Mountain Climbing Ain't for the Faint Hearted

Lake Solitude. Grand Teton National Park. Sounds idyllic. It had been recommended to us by a lady we were talking to in the hot springs at Bozeman. Near the shores of Lake Jenny the trails were pretty crowded, even little peple can clamber up a bit of the mountainside, but pretty sonn it all quietened down and for the rest of the day we saw no more than 2 dozen people. Considering all the cars in the parking lots and the number of people in our campsite alone, that's quite remarkable. It was good to have a few people on the trail so there was enough noise and movement to keep the bears at bay.

Our way wound along the Canyon Valley, with 10,000ft high granite walls towering above us. We criss crossed tumultuous mountain streams, roaring, churning, roiling, boiling stream, so joyously dancing that it almost made you wish you could be a water molecule, just for a day, to win the full sensation of it. Following the streams up with your eyes led to cascading waterfalls ribboning the mountainsides, melting straight from the blue white glaciers hanging far above us.

Meadows of waving grasses flecked with wildflowers contrasted dramatically with the evere grante peaks above. Red indian paintbrushes, purple mountain bells, yellow, pink, white and blue, with tiny, unseen birds singing joyously.

The only serious wildlife spotting was a couple of moose across the creek, from a distance but enough to see their splendid antler spreads. Also saw a couple of yellow bellied marmots (kind of like beavers) and tiny pikas (mouse like) scampering about in the high rocky morraines deposited by the last glacier.

The haul up to the lake (at 9035ft) was lung bustingly tough but worth it to soak up the grandeur of the sheer encircling walls with the thin ragged ridge line up higher again and the roar of hidden waterfalls pouring down from giant hanging glaciers. Our stone weary feet were temorarily revived by a soaking in the snow melted waters. It was however a long, long trudge back down to the bottom again. It took a moose burger and local brew to revive me!