Den & Kath's Vacation
'99 - Day 3
See
the map
Taskmaster
Kathleen rolled me out of bed bright and early on Tuesday to get out hiking.
We decided to hike Cascade Canyon from the Jenny Lake trailhead. Along the
way we had time to stop and shoot a couple of pictures at the Jackson Lake
Marina. Driving from the campground to Jenny Lake, we came upon a traffic jam,
which was a sure indication that there was wildlife near the road. We managed
to squeeze into a turnout on the road (a concept many of our fellow campers
had trouble with) and walked back to see a cow and calf moose feeding only
40 yards off the road. I immediately started snapping photos while the moose
were still deep in the brush. We sat amongst the crowd watching them for some
time, and our patience was rewarded when they grazed their way out of the brush
and into the sunlight. As was to be the case too many times throughout our
trip, we were both disappointed to hear remarks such as "Oh, it's just
a moose, we've already seen one of them" from people around us.
From
the Jenny Lake Visitor Center, we took a boat ride across Jenny Lake to the
Cascade Canyon trailhead. In addition to offering a great view, the boat ride
saved us 2 miles of walking on what would come to be our longest hike of the
trip. The hike started out with a quick climb to Inspiration Point. Along the
way, we saw several climbers, both on the mountains and taking lessons along
the trail from Exum Mountain Guides,
a well-known guide service and climbing school. Once we got past Inspiration
Point (which was inspiring by the way), we got away from the casual hikers
and the crowd thinned considerably. Though the trail climbed continuously from
Inspiration Point, it was a fairly gentle incline.
When
we got about 3 miles up the canyon, we stopped for a trail lunch of chewy granola
and apples. The view down the canyon was just amazing - while the canyon was
at about 7,000' altitude, the surrounding peaks were all 11,000' or better.
We passed an avalance area along the way. We were both shocked to see two-foot
tree trunks snapped off like toothpicks in an area about 300 yards wide and
a couple thousand feet down the mountainside. It was clear how much work the
National Park Service had done to clear the trail. The thought of having to
carry chainsaws and other equipment to a spot like that made our hike seem
lots easier!
Another
mile up the canyon and it was time to head back. Neither of us could bear the
thought of missing the last boat of the day and having to walk an extra two
miles to the truck. On the hike back down the canyon we met a number of people
who told us there were a cow and calf moose on the trail ahead. We had the
camera at the ready, but didn't see the two moose. We finally met someone that
told us there was a bull moose ahead. We soon spotted the bull near the trail
and got a couple of good pictures. We then saw a woman and two young boys coming
up the trail. After pointing out the moose, we moved on, assuming that the
noise these people were making would scare the moose away. We stopped a few
yards down the trail to put the camera into the backpack only to see the woman
walking off the trail towards the moose. I walked back to let her know how
dangerous it was to approach a wild animal like that. She followed me back
to the trail, but by the time I walked back to Kathleen she was heading towards
the moose again. This time the moose corrected the woman by running in her
general direction. Judging by the way she and the boys were giggling, we suspect
she still doesn't realize the power of wildlife.
We
finally made it back to the boat dock, and had to join a line of people waiting
for boats. We were thrilled to finally get on the fourth boat and make it back
to the Visitor Center, with cool running water (we had used up the last of
our water on the trip down the mountain). We had to spend some time at camp
recovering from the walk, but did manage to get out in time to see an incredible
sunset from Signal Mountain.
Go
to Day 4
Return
to Vacation '99 Home Page
See
our site comments here! Please feel free to contribute your own comments.
Sign
up for our mailing list here to be notified of updates and new pages.
All images and
text ©1999 Dennis & Kathleen Deery
Taskmaster
Kathleen rolled me out of bed bright and early on Tuesday to get out hiking.
We decided to hike Cascade Canyon from the Jenny Lake trailhead. Along the
way we had time to stop and shoot a couple of pictures at the Jackson Lake
Marina. Driving from the campground to Jenny Lake, we came upon a traffic jam,
which was a sure indication that there was wildlife near the road. We managed
to squeeze into a turnout on the road (a concept many of our fellow campers
had trouble with) and walked back to see a cow and calf moose feeding only
40 yards off the road. I immediately started snapping photos while the moose
were still deep in the brush. We sat amongst the crowd watching them for some
time, and our patience was rewarded when they grazed their way out of the brush
and into the sunlight. As was to be the case too many times throughout our
trip, we were both disappointed to hear remarks such as "Oh, it's just
a moose, we've already seen one of them" from people around us.
