Hermitage Point trail

Backblipping our trip out west September 14-28

Wednesday September 16
I thought I would start today by saying a bit about the Teton mountain range. The Teton Range are a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, and extend for approximately 40 miles north to south across northwest Wyoming. The Teton Range is one of the most distinct ranges in the United States due to its dramatic elevation profile along its eastern side. In fact, the Tetons tower over the valley of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, rising abruptly from 5,000 to 7,000 feet above the surrounding landscape. The highest peak is Grand Teton at an elevation of 13,775 ft.
Today we hiked the Hermitage Point trail in the Colter Bay Area on Jackson Lake. The trail begins by following one of the coves of Colter Bay, affording views of Mount Moran across the lake - top right in my collage. In normal times this trail would afford numerous fine views of the mountains, but unfortunately the visibility was somewhat marred due to smoke from out of state wildfires, making the mountains rather hazy. The trail then continues along the lily -covered Heron Pond - top left picture, then enters a stretch of coniferous forest before opening up into an open sagebrush meadow as it approaches Hermitage Point. We continued along the other side of the peninsula and after a short climb reach a great viewpoint over the southeastern corner of Jackson Lake - centre picture. The final highlight of the walk was walking along the shore of Swan Lake, bottom right. Our total for the day was over 10 miles hiking, so Roger and I were very glad to get back to the car, and later, after dinner, enjoyed a soak in the outside hot tub!