyon trailhead. Without it, I'd have to walk around the lake before even starting the hike into the canyon. That would add several miles to the day, but the weather was beautiful, and I figured the walk along the shoreline would be enjoyable anyway.

What I didn't realize at the time was that this would become a day of wrong turns, confusing directions and a few unnecessary miles. Still, it was hard to complain about hiking through scenery like this.

About a mile into the hike, I was already regretting my decision to bring the big lens. It was heavy, and there wasn't much reason to have it. The trail around Jenny Lake was busy, with a steady stream of hikers coming and going. There were no birds or other wildlife to photograph, and with so many people on the trail, I wasn't expecting much activity.

A litte further into the hike, I stopped along the shoreline to photograph the lake and mountains. The water was beautiful, reflecting the surrounding peaks, and the autumn colors added another dimension to the landscape. I found a place to sit, put down my pack and took a break. Despite the extra weight and my less-than-efficient start, it was turning into a beautiful afternoon.

Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point

I hiked to Hidden Falls and spent some time trying to photograph the waterfall. The lighting was difficult. The surrounding forest was quite dark, while the falls were brightly illuminated by the sun. The contrast was more than the camera's dynamic range could handle in a single exposure. I took several photographs at different exposures, hoping to combine them later and recover some of the detail in both the shadows and highlights.

Several people asked me to take their photographs with their iPhones, which struggled with the same problem. The people were reasonably well exposed, but the waterfall behind them was little more than a bright white streak. Not exactly the photograph they had hoped for.

From Hidden Falls, I continued up the trail toward Inspiration Point, which was along the route I had originally intended to hike into Cascade Canyon. On the climb, a young guy stopped me to ask about my camera equipment. He was interested in photography but had very little experience and wanted some advice about getting started.

We ended up talking about photography for the rest of the climb to Inspiration Point. My advice was to start with a reasonably priced camera, something that would allow him to experiment and learn how exposure, aperture, shutter speed and lenses work without spending a fortune. I also suggested that learning the software side of photography was just as important. Lightroom and Photoshop would be good starting points, with tools like Topaz and eventually Helicon Focus as his interests and skills developed. There was no reason to buy everything at once. Learning to see and understand light was far more important than owning expensive equipment.

An Unexpected Hiking Companion

On the way back down, I met Juan, a visitor from Costa Rica who worked for a Japanese medical device manufacturer. He had been involved in process development at the company's manufacturing facility in Costa Rica and was currently in Denver for a week of training. He had decided to make a short trip to Grand Teton National Park while he was in the United States.

Juan had hiked farther into Cascade Canyon, the route I had originally intended to take, but he'd gotten an earlier start. We were heading in the same direction, so we began walking together. We talked about his work, Costa Rica, engineering, travel and all sorts of other things. The conversation made the miles pass quickly.

Unfortunately, the daylight was disappearing just as quickly. I was becoming increasingly concerned about reaching the van before dark. I hadn't planned on being out so late, and I wasn't particularly interested in hiking alone through the forest after sunset, especially with the possibility of moose and bears along the trail.

At one point, an Australian couple came down another trail and asked how to get back to the visitor center. I pulled out AllTrails and showed them our location and the route back. They had been considering continuing around the other side of the lake, but I explained that they wouldn't make it back to the visitor center before dark if they went that way. They understood and headed off in the same direction as us.

A little farther along, the couple dropped down toward the shoreline and began crossing a jumble of fallen tree trunks that had collected across the water. I could see on the map that this shortcut would save us about 15 minutes, so Juan and I followed.

Juan made it across without much difficulty. I wasn't quite as graceful. Balancing on uneven, rounded tree trunks with a heavy camera bag and that 600mm lens was not something I'd planned on doing. I carefully picked my way across, trying not to fall. Somehow, I made it to the other side.

By now, we were running out of daylight. I figured we had perhaps another 30 minutes before it would be completely dark. We came across a ranger escorting some people toward a parking area, and she told us we were still about 20 minutes from the visitor center. We picked up our pace, but the sun disappeared before we reached the parking lot. I eventually pulled out my iPhone and used its flashlight to see the trail.

I could see approximately where the van was parked, so I cut across a field to take a more direct route. We finally reached the parking lot, but that was when Juan told me his car wasn't there.

Looking for Juan's Car

The parking lot was almost completely empty. I offered to drive Juan around to find his car rather than leave him wandering around in the dark. He climbed into the back of the van, and we began checking the nearby parking areas.

We drove through several lots without finding his car. At one point, as I was turning around, a red fox appeared directly in front of us. Juan had never seen a fox before, so I stopped and let him watch. He quickly pulled out his iPhone and tried to capture some video as the fox wandered past.

We continued searching, and about ten minutes later, I found another parking area that looked more promising. Juan began recognizing some of the roads and turnoffs. Then he suddenly said, "Yes, turn here!"

As I made the turn, several moose darted across the road in front of us. I stopped immediately. There were five of them, including a mother trying to get her calf across the road. The calf seemed uncertain about where it was supposed to go, and the mother kept crossing back and forth, apparently trying to encourage it to follow.

Juan had his iPhone out again. We sat there for about five minutes watching the moose move back and forth across the road. It was an extraordinary sight, especially after spending the day hiking without seeing much wildlife. Now, in the space of a few minutes, we'd encountered both a fox and five moose.

We eventually found Juan's car. Before saying goodbye, we took a photograph together and exchanged phone numbers. What had started as a chance conversation on a hiking trail had turned into several hours of good company and an unexpected wildlife adventure.

It was about an hour's drive back to Gros Ventre Campground, and I was completely exhausted by the time I pulled into my campsite. Between the hiking, the extra weight of the camera equipment, the scramble across the fallen trees and the search for Juan's car, it had been a much longer day than I'd anticipated.

I made a quick meal, relaxed for a while and fell asleep sometime after 10 p.m. It certainly hadn't been the hike I'd planned, but it was one of those days that I knew I'd remember for a long time.