Trip to Jackson Hole Area

[kwhit24]

Some friends and myself are starting to plan a camping trip to Jackson Hole. We aren't sure on the duration yet but since a couple are from Ohio we are thinking 4-5 days. I would love to here some recommendations of where to go and what to hike in the area. Any campgrounds (I know Jenny Lake is a very busy and congested place) would be helpful too. None of us have ever been to the area so any advice would be helpful.

[Scott P]

You don't say when you are going or what kind of hikes you are looking for. This would make it much easier to answer your post.

[peter303]

The first priority is to see if you can find any reservable campsites at all if you talking about 2016. Its very popular in the summer and especially more so with cheap gasoline.
If you mage shoulder season early June and September, you may have more choices. Being fairly far north and parts at high altitude the summer is relatively short. It is sort of like Summit County Colorado mid June to late August. Outside those periods it will go below freezing at night and possibly snow. Yellowstone phases in its closures from the last weekend of August to mid September with exception of the north entrance always open.

[kwhit24]

Right now we are looking at Mid August for our trip. Most likely there will be some touristy things that we will do like Old Faithful and just exploring downtown Jackson, however, I would like to try to get away from the really big crowds if possible. It's a little overwhelming with everything there is to do and I don't think we can really go wrong with any of them but I'm just trying to get input from others.

It would be awesome to summit a mountain or two there. Maybe South Teton since Middle and Grand seem pretty technical? On that same note, how do the hikes there relate to the 14ers here in Colorado? Any comparisons since I am much more familiar with the mountains here? Death Canyon seems like another good place to visit. Really no place is completely out of the question since I'll be driving up from Denver in my off road Ford Edge (it's a joke. just a joke) but I have taken it safely to Princeton and Antero trailheads.

[cougar]

Generally the approaches are longer and there's a lot more elevation gain in the Tetons compared to CO. I got an unreserved campsite in July just fine. Signal Mtn campground is nice. It was a big snow year - 10- 20 ft still on July 20 at 9000 ft, so I didn't summit anything. I did the Cascade Canyon and tried the Paintbrush loop but got turned back by snow. Still a good day

[Scott P]

Maybe South Teton since Middle and Grand seem pretty technical?

Middle is less technical than South.

On that same note, how do the hikes there relate to the 14ers here in Colorado?

Middle Teton is about as hard as the hardest Colorado 14ers, but the Grand Teton is harder than any Colorado 14er.

[lordhelmut]

You can do Middle and South Teton in a day from Lupine Meadows TH with relative ease, albeit a long day (lots of vert). Middle Teton is just a semi-loose class 3 gully, like an easier version of Hourglass on LB. Buck and Static are 2 mountains worth checking out as well. Table Mountain on the West side of the range, approached from the road in to Grand Targhee, has a trail all the way to the summit and what appears to be sweet views of the Tetons. Teewinot is 5 miles and 5500 feet, straight up from Lupine Meadows TH. The first 2 miles are on a steep trail then you reach treeline and have consistent class 4 for 2500 feet. Its the most sustained, enjoyable scrambling I've ever experienced. The views of the Grand might be the best in the range. I'd compare Teewinot to Pyramid, just a little more difficult and the crux section can give you a little bit of anxiety.

There is a decent amount of dispersed camping in the roads to the west of Gros Ventre Campground on the east side of 191 (called Antelope Flats). All the campgrounds seem to be completely GOBAR each time I've been up there, but there are tons of them, so maybe if you drive around long enough, you'll get lucky. On more than one occassion I've given up after looking for hours and pitched on a pulloff or just gotten the cheapest room I could find in town.

And Yellowstone, while viciously crowded, is worth the trip for a day, maybe even 2. Its a massive area with landscape unlike anywhere else.

[kwhit24]

Sounds like the Tetons are out of the question and I need to do more research into some of the easier peaks (that's why I ask this group). Im worried that the people with me wouldn't be able to handle the scrambling but they are dead-set on climbing something. I want to be smart and realistic about it. Even though I know I can handle Difficult Class 3/Class 4 type hike I wouldn't feel comfortable taking them. Is there anything comparable to a Class 2/3? Cascade Canyon looks awesome though and Yellowstone is definitely on the docket.

lordhelmut, what were some of your favorite spots in Yellowstone?

Are there any websites any of you have used to plan a trip out there before? Again, there are so many websites with so many suggestions but most are geared towards a family trip.

Thanks for all the help friends!

[Scott P]

Is there anything comparable to a Class 2/3?

Static Peak. The peak south of Paintbrush Divide as well. Table Mountain is good, but the standard route is on the other side of the range. You can however, climb Table Mountain from Hurricane Pass, which can be accessed from the east side of the park. It is class 2 from that direction if you stay west of the ridge north of Hurricane.

One good hike is to ride the tram up Rendezvous Mountain and hiking down one of many trails.

[lordhelmut]

I'm not a very good resource for Yellowstone ops. My friend and I tried to visit every major attraction or vista in 5 hours time, which turned into 10 hours time when all was said and done. Some stops, we'd park, sprint to a vista, take a picture and get back in car.

I really loved Yellowstone Falls though. Do both hikes where you see it from afar and from right atop.

[kwhit24]

I wanted to thank everyone for their input. We used a lot of it while planning out our trip this past week. I figured I would post a little trip report on here for anyone who might be thinking about a trip to the Grand Teton/Yellowstone/Jackson area. last chance for anyone who would like to avoid a lot of rambling about my trip

I left Denver after work on Tuesday a few hours work and packing up. Problem was after I made it to Pinedale I realized 191 was closed at the 191/189 junction because of a fire (The road was opened a couple days later). I was only an hour away but the detour took me 2 hours south on 189 to Kemmerer and up through Cokeville on 30, and along the Idaho/Wyoming border on 89 back to the northern 189/191 junction and into Jackson. After that fun 4 hour detour I finally picked up my friends in Jackson and we started on our way to Yellowstone for day 1.

Day 1: Yellowstone

- We came in the south entrance and headed right along Yellowstone Lake. Our first stop was at the Fishing Bridge mainly to get our of the car and see something. Next went pulled off at Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron which were both very interesting. We continued north towards Canyon Village but not before being slowed up by a few bison walking in the road. This is also the area where we saw the large herds of bison and elk running around the valley (probably one of my favorite moments of the trip). From there we headed the lower/upper falls area and got some amazing pictures of the waterfall there. Continueing north we went to Mount Washburn and the hiked up to the fire tower at 10,243' which gave great views of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Hike was pretty easy way to help acclimate my friends (little over 6.5 miles and 1,500 feet gain and definitely could be biked). Left Mt. Washburn at 8ish and exited the way we came in but along the way saw a lot more bison and elk just feet off the road. Very, very cool.

Day 2: Yellowstone Part Deux

- We had breakfast and rolled out of the condo at about 7 (too late; really tired from first day). We entered again from the South Entrance but went left this time when we got to West Thumb. We wanted to see some geysers so we stopped at the parking lot for Lone Start Geyser and started walking. We didnt know exactly where it was but it ended up being 5 miles RT but would've been much better with bikes because it is so flat. Lone Star goes off on average every 3ish hours and thankfully we got there 20 min before at went off. It "only" lasted for like 4-5 minutes but there were only like 30 people there. Next was Old Faithful which was understandably very packed but we made it there 45 min before it went off then booked it out of there to beat the crowds leaving. We continued north checking out some other basins and springs on our way up to Mammoth Hot Springs where we walked around a little but it was dry but still pretty cool. We left at about 6ish and since it didnt add any extra time back to the condo we left out of the West Entrance. Going this route back was very fun because we got to see the sunset on the west side of the tetons and went over Teton Pass back into Jackson. After one game of Euchre we were off to bed.

Day 3: Hike Middle Teton

- We woke up around 5am to get some breakfast and headed out to the Lupine Meadow TH. We started at 6:45 which was a little later than we wanted since weather was coming in around 2pm. The first 3.5ish miles are very easy to hike and the trail has a few rocks and switchbacks (Easy Class 2?). You really start to hit the boulder fields around 4ish miles but stay along the right side of the creek and you should be fine. The biggest advice we received from others on the trail and from other reports we ready was to stay in the gully until you reach the saddle. Don't turn up the right side until you can see Ice Flow lake on the other side of the saddle. After hiking along the ridge and past the flat area you start up the Southwest Couloir which is like 1,100 feet of really fun Class 3 scrambling (Class 2 through boulder/talus). The rock in the couloir is very, very loose so make sure to give yourself some space. We stayed on the right side for the first half and switched to the left side for the last push to the summit. Took 8 miles, little over 6,000' gain and 5 hours 48 minutes to reach the summit. I was very happy my lowlander friends were able to tough it out. 2 of which had no high elevation hiking but we took it slow and worked with the others in the couloir to navigate through. Thankfully the weather held out until we were coming back down the gully from the saddle. The weather literally split over the Teton area. Here another helpful report from a few years ago http://www.summitpost.org/climbing-the- ... oir/862136

Day 4 Friday: Whitewater Kayaking on the Snake River

- One of my friends used to live in Idaho Falls so we met up with a few of his friends to go kayaking. First we rented 2 double duckie kayaks and met at the West Table Boat Ramp and finished a few miles down the river at FR 31054. The river was very crowded with many guided big raft tours from what the Idaho Falls people told us who have been on this section multiple times. They told us it was an easier Class 3 whitewater rapids which was just right for us and we had a great time on the water especially after hiking and driving around the last 3 days. Afterwards we all met back in Jackson at Snake River Brewing to have some awesome brews and grub. We also went to Silver Dollar Bar at Wort Hotel with a little bit of live bluegrass music and then finished the night at Million Dollar Cowboy bar where we met some really fun people, played pool, and listened to some live country music.

Day 5 Last Day: Hike at Cascade Canyon

- Slept in because a few were a little hungover and then went to Pearl Street Bagels which was perfect for a quick, tasty breakfast. We then drove to the Jenny Lake parking lot which was already packed to the street so we decided to take the little boat trip to cut out 2.4 miles there and back. We hiked 5 miles from the boat dock to the Forks of Cascade Canyon. About halfway on this hike we saw to one animal on our list we hadn't seen yet. A moose and its calf! This hike also gives very cool view s of Teewinot and Mount Owen with Grand Teton in the background. After our hike we went to Hatch to have some really good tacos and beers. Then it was off into the Gros Ventre Wilderness to find a camping spot for the last night. I saw a few other of areas but they were either main campgrounds or dispersed sites that were taken. 20 miles outside of Jackson is where we found our spot by the creek. After some more bid Euchre, beers, and star gazing next to our fire we called it a night and finished off another amazing adventure.

If you are still reading this I hope it helps give some ideas for your next adventure out there. There we still many spots we didn't get to check out in Yellowstone. Primarily the northeast (Tower-Roosevelt) area but it is very tough to fit it all in in just 2 days. Even though I had read about the size of it, until you actually see it it is very tough to comprehend. Also, if I were to looking for dispersed camping areas again I might try further north near Moran but I haven't done any research on that. I just drove back to Denver from that direction after dropping my friends off at the airport Monday morning and thought I some good areas.

Thanks again for all the comments and I definitely can't wait to maybe go back for a ski trip to Jackson Hole this winter!!

[scottaskinger]

Great trip report kwhit24! I've been planning on YP/Tetons for a few years now and I think you just saved me about 10 hours of trip planning when I finally make it there. Glad that you had fun.

Scott