Sunday 9-18 Hiking Heron Lake Trail & A Ranger Hike

 

Grand Teton National Park

It rained during the night and into the early morning. By the time we got up the rain was gone but some clouds were still hanging around. 

We woke up to a cold morning with the temperature in 30s. Larry had turned on the Wave 3 heater before he went to bed and he closed the curtain where the kitchen is. Getting up it was a little chilly, about 63 in the living area, the bathroom and kitchen were quite a bit colder since the curtain was closed. After getting dressed I made pancakes for breakfast.

After breakfast we decided to walk the trails around the campground. Some of them are closed because of construction. We ended up hiking about 5 miles. We started by hiking to the picnic area and beach where we picked up the lake trail which goes along the lake. Because of the drought the lake is very low, many of the coves are empty of water. We saw beautiful views of the Tetons. We saw a group of five deer, two of them were fawns. While walking around where the marina use to be we met a couple who were looking for the trails. Larry told them where they were. We walked the trail to the village and picked up the Heron Lake and Swan Lake Loop Trail. The Swan Lake portion was closed but we hiked to Heron Lake, about 2 miles. We hiked the trail to where the construction trucks were and continued up the hill. It was a very steep hill but once up the hill it flatten out. I had to stop a couple times going up the hill to get my breath. We wore a lite jacket but after climbing the hill it came off. The trail took us through the forest of pine trees. When we got to Heron Lake it was empty. We saw a couple of huge beaver dens in the middle of where the lake was suppose to be. Around the lake there was beautiful pine trees. The couple met up with us again there. There was a loop trail but we decided to return via the trail we came on. We walked with the couple a bit and talked with them. The hike back was easier because a lot of it was down hill. We met a few people just starting their hike. We walked through the village to get back to the Minnie. We had a nice hike.

One of the does

 

The group of deer

Heron Lake

After lunch we walked over to the visitor center for a ranger led hike. There were sixteen of us on the hike and the ranger's name was Allie. The hike was 2.2 miles and took about 2 hours. She took us on the lake trail. We stopped a few times so she could talk about the lake and the Tetons. She explained that Jackson Lake was down because of the drought. The lake was man made and Idaho built the dam. Last year when the drought got bad Idaho pulled a lot of the water out of the lake to irrigate crops. The hike was very nice and went through the trees and along the lake shores. As we hiked we saw people on the beach and a couple of people kayaking and a wake board boat. The group stopped occasionally to enjoy the scenery and learn about the Tetons. As we looped around the lake and headed back to the visitor center we saw the group of deer Larry and I saw in the morning. We stopped and took pictures. Allie said that this was the first time she saw the deer. We had another great hike.

Mount Moran

The hiking trail

The group of deer

 

Our ranger guide Allie

In between hikes we rested and read. 

For dinner I barbecued sausages. 

After dinner we walked over to the amphitheater for a ranger talk. The ranger who gave the talk was Elizabeth. It was a short talk on Mardy and Olaus Murie and her contributions to conservation. It was a real good talk and Elizabeth presented it super.

Elizabeth

When I got home I finished my 27,000 steps. This put me in 5th place in my group for the week with the total of 184,601 steps.

We had a super day.