Just before arriving at the Moose visitor's center we stopped at a Snake River vista point...
We got up at 4am, and were on the road at 5am. I drove the whole way up, and we started listening to an audio book of "Restaurant at the end of the Universe", but ended up switching to the audio book, "Treasure Box", by Orsen Scott Card, which proved to be more stimulating. Wendy ate all but one piece of a frozen pizza on the way, and I snacked on pretzels. The time passed well, given the entertaining scenery outside, and story in the car, and we were at Moose Visitor center at Grand Teton Nat Park around noon.
Just before arriving at the Moose visitor's center we stopped at a Snake River vista point...
We had to wait 10-15 minutes in line to get back-country permits. We picked sites that would allow us to do a 3 day, 29.7 mile trek, with an optional 4th day on a side-trip. I asked the ranger how the snow was, and if we needed ice axes (we brought ours this year). She said that the summer melting was a month ahead of schedule, and that there was no need for ice axes. This was good news. We also got info on a taxi service, as we'd be finishing our hike ~18 miles north from we'd be parking the car at our starting trailhead.
We ate lunch at a picnic table outside the visitor center, and then drove down a narrow, windy road, which became unpaved after a few miles, to Granite Canyon trailhead. We drove by the Death Canyon trailhead, where we began our hike 2 years ago. We loaded up on sunscreen, changed into our hiking boots, grabbed our already prepared packs, and began the hike at 1:39pm.
Granite Canyon Trailhead. There was piece of paper pinned to the board dated 7/4/07 that said, "mother bear and cub spotted 2 miles up Granite Valley trail"...
The trail was flat for a good .5 miles, and crossed some grassland before hitting a forest, still before the canyon opening.
Granite Canyon's opening lay beyound the trees in the center of the picture, 1.7 miles from the parking lot...
We met some people on the trail, 15 minutes into the hike who said they saw a bear cub about a mile up the trail. This was good news, since it sounded like the bear sightings were closer to the trailhead, and we planned to be hiking 7 miles in before camping. While we hiked we made noise every so often to avoid sneaking up on a bear, and it must have worked, as we didn't run into a bear in this area.
At 1.7 miles in, we took the Granite Valley trail, which gradually rose into the open canyon. The trail followed a stream exiting out of the canyon.
This stream (lower left) was much less impressive compared to the stream in Death Canyon, which we hiked up last time, but still pretty...
Not too far up the canyon, during a bear scan of the surroundings, I saw a moose. We saw a moose at the beginning of death canyon last time, so must be moose like the woods near the bottom of these canyons.
No antlers on this moose. They are huge horse like animals. Their muzzles are very long...
We hiked the 4.7 mile stretch of the lower Granite Canyon. It was a pleasant hike, though not as impressive as the lower portion of the Death Canyon. The surrounding cliffs here were much shorter, and the stream was more gentle. But it was still pretty and enjoyable, and had plenty of flowers.
A look back as a meadow opens in the canyon. Everything was bright green, though it was noticeably dry on the trail...
A brown creek curves through the grass, further up the canyon...
Just a sampling of the plethora of flowers that would lie ahead on our hike...
As we got to the branch in the trail for the Upper Granite Canyon trail, dark clouds to the south began dropping scattered raindrops. But as we walked towards the northwest, the sun and clear sky was still bright in our eyes. Upper Granite Canyon was are camping destination, and we hiked on amid the light rain for another mile or so, and settled on a campsite off the trail, near the stream.
With dark clouds sprinkling us from behind, we found a campsite up and around this bend...
By the time we set up the tent, it was 7:30. The rain never got serious, though we donned our ponchos, and hid our packs under the tent's vestibules. We scouted up the stream for areas to hang a bear bag, and cook, and all of a sudden, and baby fawn sprang out of the grass just 10 feet away and bounded off. We must have awoken it. It gave us a jump.
We found a spot down stream to cook our dehydrated meals (spaghetti w/ meatballs for Wendy, Jamaican chicken w/ rice for me), and then set up a the bear bag. It's a counter-balance method, where you hang 2 bags on a high tree branch. It's hard to do well. The tree branch sagged, and I could just touch the bottom of one of the bags from my tiptoes, but it was good enough for me.
Our tent, nestled under the trees...
Wendy proudly showing off the bear bags hanging from a branch...
We were exhausted from the early start of the day, and drive, and 7.5 mile hike (~2100' gain), and were ready for bed shortly after 9pm. Sunset at the Tetons was 9:08pm, and I went out to take a picture of the colorful sky from outside the tent.
This pic was taken at 9:10pm, shortly before we turned in for the night...
It was so easy to fall asleep that night. And I woke up maybe 4 times throughout the night, and always fell back to sleep quickly. The temps cooled down into the 40s, and the wind was negligible. The roaring white noise of the nearby stream was peaceful.