Grand Teton National Park (1992)
We’d hiked through various parts of Grand Tetons National Park for a few days and decided to wrap things up with an easy route to see the renowned Hidden Falls (map). We’d stayed away from them intentionally because of the crowds and our desire for a little more solitude. Even that day we’d already hiked more than ten miles so we weren’t in much of a mood to pile on more.
The easy way would have been to take the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake, with only a 1.2 mile round-trip hike. No, apparently we weren’t doing anything the easy way this trip. Instead, we walked around Jenny Lake to make it a 5.2 mile round-trip. We were mostly by ourselves on that portion of the trek but with shuttles running at regular intervals, we joined the crowds at the boat ramp on the western edge of the lake. It wasn’t a particularly challenging hike even though we’d compiled a few miles earlier in the day. It takes about three hours with 550 total feet of climbing.
The reward of course, and the reason this is such a popular stretch of trail, is the spectacle of Hidden Falls. Water cascades down the hillside in a drop of perhaps eighty to a hundred feet. It’s a beautiful fall in an equally beautiful setting and worth the hassle of the crowds leading up to it.
Readers who have an interest in waterfalls might also want to check my Waterfalls Index page.
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