I had done a couple of two-day backpacking trips, but this time I had something more adventurous and bigger in mind. Then I asked myself, why not try a three-day backpacking trip in Grand Teton National Park and set myself a new benchmark (in terms of miles and difficulty level)? I knew the answer (obviously yes) even before asking this question to myself. I had heard a lot about this national park, its scenic views, amazing trails, and a lot more. So, I thought the best way to experience all of this is to hike there. 

Then Sumit and I came up with the idea of backpacking the Teton Crest Trail, which was about 40 miles point to point hike and was also fitting my new benchmark. Considering the time, 40 miles seemed a little too much, but after gathering some information and going over the trail map, we came up with the plan of cutting short the trail to 31 miles which seemed reasonable. I know you might be thinking, was I feeling guilty of cutting short the trail? Yes, a little bit but It was still meeting the requirements of my new benchmark. I would recommend you to have one more day to do the complete trail, trust me you won’t regret it.

All of us flew to Salt Lake City airport, which was the cheapest option to fly to from anywhere as compared to the other airports. And flying to Salt Lake City also allowed us to start this trip with an overnight road trip of around 5 hours to Jackson Hole which wasn’t a bad deal at all. After all, who doesn’t like road trips? We all jumped into the car and set the destination on maps to Jenny Lake Visitor Center. I know what are you going to ask, Jenny Lake Visitor Center instead of a hotel. Why? It’s all about walk-in permits my friend.

As per my findings, it was a better idea to reach a couple of hours before the Ranger Station at the Jenny Lake visitor center opens up to get in line for the walk-in permits. It was pitch dark when we arrived there at around 6 am and couldn’t see anyone out there. I was like yes now we can get the campsite permits as per our plan. But when we walked up to the Ranger Station, we could see five groups already lined up to get the walk-in permits. Did all of my early excitement of being the 1st group to reach there go down? Yes, but only for a few minutes then after talking to a couple of groups, I got my excitement back since their plan was slightly different from ours. Luckily, we were able to get the camping permits of our choice, which meant we could stick to our original itinerary without any modifications. 

I called that day (the day before the hike day) as the 0th day of our trip, which is either funny or stupid to say, I know. But the 0th day before the actual hike day is the most valuable day of your trip because you get ample time to take a rest, get the supplies for the trip, collect rental gear, explore the city around the national park, etc.  

Trip Itinerary:

• Trail: Teton Crest Trail 
• Distance: ~31 miles 
• Duration: 2.5 days & 2 nights
• Trip Dates: August 31st, 2019 – September 2nd, 2019
• Trail Start Point: Top of Rendezvous Mountain
• Trail End Point: Jenny Lake Visitor Center (exit via Cascade Canyon Trail) 
• Campsite Night -1 (August 31st): Death Canyon Shelf Group Campsite 
• Campsite Night -2 (September 1st): South Fork Cascade Group Campsite

Day-1 (August 31st):  Top of Rendezvous Mountain to Death Canyon Shelf Group Campsite, 11 miles

Finally, the day had come for which I was waiting so eagerly from the last couple of months. Was I ready to hit the trail with my squad? wait on… Why not start with a nice breakfast before disappearing from the civilization for three days? Then after breakfast, we drove straight to the Teton Village to take the Aerial Tram to get to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. While going up, which took about 9 minutes, we witnessed incredible views of the entire Jackson Hole Valley. There are other starting points also from where this hike can be started, Phillips Pass Trailhead is the start point outside the park from where this trail officially starts. But people do choose to start from other famous points as well, like the top of Rendezvous Mountain to bypass few miles of hike and some elevation gain or the Granite Canyon Trailhead from inside the park.

We started our hike from the top of Rendezvous Mountain at 10,450 ft, the trail was downhill for the first half of the day.

While heading towards Marion Lake, we saw a group of 3 people waiting on the trail and staring at something. Out of curiosity, Sumit and I took our Binoculars to see what’s going on out there…oh, boy! It was a moose, a big male moose. I got excited since this was our first wildlife spotting and that too in the early leg of the trail. And he was in no mood to leave our trail, he seemed to like the attention he was getting from all of us.

The other group in front of us showed some courage and started hiking off the trail to go past him, we also sort of started following them since we had already wasted a lot of time waiting for him to move. But as soon as we started going off the trail, moose started walking towards us, the other group was lucky enough to escape but unfortunately, we couldn’t. To be frank with you, we were very much prepared for bear encounters, but moose came out of the syllabus for us.

So, we waited and waited for some more time, then moose walked a little more and sat down behind the tree. Was this a trap or an opportunity for us? We took it as an opportunity, but also scanned the area to make sure to not walk into the trap. Just when we thought of getting back on the trail, I noticed another moose behind the same tree. “Surprise, surprise!” Two of us started hiking off the trail while others were keeping an eye on those two moose, then slowly others were also able to go past this early moose adventure. Phew!!!

Once you come out of these types of wildlife encounters, then that becomes a story worth sharing. Anyways, let’s get back to the hiking business. On hiking further and far from our friend moose who stopped us to say hello, we were treated by the beautiful Marion Lake and the lovely views around it. By then we had completed around 6 miles and were left with 5 more miles to reach our campsite. 

Few of us were getting a little exhausted, but these amazing views were keeping our energy level high, it was like a solar charging system to our body. Just kidding!!!

After capturing the moments at the Marion Lake, we started heading towards the Death Canyon Shelf to unveil its hidden views. The weather was hot but yes at least better than thunderstorms. I was expecting more of a cold-weather considering the other day at the Jackson Hole.  Hey, I’m not complaining, I’m just saying …!

On hiking for a few more hours, we reached our Death Canyon Shelf group campsite, and we met three nice folks at this campsite. We had a wonderful conversation with that group where we talked not just about hiking but also about college football games, I did share our moose story too! How can I not share that story of moose Vs us? (Ha-ha!) They were excited since it was their first backpacking trip that made me share our moose story with them.This is one thing which I really like about hiking or backpacking where you can talk to strangers with much ease as compared to the regular city life. 

We were greeted not only by the group we met but also by the beautiful sunset. It was like, the sun was waiting just for us before setting down. While enjoying the lovely view of the sunset, we also started setting up our tents. The best thing was, the water stream was right behind our campsite. It was like a cherry on top of the cake, Isn’t it? This was a good place to camp since the water source was right behind the campsite and also the food storage box was installed at the campsite to store your bear canisters or any other food/scented items.  

It was a treat to watch the sun setting behind the mountains and eat at the same time after a tiring day. In a matter of time, it had gone completely dark, where the stars took the charge to light up the sky in the absence of the sun. That was a purely magical moment!

Day-2 (September 1st): Death Canyon Shelf Group Campsite to South Fork Cascade Group Campsite, 12 miles

All righty!!! It felt like one of those lazy weekend mornings where I get to sleep for 11 hours on a stretch, but this time, instead of just waking up to the same daily room views, I woke up to a beautiful day with a clear sky witnessing the moment where the sun was playing a role in the start of the day by spreading its golden rays all around. On continuously looking at that view, I could see the sky turning into orangish and pinkish colors into my eyes. Aren’t these the perks of camping in the mountains?

My squad seemed fresh and well-rested which was needed to show some uphill hiking skills.

After hiking our way out of the Death Canyon Shelf with the stunning views in the background, we started hiking into the Jedediah Smith Wilderness of Caribou-Targhee National Forest towards Alaska Basin and Sunset Lake. Both of these weren’t part of Grand Teton National Park, they were a part of Jedediah Smith Wilderness.

It is allowed to camp anywhere in Alaska Basin and Sunset lake without overnight permits since they aren’t part of the Grand Teton National Park.

Alaska Basin was quite different from the part we hiked the other day, it had many trees, streams, large rocks and was also surrounded by the mountains which makes it one of the best places to camp.

It was really hard to just walk away and not enjoy the beauty of the Alaska Basin. So, we decided to spend some time near the stream in Alaska Basin and then spent some time looking at the Alaska Basin’s complete view after going past it. 

Then the hike was a steep ascent, we started climbing up the ridge in search of the sunset lake. After an hour of hiking, I was able to get a glimpse of the sunset lake and on reaching closer, I was completely awe-struck by seeing the amazing bluish colors of the sunset lake. The water was crystal clear, if I had more time I would have taken a dip in that lake, knowing I don’t know how to swim. (Ha-ha!) Trust me it was hard to just ignore that dip. You just can’t walk away from that lake.

Even after we started hiking towards the Hurricane Pass, I was still trying to get the last glimpse of the sunset Lake. I was mesmerized by the priceless views of the sunset lake and the mountains around it. Do you think, I was still thinking about taking that dip? (Ha-ha!) Well, you are right. 

Finally, we were going to see the Tetons up close from the top of the hurricane pass, but the hike over the hurricane pass wasn’t so easy, there was an elevation gain of around 1000 ft to reach the top of the hurricane pass. But then nobody likes it to be easy (easy stories are boring… Just Kidding!!!) and nothing great comes with easy!

We kept drinking water and taking short breaks to catch our breath while ascending towards the top. And in a matter of time without getting much trouble, we were at the top of the Hurricane Pass, witnessing the stunning views of the Tetons at the top. It was the highest point (10,400 ft) of the Teton Crest Trail. It was one of those dreams, where the mountain touches the sky!!!

I kept getting distracted by the wonderful Teton range while descending the Hurricane Pass towards the South Fork Cascade. Was I the only one getting distracted? Trust me, you will be too, It was hard to resist. Suddenly, the attention shifted from the Tetons to the beautiful Schoolroom Glacier and an awesome turquoise lake beneath it along with the great views of the Tetons. (Wow!)

The hike into the South Fork Cascade Canyon was a steep descent from the top of the hurricane pass with the offerings of waterfalls, trees, colorful flowers, and red berries. Did I say berries? Yes, and I know what’s going on in your mind right now (Berries => Bears), I had the same thought at that time.

Then I remembered the conversation Sumit had with our shuttle driver, and she asked us to be a little careful since the berries have started to come out which means, bears will be out in those areas. And this canyon looked just the perfect place for the bears to hangout.

We were still a couple of hours away from our campsite, then we started talking loudly and started making noises with our trekking poles in the areas we thought of running into a bear by surprise. This was done to warn him of our presence to avoid any surprise encounters. Luckily, we didn’t encounter any bears in that area, maybe they got alerted and ran away with the sounds we were making.  I would recommend you to make bears aware of your presence to avoid any surprise encounters.

As soon as we reached our campsite, we were hoping to see the same group of folks we met the other night. But the campsite was empty and there were no signs of any other camps nearby. After a while, a group came to the campsite asking if they can camp here for a night because they ran into a black bear a mile away from this campsite and didn’t want to take a risk of hiking further tonight. The more people the better it is!

We hiked through the same trail about 20 minutes ago, maybe the noises we were making helped us from the bear encounter which another group ran into. While writing this I thought, I wish I could have seen a bear too. Who doesn’t want to see a bear? (maybe from a safe distance)

This campsite’s location was perfect, it was surrounded by the mountains. Yet another day with a beautiful sunset where the sky was turning from golden or orangish colors to yellowish colors. Jealous of me? Go Backpacking!

We did the same drill as the previous night from setting up tents to getting the water and preparing dinner.

Then spent a good time talking to other backpackers on the campsite, it’s always fun to get to know the adventurous stories and experience of the other backpackers. 

Day-3 (September 2nd): South Fork Cascade Group Campsite to Jenny Lake, 8 miles

Into the final day of this trip, I was a little sad since it was our last day in the Grand Teton National Park, so we wanted to make the most of our last few miles on this amazing trail. The morning views were making up for the last day’s sadness, woke up to a beautiful view where the sun was blooming out of the sky like a flower and filling the sky with its orangish colors. It was also a treat to watch the sun spreading its rays onto the mountains. I didn’t want to leave this place!!! Please …! It was like begging my parents to let me play more when I was a kid. (Ha-ha!)

We witnessed some really beautiful water streams while hiking through the last leg of the South Cascade Canyon and then took the Cascade Canyon Trail to exit at the Jenny lake.

I wasn’t happy to take the Cascade Canyon Trail since we were missing out on the amazing Paintbrush Divide hike due to the less time. I would recommend you to have one more day or at least half a day more to go via Paintbrush Divide to Jenny lake. You will not regret this!

Cascade Canyon was also giving a tough competition to other scenic trails and their views. We also spotted a moose little far in the trees while hiking into the canyon. Just like Moose welcomed us in the beginning, this time he was there say good-bye to us. (It was like that hoarding which says Welcome to Grand Teton National Park and in the end Thank you for visiting us!)

On hiking further, I saw the inspiration point which took my breath away, the view from that point was mind-blowing. It was so peaceful out there, not so peaceful in terms of the crowd. I was referring to the peaceful nature where you can just get lost.

The trail started to get crowded as we were approaching the Jenny lake, there were a lot of day hikers and backpackers starting to hike.

When we were into the last mile of our trail, we stopped a few times to enjoy it to the fullest. Soon, we reached Jenny Lake, back to civilization. We were really lucky to have clear skies throughout our hike with the kindness of the weather. I was hoping if someone could take me back in time to those wonderful views.

All in all, it was an amazing experience hiking this trail. We were treated by the stunning views of mountains, that gentle pleasant sound of water flowing down the streams, the sun coming out of the mountains and then setting back behind the mountains. And also the view of the Tetons, the impressive bluish colors of the lakes and eye-catching wildflowers would continue to please me for a long time. I would rate this hike as one of the scenic hikes I have ever done.

That was my personal experience with the Teton Crest Trail. Here is some useful information to help you pack your bags right away for this trail.

Grand Teton National Park is located in Wyoming, south of Yellow stone national park and north of the town of Jackson Hole. This national park is famous for its wonderful mountains and wildlife. Jackson Hole is an ideal place to stay, which is closer to the Grand Teton National Park.

Airport Information:

There are three airports closest to the park: Jackson Hole Airport, Idaho Regional Falls Airport, and Salt Lake City International Airport. Salt Lake City airport is the cheapest of all airports to fly to from anywhere. 

Visitor Center Information:

• Jenny Lake Visitor Center, Moose, WY 83012.
• Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center, 1 Teton Park Rd, Moose, WY 83012.

Trailhead Options:

There are three ways this trail can be accessed: Philips Pass trailhead from outside the park, Granite Canyon trailhead from inside the park and the top of Rendezvous Mountain via aerial tram from Teton Village.

Camping Permits:

Both visitor centers can be used to collect online reserved permits or walk-in permits with some exceptions. I would suggest going to the Jenny Lake Visitor Center’s Ranger Station to get the walk-in permits. The overnight camping permits are mandatory for backcountry backpacking. Only1/3 of campsites are reserved online and the rest of the 2/3rd of camping sites are available for walk-in. Walk-in permits are not issued for same-day camping. Use these links to know more about backcountry camping and reservations: 

Link: https://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/bcres.htm , Link: https://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/back.htm

Food Storage:

Bear canisters are given at no extra cost at both the visitor centers along with the permits. Bear Canisters are very important while backpacking in the Grand Teton National Park. And also, there are campsites on Teton Crest Trail which have food storage boxes installed (can be used to store bear canisters), most of them are Group campsites. You can easily find the signboard with food storage while hiking and also can get information about it at Ranger Station or visitor centers. 

Aerial Tram:

This is only needed if the start point is top of Rendezvous Mountain, aerial tram takes you from Teton village to the top of Rendezvous Mountain in about 9 minutes. You can refer to their website for ticket prices. The online booking can save you $7 as compared to the tickets purchased at the counter. Link: https://www.jacksonhole.com/

Rental Gear Information:

• Teton backcountry rentals (https://tetonbcrentals.com/)– 565 N Cache St Unit 1, Jackson, WY 83001, Ph:307-828-1885 (rentals can be reserved online with no extra cost)
• Skinny Skis (http://skinnyskis.com/summer-rentals/)– 65 W. Deloney, Jackson, WY 83001, Ph:307-733-6094