Jenny Lake HIke to Hidden Falls

Grand Teton National Park (62 degrees, blue skies)

Jenny Lake

The iconic and spectacular Jenny Lake was the first area developed in the Grand Tetons National Park in the the early 1900's. There are numerous trails around the beautiful lake.  However, be prepared for crowds of people and very busy trails.   

We stopped at the visitor center to get some suggestions due to many of the trails being under construction and to be sure we didn't choose a snow packed trail.  Jenny Lake has been  literally loved to death and a 16.4 million dollar project is underway to repair trails, bridges, and visitor complex.  

The ranger suggested we take the horse trail out to the Hidden Fall area and take the ferry back.  It was about a three mile hike with a 750 foot elevation. 

One of the GTA bookstores (the company we work for this summer) is also located in the visitor center.  It's a small store and has a nice inventory of guides and hiking supplies.  

The trails are well marked and usually run right along the lake.  However, right now you take a detour up to the horse trail.  This trail is very rugged with lots of loose rock.  I use two walking sticks when hiking now.  This was suggested to me  last year and I have found it much easier to hike with them. It gives me a greater sense of balance. I have nice titanium poles which are very light weight and collapsible.  It was a great investment. 

You could often see pretty views of the lake as you walked along the trail.

We did need to pull over often to let people pass.  The trail was very busy which surprised us since the season has not really started yet.

It took us about two hours to get out to the falls.  There was still snow in this area but we were able to get over to the falls without too much difficulty.

Here is a beautiful video of the falls.  Due to the snow melt it was roaring and quite spectacular.  

A very fat marmot was hanging out in the area too.These are large squirrels commonly seen in the mountains.  He was very tame and looking for a few snacks from visitors. Sorry Charlie we don't feed wildlife.  

From here you could travel up to Inspiration Point but we decided to head down to the ferry instead due to a lot of snow being up in this area and numerous switchbacks.

The ferry ride ($9 one way/person) was nice and leaves about every 20 minutes until 7 pm.  There are also one hour scenic trips three times a day around the lake. It was fun to look back over the area we had just hiked.  If you decide to hike completely around the lake and not take the ferry it's about 7.7 miles.  Be sure to get an early start. 

There is still snow in high elevations

As we were heading back to the parking lot we saw this very pretty bird, a Western Tangier.  What a striking bird and a new one for us too.

Although the views were spectacular I found this hike a little too difficult for me and way too crowded. Next time I think we will try the scenic boat trip instead or get a very early start.  However, it was a great day to be out enjoying this beautiful place.