Monday 9/19/22 Hiking String Lake Loop

 

Grand Teton National Park

We woke up to another cool morning with the temperature in the 30s. The difference was there were no clouds. 

I crawled out of bed and Larry was bundled up under a blanket in front of the heater. I asked him if he was cold, he said just a little. It was 63 degrees in the living area of the Minnie. I got dressed and made pancakes. I'm so glad to have a stove because we can't run a generator in our loop. 

After breakfast we got the Minnie ready to go to our next hiking adventure. It was 7 miles away. Once everything was secured we left our site. We drove the main road to the road where the trailhead was. Larry looked at the road and said no way. It wasn't RV friendly. So we changed our plans, we decided to go to Jenny Lake area which was about 20 miles down the road. 

The ride to Jenny Lake was beautiful. We had a clear morning so you could get great pictures of the Teton Mountain Range. We pulled off at a overlook area and I took pictures. 

Jenny Lake is a very popular area because lots of trails start there. The parking area fills up early. We arrived around 9:30 and the main parking area was full. We went to the picnic area, where there were some RV parking places. There was only a couple of vehicles there. We parked the Minnie and got ready to go on the hike.   

We found a way to get to the trail from the picnic area. We walked clockwise because Larry thought the climb up the mountain would be less strenuous. The trail took us around String Lake for 4 miles. As we hiked we had to use some boardwalks and a couple of bridges. We saw outstanding views of the Tetons and the lake. We hiked up 275 feet in elevation. We stopped occasionally to catch our breath and look at the scenery. In 1999 they had a fire in this area and the forest is starting to come back. When we walked in the open areas it got warm but when we walked in the trees it was cool. I wore a sweat shirt and a lite jacket. The jacket came off once we got in the open. One young guy was hiking and told us he was coming around us, which was very nice. When we met people on the trail and it was narrow we found a place to let them pass. We needed the rest. We were about halfway through the hike when we met three ladies on horses. The leader told us to com on down and they would wait. Larry told her we needed a rest and we had a great place to stand. The horses were very beautiful and the ladies were very friendly. We saw a couple of people on stand up boards paddling on the lake. When we were almost done we saw people kayaking on the lake. At the beginning of the hike we didn't see a lot of hikers but at the end we saw a lot of hikers. Everyone was very friendly and had big smiles on their faces. We had a super hike.

The bridge that took us across String Lake

Horseback riding in the Tetons

 

Kayaking and climbing  on a rock in String Lake

 

String Lake

By the time we got back to the Minnie it was busy. The picnic area parking lot was filling up and there were rangers directing traffic and making sure people were parking in the correct spots. We were going to have lunch there but it was so busy we decided to go back to Colter Bay Village.

After having lunch we went back to our site. We spent the rest of the day relaxing with a book. We love our Kindles because we don't have to carry paperbacks or hardbacks books with us. 

After dinner we walked around for about a half hour. We walked to the village and back. When we got home I walked around for 50 minutes. I walked A through E Loops twice. As I walked around I said hi to the other campers and saw two deer and a field mouse. Then I finished my steps in place. I ended up doing 27,100 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group. 

We had a wonderful day.