The weekend of September 24, 2010, Tracy and I made our annual fall trip up to the Tetons to see some fall colors and to hear the elk bugle. This has been a regular trip for the past several years, and it’s always been a good one for wildlife and changing leaves…until this year. It’s been so warm this fall that we literally didn’t even see one elk on the whole trip. Usually we see hundreds of elk and a few moose. But on this trip we didn’t see anything other than a few bison. So, on Saturday, we went back out to Crystal Creek in the Gros Ventre Wilderness. We tried to hike cross country on a small trail along the creek to get around the mountain at the trailhead. However, the creek went through a very steep canyon, and Tracy and I got pretty worried that we were going to be another backcountry statistic, so we turned around and went back to the trailhead. Once back, Tracy decided she didn’t want to cross the creek, so she stayed at the car to read and I headed up the trail. We had hiked the trail a couple of years ago, but it was still really pretty. I hiked over the ridge and then back down to the valley on the opposite side. As always, it was really pretty. I then headed back to the car, and we camped just down the road from the trailhead.
The next day we headed back into the park and we hiked the Hermitage Point Trail. This was actually a very nice trail, and we only saw a couple of people. This was a nice trail and I think we’d like to hike out here more when other parts are too crowded. We also got some really nice pictures on this trail. After doing this trail, we just headed back home after a very bizarre trip to the Tetons with no wildlife sightings and very little leaf color.
[mapsmarker marker=”133″]
