Static Peak, Paintbrush trail, and Table Rocks. All in one swell trip.
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Length: 16.8 miles. Elevation Gain: 5,423 feet. Date hiked: July 22, 2021
This hike gets a five tree out of five tree rating for many reasons. It was stunningly beautiful. It wasn't too steep. The views were so vast! The weather was perfect. Everything lined up just great.
We started this hike around 7:30. The first few miles up to the patrol cabin, a cabin on the historic cabin registry, were in a beautiful canyon with a nice little river meandering down to Phelps Lake. It was lovely. The trail was really nice. Not too rocky and not too steep.
Leti on the way up the canyon. I like the little patch of snow that is just hanging on.
This is the nice river that cascades down the canyon. How pleasant!
At the patrol cabin, we got ourselves some filtered water and began ascending Death Canyon. Isn't that a nice name?! It wasn't deadly. As we began the ascent, two hikers were coming down from the peak. They started at 4 a.m. (This is not fun.) At 6 a.m. they saw an adolescent grizzly not far from the trail. So, we were bear alert. And, we clapped a lot! It sounded like we were cheering each other on! Death Canyon was so beautiful. The wildflowers were just spectacular.
This is a variety of the flowers we saw. So many! Columbine, Monkshood, Paintbrush, the list goes on! I was in wildflower heaven.
Here's Leti by a lovely patch of wildflowers!
After about a gazillion switchbacks, we made it to the ridge. From there you can see Static Peak and Phelps Lake. You see Phelps Lake very early on. Here's close up and then from a few thousand feet up:
Okay, this isn't a great picture to show you, but when you start you hike next to Phelps Lake. Then, when you reach the ridge, you hike above Phelps Lake. I got a little confused and thought they were two different lakes. I am really sharp like that. :)
Next, we hiked to the top of Static Peak. With about a mile left, I watched people summit the peak. I said something to Leti, "It is interesting watching those people suffer, just about like we are going to suffer." Sometimes my view of summiting is less than glowing. 😳
This is the lake. If you zoom in, you can see an orange and yellow tent off to the ride side of the lake.
Here are Leti and I at the top. Some nice family was there and the woman offered to take pictures of us. Behind us in the first picture is the Grand Teton.
Also from the top you can see this high mountain lake. It's called Rimrock Lake and is 1,000 feet across. I love this lake!
Rimrock Lake. You can really only see this for about a mile of the hike. It's fun to ascend and see it.
After leaving the top, we took some pictures in the direction of the Alaska Basin:
This rock face behind me can also be seen from Table Rock. Alaska Basin is behind it.
This is the Static Peak Divide. Either you go to the top of Static Peak or you go over to Alaska Basin.
On our way down, we hiked into some random hikers who were hiking Static Peak for the first time. We gave them directions and water. They were contemplating drinking from the river. Yikes! Also, this is a funny time to note this. I was wearing my ultimate frisbee shirt, mainly because it isn't cotton. So many people on this hike asked me about playing ultimate frisbee. It proved to be a great conversation piece.
As we went down Death Canyon, we passed a group of hikers on the way up. They immediately asked if we saw the bear. Bear? What bear? Well, a group ten minutes ahead of us ran into a bear on the trail. We met up with this group near the bottom of the trail when we were stopped in our progress by a moose. One of them showed me a picture of the bear. It was a rather large bear. Somehow, we missed seeing this bear. Interesting.
Mom moose and calf sighting. They were right next to the trail. So, we couldn't move forward for a bit. Finally, they moved along!
We made it back to the trailhead around 4:10. It was another beautiful, successful hike in the books!
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Paintbrush Loop. Distance: We went about 4 miles up. Elevation gain: 1,000 ft. Date hiked: July 23, 2021
This hike was not actually a planned hike. We decided we didn't love biking around Jackson. We just liked it. So, we turned our bikes back in and hiked here. It was another beautiful hike. I gave it three out of five hearts because we couldn't get very far before we had to turn around.
We started the ascent when we chatted with two hikers who just saw a bear and cub. They said it was about a quarter mile up the trail, off to the right. So, we hiked on. And didn't see the bear or cub. We saw other people on the trail looking for the bear. And, we saw nothing!
We hiked and hiked just to see what we could see. We didn't want to be on the trail for too long because we didn't want to scare a bear. But, we hiked to the raging river pictured above! It was lovely. The water was very blue. We enjoyed the rushing water. And then we turned around.
On the way back down the trail we did not see a bear. But, we saw a moose and baby again! Well, more heard it. First, Leti saw this "deer" laying flat in the grass next to a lake. I thought it looked more like a baby moose. It was. Then, we heard a big, big splash! There was a tree in the way, but we could see the mom dunking her head over and over again eating. We read that moose can dive up to 18 feet and be under water for a minute. Who knew?! Anyway, this mom was eating and eating and eating while her calf was sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. After some time, she came out of the water, and her and the calf walked off. She looked so waterlogged! Some other hikers were coming down the trail. Apparently, this moose and calf love this pond. They passed by at 9:30 a.m. and they were at the lake.
Moose and baby (in the trees). Doesn't mom look waterlogged after dunking her head over and over in the lake! We heard the loud splash many, many times.
After observing our moose friend, off we went back down the trail. We clapped a lot so we wouldn't become bear bait. And, we didn't end up seeing a bear. This was the third missed bear sighting of the trip! Mom and Dad's prayers were answered.
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Table Rock. Length: 13 ish miles. Elevation gain: 4,146 feet. Date Hiked: Pioneer Day 2021!
Table Rock. From a distance, it looks like a table. Really. It's distinct. We started up the trail at 7:45. I was a little depressed for the first few miles. It was just so dry and not as pretty as the Static Peak hike. So sad! There are a few flowers that were turning yellow because it was dry. But then, things looked up! We crossed the stream a few times. On the last crossing, we pumped filtered water and headed up the canyon. This canyon was just absolutely beautiful!
Wildflowers are a little hard to capture with my camera. I tried. These pictures are just beautiful! And, the canyon was filled with wildflowers!
After passing all these beautiful flowers, we made it to the ridge. You would think it is flat. That's inaccurate. I wondered if I would die of a heart attack. I didn't. But, it was a steep climb. And, Leti does this thing. The closer she gets to the top, the more excited she becomes. And, the faster she hikes! It's work to keep up. I usually sound like I have been smoking for decades.
Here's the trail to the top. Looks flat. And looks can be deceiving.
Here's Table Rock in the back. Use your imagination. It's like a table.
View from the top of Table Rock. It's pretty spectacular.
Looking down the canyon. It's a U shaped canyon, which means it was probably formed by a glacier. Very pretty.
After snacking at the top, and looking over the edge for long enough, we headed back down the mountain. For the third day in a row, we saw a mom moose (she was eating), and a baby moose romping around! It was quite a distance from the trailhead. That was good to see because the last two miles of this hike were just sad. It's sad to walk through really dry terrain. I digress. We got down a little after 2. It was another successful hike in the books!
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