Teton Crest Trail
The Teton Crest Trail is regarded for many as a top ten backpacking trip, and many think it falls in the top three. Living in the area now for almost 4 years I have thought about doing it, but year after year it stays unticked from my bucket list of Teton trips.
Back in February I emailed a buddy from college to see if he would be interested in going on a 4 day, 3 night trek in September. We opted for September because if you do your research you will read about how bad the bugs can be from June through July. August is prime time to do this but I thought there would be a lot of people doing it and the permit process, 24 hour notice, would be tough to deal with.
The day came and my friend flew in for the trip and we nailed down the trip itinerary to taking the tram up from JHMR and hiking out through Paintbrush Canyon. In total it would take us 3 days and 2 nights, and roughly 40 miles of hiking.
We got incredibly lucky on timing. The week before the smoke was so bad that you could not see anything but a storm rolled through for a couple of days and dissipated all of that. The clincher, it was starting to go from Summer to Fall in the Tetons, a time of year that is short and not a lot of people get to experience.
Below is the photo story of the trip.
Day 1, the hike-in and camp at Death Canyon Shelf:
The start of the day after dropping down from Rendezvous Peak
Marion Lake
Marion Lake just from afar
First sight of the Tetons
We had visitors on our second morning
The views from where we camped
Mt Meek
Getting closer to the Tetons
Sunset Lake
Grand, Middle and South Tetons
Day 3, hiking out through Paintbrush Canyon
Nearing the top of Paintbrush Divide, Lake Solitude below
Looking down Paintbrush Canyon from top of the divide
Mt Woodring
Looking into Cascade Canyon after being done
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