Saturday, September 17, 2011

tetons escape

Over Labor Day, we left Yellowstone and headed south to the Tetons. We snagged a campsite at Signal Mountain,


and then headed to the Leigh Lake TH.


While Steve fished String Lake,


I cooled my feet in the clear water.


We woke up early the next morning and watched the sun rise over the mountains at Owbow Bend.


After a big breakfast, we headed to the Lupine Meadows trail head. Near the TH was a cow moose, not impressed by the noisy sandhill cranes nearby interrupting her breakfast.


There were more cars at TH parking lot than I've ever seen before starting hike. We started the climb up to Amphitheater and Surprise, two lakes, to quote Steve, "without fish."



The trail gains 3,000 feet in elevation over 4 miles, and we had great views of the valley below us as we climbed. There was a lot of haze and smoke hanging over the valley due to a fire burning nearby.


As we wound our way up the trail we discovered that we weren't alone--a black bear decided to jump on the trail in front of us, going on its way for several minutes before finally deciding to cede the trail to us and head off into the trees.


We finally made it to the first lake,



and, if possible, the second lake was even more beautiful.



Though as Steve pointed out again, neither lake had any fish in them.

Coming down, the heat of the day burned the smoke and haze off, and we had clear views of the lakes below.


10.5 miles later we were back at the car, headed home.


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