We had something to take care of up in Driggs, Idaho  and decided to combine that trip with a little camping.

One of the features we like about the greater Salt Lake City metro area is its proximity to a lot of great outdoor destinations.  We joke that you are four hours from anything, but four hours from a lot of stuff.

We found a campsite at the Teton Canyon campground.  Must have been a cancellation.

The campground turned out to be ideally located for a couple things.  It is located close to Driggs and Alta, Wyoming, but far enough away to feel like camping.  It is a “primitive” campground, there are bathroom facilities and water.  But not much else.

But the main attraction appears to be that the campground is located close to a few popular trailheads that are essentially the backdoor into the Teton Crest trail system and Grand Teton National Park.

We did two hikes.

On the first day, we drove in and had a bit of a later start than hoped, but did part of the Table Mountain Loop trail.  

We did not go all the way to the summit.  Instead, we just did the loop part.  I would like to tell you that it was a time constraint.  However, that trail is no joke.  We did about 3,000 vertical feet, and there was another 1,000 to the summit.  And our elevation gain was essentially over 3 miles.

Those are the Tetons in the background.

On the second day, we did a shorter hike down the South Teton trail to just past the turn off to go up to Hurricane Pass.

We will definitely be back. We are eyeing either the hike up to Hurricane Pass and the Schoolroom Glacier or continuing on the South Teton trail into the Alaska Basin.

Check out a few prior missions:

• Lambs Canyon
• Yellowstone National Park
• Grand Teton National Park
• Gable Oak Trail

Lamb’s Canyon is between Park City and Salt Lake City; just off of Interstate 80.  I had been wanting to explore the area for a while.  We stopped off at the exit once in April coming back from SLC, but it was still pretty snowy, the season gate to the road was still locked, and we were not prepared for a long hike.

But we took advantage of a little extra time during the long fourth of July weekend to plan and do a hike in Lamb’s Canyon.

At this point in the season, the gate is open so you can drive all the way into the trailhead.  The trailhead is well marked, has restrooms, but fairly limited parking.  I saw several cyclists on the road, so that might be something I have to check out at some point.

The weather has been hot and it seemed like many folks started early.  However, we only saw a handful of folks on the trail, so the hike gets a good marks for being low traffic.  We did see a few trail runners, and some lady on an e-bike (boo).  The Lambs Canyon Trail is in good shape, although there are several downed trees across the trail.  The trail is reasonably shaded.  And there were lots of pretty wildflowers.

Here are the stats on our ascent:

Over two thousand feet in just under three miles is no joke.  And it was a pretty steady ascent, so be prepared.  On All Trails, the hike was rated as Moderate.  I would rate it as Moderate Plus for sure, maybe even Difficult.

Our goal was to turn off and head out to Millvue Peak.  Although the actual Lambs Canyon Trail continues straight.  But the trail once you leave the Lambs Canyon Trail and turn left toward Millvue peak was pretty overgrown at this point in the season, still had some fairly serious elevation gain, and we were feeling a bit low energy, so we picked a lunch spot looking at Gobbler’s Knob and turned around.

I think we will try to come back and attempt the hike again in the Fall when the weather is cooler, there are less bugs, and maybe some of the vegetation has subsided.  

We spent the last two weekends camping in Grand Teton N.P.  Here are some highlights.

Campground:  

We stayed at the Signal Mountain Campground in sites #69 and #68 for the two weekends.  The campground itself is moving toward the north part of the park, but not quite all the way up to Colter Bay.  The location is off of Teton Park Rd. and is right on Jackson Lake.

The two sites we stayed at where both in the “generator free” zone.  Theoretically, there is a vehicle size limit in the campground as well, but that did not seem well enforced.  

Both sites had private paths down to the lake, which was key.  We preferred #68 vs. #69, since the site had more space for your tent, etc.  Site #69 is better for small RVs that do not need a tent.

Hikes:  

We did six hikes.  Here they are in my order of preference:

1. Cascade Canyon – This was a great hike.  We opted for the (fairly expensive) boat ride across Jenny Lake.  And once we cleared most the folks who stopped at inspiration point – other hikers thinned out considerably.  We went up the North Fork of the trail for about another half mile or so and found a good lunch spot.  The views were amazing.  We want to come back and try to make it all the way to Solitude Lake, but need an earlier start.

2. Hermitage Point – This was pretty long hike (~9 miles), but the views were worth it and the traffic was surprising low.  We had an awesome lunch spot all to ourselves.  I would suggest hiking clockwise.  The opposite direction we hiked, but you would get better views of the mountains.  

3. Woodland and Lake Creek Trail – We did this hike on our way out of the park on our last Sunday.  The trailhead is in Laurence S. Rockefeller Preserve, which is a cool story and worth researching.  The hike is short (~3 miles) and easy, but nice.  Traffic was not bad, despite being close to Jackson, due to limiting cars in the parking lot (no overflow parking on the road allowed).  We waited a bit for a spot, but it was worth it.

4. Taggart Lake – We did this hike heading out of the park on Sunday of our first weekend.  Since we had to break camp, we got a bit of a late start and the trailhead was packed with substantial overflow of cars onto the shoulder of the road.  Despite all the other hikers, this was a pretty enjoyable hike and we snagged a great lunch spot on a rock in the lake.  The hike was ~4 miles and pretty easy.

5. Grand View Point / Two Ocean Lake / Emma Matilda Lake complex – We affectionately called this one Daddy’s Death March.  One, the parking lot is not where the book said it was going to be, so we added another 1.5 miles or so on unexpectedly.  Two, it was hot.  Three, we wove a few trails together, so my family was convinced we were lost, while I on the other hand knew we were in Wyoming the entire time.  In all seriousness, I think we would have liked this hike better if it had been cooler and we had saved ourselves some mileage at the beginning.  I think we hiked ~11 miles.  These trails are toward the north side of the park and away from the mountains, so much lower traffic.  And I did particularly enjoy the trail segment between Emma Matilda and Two Ocean Lake, which we walked heading westerly and were staring at the mountains the whole time.  We did see three separate piles of bear scat, so bring our bear bell and spray.

6. Signal Mountain Summit – This was our first hike of our first weekend and it disappointed.  The view at the top was marginal.  The hike itself – while low traffic – was not that great.  A plus was the trailhead was at our campground.

We used Hiking Grand Teton National Park by Bill Schneider as a reference and it was worth it.

Other Thoughts:

A few other thoughts – aside from the park is phenomenally beautiful and we had two great weekends.

On the Cascade Canyon hike, I was pretty surprised at how many folks we saw venturing fairly far up that trail that were totally unprepared for any change in conditions.  Think shorts, tshirts, poor footwear, and little to no water or food.  We live in a mountain environment.  The weather folks are mostly guessing and they are wrong a lot.  Be prepared.

The first weekend was very busy.  Jackson looked super busy – we just drove through it.  Some of that was a hangover from Memorial Day weekend, but I would be prepared for lots of traffic and some long lines.

Our annual National Park pass continues to pay for itself.  We bought ours at REI.

We live at about 6,700’ so the altitude was not an issue.  That was about the base of most hikes.

We went on a ski trip on March 14th, 2020.  It turns out, the timing of the trip left a little to be desired.  Or maybe, everything happens for a reason.  What do I know?

Despite the rapidly deteriorating situation related to the COVID global pandemic, we decided to go ahead and fly out to Utah to meet some friends for Spring Break in Park City.  We took precautions.  We wore masks and gloves, washed our hands, etc.  People looked at us like we were aliens.  N95 was not in the general lexicon yet.

We skied half a day at Park City Mountain Resort.  Then the world shut down.  In response, the Vail Company closed all their ski resorts.

In hindsight, I commend the Vail Company for making that decision in order to protect the ski towns in which they operate.  At the time, I was pissed off.  So we did what any conscientious citizens would do.  We drove up to Snowbasin the next day – along with two thirds of Utah – and skied our last inbounds day of the year.

We returned to Park City that evening.  Most folks – including our friends from Florida – fled back to their hometowns.  The entire town emptied.  

On the home front, work went remote.  School went remote.  Toilet paper became scarce.

Mrs. SFTE and I looked at each other.  And collectively said, why go back to Ohio?  We’re on vacation.  Besides what are we going to do in Ohio anyway?  The last question isn’t necessarily pandemic related.

At the end of the week, we called Delta and pushed our return flight back to Columbus out a bit.  We called the vacation rental place.  Yes, we could stay in our space.  In fact, we could pick any place in the whole complex we wanted.  We upsized.  

Another week went by.  I found a bigger place in lower Deer Valley with an office loft, hot tub, and refrigerator that cost more than my car.  Yes, the owner would be glad to do a long term rental.  She would send me an invoice through PayPal (sorry AirBnb, I still think you are beautiful unicorn).  

We had Deer Valley to ourselves.  We walked up Solamere Drive every night.  Through neighborhoods of multi-million dollar houses – totally empty.  We bought snowshoes.  We demoed touring gear.  The ski patrol shack at the top of PCMR was an eerie reminder – like an archaeological site where the inhabitants just disappeared without a trace – tools and belongings left perfectly undisturbed.

The snow started melting.  We walked more.  I broke down and ordered some running shoes.  The trails dried.  We became best friends with the folks at Park City Bike Demos.  Turns out that board shorts over base layers is a perfectly good riding option.  

We did laundry frequently.  In May, I doubled my clothing options by ordering a pair of pants and a shirt from Stio.

Finally in June, we headed back to Ohio.  We had to.  Our lease was ending.   And we thought it was a good idea to get my wife’s car out of airport parking.  It actually started.

We had to get our stuff. Stuff that we had done without for three months.  Stuff we had nearly forgotten about.  It was sort of like a bizarre Christmas morning when we got home.  We stepped back into the life we had left almost four months earlier, and sort of no longer existed.  

Dress shirts sitting in a dry cleaning bag (they’re still in that bag – but moved to a new house).  Dress shirts worn to an office that was no longer open for business.  In a dry cleaning bag for a dry cleaner that I hope had long ago stopped coming by the house looking for a pickup.

We were almost overwhelmed by our own stuff.  After three months of just a few pieces of clothing, we had closets full of stuff.  I only had two t-shirts on my trip.  Generally, one was clean, one was dirty.  Easy choice.  Now I had to choose between twenty.  Socks.  Oh my god.  On my trip, I had three pairs of non ski socks.  At home, three drawers full.  Shoes.  On my trip, one pair of snow boots and my newly acquired running shoes.  At home, I could wear a different pair every day for weeks without repeating.  Why?  Why do we have all this stuff?

Packing for a week long ski trip, but staying for three months, really opened our eyes to how little of our stuff we really need or actually miss.