Category Archives: Cascade Canyon Trailhead

Floating down the Snake River

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It took three cars!

After hiking we decided to take a kayak float down the Snake River.  Jane and Ron each had their own kayak and John and I were going in John’s kayak.  We were all getting in a the Dam at Jackson Lake.  The plan was for John and I to float down to Pacific Creek and get out there.  Jane and Ron who are more experienced kayakers would then continue on down to Deadman’s and exit the river there.

That’s where the confusion starts.  Jane and Ron drove their car with their kayaks down to the dam where they unloaded them.  Ron stayed there to watch the kayaks.  John and I both drove our cars to Dead Man’s.  Then Jane drove from the dam to Dead Man’s where she left her car.  She hopped in John’s car and I followed him to Pacific Creek where I left my car.  Then off in John’s car to the dam where we started our float.

Here we are at the dam.

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All these pics were taken by Jane as she has a waterproof camera.  I didn’t want to take the chance of ruining mine.  I guess a waterproof camera is on my wish list when I get to Amazon this winter.

You hardly have to paddle at all since the current carries you downstream.  You don’t even realize how fast you are going until you look at the bank.  Very cool!

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Spotted a bald eagle!

We were really fortunate to spot a bald eagle.  It caught a fish and took it back to it’s nest just next to the river.  Then it proceeded to feed it’s young.  We couldn’t see the babies but we could tell it was feeding them.  That was really an amazing experience.

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This is a pic of John and I watching the bald eagle in it’s nest.

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Ron brought his fishing pole with him and did some fishing while floating downstream.  He did catch a small fish but threw it back in.

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We estimated we floated about 5 miles and then got out at Pacific Creek.  What a great time we had.  Jane and Ron floated further down to Dead Man’s which took another 2 hours.  It was a perfect day to float down this beautiful river.

On the way back to the campground we took the inner road through Grand Teton NP.  It had spectacular views of the mountains.

 

Hiking to Inspiration Point

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Took the ferry across Jenny Lake

Jane suggested we hike up to Inspiration Point, so Jane, Linda, Tony and myself left early to head on over to Jenny Lake.  We hopped on the ferry there which took us to the trailhead.  It is a steep trail for the first .7 of a mile as it has an elevation gain of 417 feet.

We saw this waterfall going up the trail.

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We stopped for a break before hitting the top where I took this pic of my hiking companions Jane, Linda and Tony.

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No wildlife but lots of beautiful scenery

This next pic shows the trail we have come up thus far.  However we are still not at Inspiration Point.

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In this next pic you can see the ferry landing at the boat dock.  We will end the trail at the same boat dock to go back across the lake.

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Now we are on the Cascade Canyon trail that leads way back into a canyon between the beautiful mountains.

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This is a pic of the trail.  It was mostly flat and not difficult at this point.

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We ran across a large pond and were hopping to see some moose drinking.  There were a lot of people on the trail at different times and it must have scared all the wildlife away.  Luckily we did not come upon a bear, but we were all equipped with bear spray just in case.

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Jane and Tony are much faster hikers so they decided to go ahead down the trail while Linda and I set our own pace.  We did run into several hikers with large backpacks that had spent the night way up on the mountain.  We could see many different waterfalls all along the trail.

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There were also several pics of the creek that we followed.

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This was a great experience.  Of course we had to hike back and down the same elevation gain that we came up.  It was almost more difficult climbing done then it was going up as there were many people making the climb up.  We then got on the ferry for the ride back across Jenny Lake.  Then Linda and I went to Dornans at Moose Junction for a much needed pitcher of water and a pizza and sandwich.  It turned out to be a great day.  We hiked 8.6 miles over hill and dale (HA!) and saw some great scenery.  Not too shabby for an old fart like me.