7/28/13 The first day covered about 11.5 miles starting at Rendevous Mtn, passing Marion Lake, then Granite Canyon, and ending on the Death Canyon Shelf. It was a day of expansive alpine views, a thunderstorm, and an amazing campsite.
1 Another view from the top of Rendevous Mtn. There are patches of snow everywhere, some of which evidently last year round.
2 Start of Day 1. I drove my rental car up to Jenny Lake (my ending trailhead four days later) and took a taxi back down to Teton Village to take the tram up to the starting trailhead. The tram goes to the top of Rendevous Mtn at 10,450'. Normally I refuse to cheat by taking a tram, but in this case gaining 4,000' in 15 minutes saved me an entire day of backpacking. Next time, if I have an extra day, I may start at the bottom and come up either Death or Granite Canyon. It's a mass of tourists here at the top, but 95% of them never leave the lookout spot.
3
4 A look down at Jackson Hole valley from Rendevous Mtn.
5 The views are amazing from the top. This is the first of many, many pictures that just utterly fail to capture the vastness of the landscape. These valleys that look shallow here are actually two to three thousand feet deep!
6 Officially entering Grand Teton National Park.
7 Amazing palisades and rock formations everywhere. It reminds me of a green Grand Canyon.
8 Miles of beautiful single track through alpine meadows.
9 The trail dips down into lush pine forests from time to time. I would get worried about grizzly bear encounters in the denser areas of the forest, but fortunately I had bear spray on my hip and a bear bell on my trekking pole.
10 Constant views of huge green meadows full of wildflowers with mountains in the distance.
11 Starting to see more and more wildflowers in the meadows.
12 Made it the junction with the actual Teton Crest Trail. Here you see all my gear. I ended up right around 40lbs for my pack, which is about the most my Osprey Atmos 65L could handle. Fortunately, most of my gear is ultra-light, otherwise I would probably have been closer to 50lbs. Packing solo definitely adds weight!
13 Tons of water up here, even in late summer of a dry year. Also, looks like some weather coming-in.
14 Very near the top of the tree line. The pine trees give way to alpine meadows.
15 A panorama view of the snow speckled meadows along the tree line below the palisades.
16 Further above the treeline, the meadows give way to almost desert-like alpine terrain. The trail on Day 1 was rolling most of the way, climbing above the treeline, and then dipping back below.
17 Back above the treeline and increasingly into wildflower country.
18 Interesting glacier carved rock everywhere.
19 Again, an amazingly flat picture of an expansive view. Colorful meadows falling into Granite Canyon.
20 Made it to Marion Lake, my first major waypoint, about 7 miles from the trailhead. It's a small but beautiful alpine lake. I thought it would be crowded here given that it's reachable as a day hike from the tram. But I'm the only human here.
21 The lake is crystal clear.
22 I may be the only human, but there are plenty of marmots.
23 I eat a quick lunch, filter enough water from the lake to last the rest of the day, and then head out. Here looking back at the lake.
24 One more departing view of the lake.
25 More cool cliffs along with snow fields that seem to stick around in unusal spots.
26 The Teton Crest Trail actually leaves Teton National Park in a few places. Here entering the Jedediah Smith Wilderness for a while.
27 My first view of the Grand Teton from the backcountry. Crazy to think I will actually be hiking past it and wrapping around it to the North over the next few days.
28 I always hear about "wildflower season", but wildflowers in California just don't compare to this. There aren't just patches of them, there are huge meadows of them. And they come in very patrotic colors too!
29 I do mean huge meadows of them! I feel like singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music..."
30 Approaching Death Canyon Shelf, which will be my sleeping spot for Night 1.
31 Crazy rock formations everywhere.
32 I'm making good progress through this relatively flat section of trail. Here looking back at the rock formation from the previous picture.
33 A good look at the Death Canyon Shelf. The shelf is maybe a couple hundred yards wide. It's part of the way down the wall of Death Canyon with sheer cliff faces both above and below.
34 Looking down Open Canyon just South of Death Canyon.
35 I made it to the Death Canyon Shelf backcountry camping zone. The zone is almost five miles long with no marked sites. While you're supposed to reuse previously used pads when possible, you are free to camp anywhere in the five mile zone. And they only issue something like 10-12 permits per night for the entire zone. Definitely not like crowded car camping! Of course, the idea of sleeping solo a half mile away from the nearest human can be very unnerving...
36 The trail along the Shelf.
37 A look along the Shelf with Death Canyon to the right and the Grand Teton in the distance.
38 A look at the cliffs above the Shelf. Shortly after taking this picture, I got hit by a nasty afternoon thunderstorm with pouring rain and howling winds. I wanted to get towards the end of the camping zone in order to shorten my distance for the next day, so I hiked through the rain for as long as I could. Not knowing how long the rain would last though, I got worried about not getting camp setup before dark, so I picked a spot and called it a day.
39 A panorama view of the cliffs above the Shelf.
40 For surviving the rain, I was rewarded with a beautiful rainbow over Death Canyon.
41 I had to pitch tent in the rain, but managed to get a petty nice setup. I'm nestled in a small group of trees about 10-15' from the edge of the Shelf and the dropoff into the canyon below. Probably not a good spot if you're a sleepwalker!
42 A late afternoon look down Death Canyon. The picture just doesn't even come close. This canyon is almost 3,000' feet deep. Standing here in person has much the same awe inspiring feeling as standing at Inspiration Point in Yosemite Valley.
43 An early evening view of the shelf, the canyon below, and the Grand Teton in the distance.
44 A look the other direction towards Fox Creek Pass along the shelf.
45 One last picture of Death Canyon before the sun starts getting low.
46 Café Sohl. My dinner spot on Night 1 right at the edge of Death Canyon. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to car camping.