Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point

Today we got up early and headed to the shuttle boats that took us to the trail for Hidden Falls. The shuttle takes about 2 1/2 miles of walking off the table, however, we figure today we walked at least six miles. That has to be a record for us especially since tons of climbing was involved.

The scenery in Grand Teton National Park is just stunning and this hike was no exception. The hike to Hidden Falls is a very popular one and there quite a number of people on the trail. It was somewhat uphill but the path was good, however, the falls is not really well marked. The best picture we took on the way up was one through the trees and it was really kind of disappointing. On the way back, we found a sign that pointed us in the right direction and just a bit off the path we were on before, there was a nice viewing area for the falls. 

Flowers in Bloom

Yellow-bellied Marmot

We get to cross over that!

Cascade Creek

Hidden Falls

We finally got to what we thought was the best view of Hidden Falls (above), however, there was a small sign that pointed to the left that most people didn't see.  We saw it coming back so you'll see the difference!

We decided we could probably make it to Inspiration Point so we headed up up and up!  There were less people on the rest of the trail than to the falls but still quite a number. It was a lot of uphill climbing and we were given hiking sticks when we got off the boat. They really helped so I may buy one one of these days. 

The trail deteriorated the farther we got toward Hidden Falls.
 

This part was the scary part both going up and coming down!

This is the very last of the trail going to Inspiration Point.  Once you round this curve at the top, you are home free but don't look down! I was a little afraid to take the last section but people encouraged me because the point was just around the bend. I was more worried about coming down than going up it and I wasn't too comforted but decided to go on since I made it this far.  Obviously, I lived to tell about it.

Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake

We are at Inspiration Point!

Panorama of Inspiration Point

We took some pictures of the point and sat on a couple of rocks to take in the view.  I brought a couple of apples so we ate those.  Then we decided since we made it to the top, that we might as well hike some of the Canyon. We had done the worst part! We heard there were a few moose in the canyon but we never did see them. It was beautiful hiking Cascade Canyon as you can see from the following pictures.

That's the trail but, believe me, this is much better than the one coming up!

Another Yellow-bellied Marmot crossed our path!

We walked the canyon until we thought we had better head back because we wanted to make sure we caught the last boat back to the Jenny Lake boat dock.  Otherwise, you can get back but it about seven more miles of hiking!  We hiked back down the trail and I managed to calm myself and head down the worst part. After that, except for my knees reminding me of my age, I was fine and I was glad we did the whole hike.

HIDDEN FALLS

The falls were much more impressive if you found the right place to view them!  Now we have the hike down to the boat dock which is longer and steeper than where the boat drops you off.  However, you get to follow Canyon Creek down so that is kind of neat.

Our ride home!

We were both starving by the time we finished the hike so we went to Dairy Queen and had a sandwich and some DQ! We figured after six miles we deserved a treat!

Later after we were at home, we both had terrible leg cramps. We looked up what to do on the internet. Turns out we had lost the salt in our system. We had to drink salt water! Yuk! But it absolutely helped. They told us on the internet to take salty snacks when you hike and you can prevent these cramps - just a word to the wise! Even so, we had a wonderful day and the views were just awesome!