Day 4 of our trip was spent in Grand Teton National Park. We finally realized that the weather simply wasn’t going to cooperate– the forecast called for cloudy days with highs in the 40’s and 50’s. We lucked out with a few scattered sightings of the sun and blue sky, but for the most part it was cold and grey.
We spent the morning hiking around Spring Lake and Leigh Lake on a short trail.
Although the skies were blue briefly, the clouds soon rolled in over the mountains.
In an attempt to be “artistic” I took a macro shot of the shoreline:
Thom and I took turns skipping rocks across the water, but we couldn’t find many nice smooth flat stones. Apparently they’ve all been used by past visitors. Here’s Thom hitting three skips before the plop. I had the record with four, which is kind of weak. I blame the uneven water.
At times, the increasing cloud layer provided some interesting views of the Teton mountain range.
After a small lunch (really more of a snack), we headed up a hike to Inspiration Point, up in Cascade Canyon. It provides a nice view of Jenny Lake far below:
Although that perspective shows a hint of blue sky, the other direction has the same grey cloud cover that obscures the higher mountains deeper in the range. That said, the brief glimpse of sunlight provided some nice lighting on the trees and snow.
Similarly, as the clouds rolled in over the hilltops, the sun provided some dramatic backlighting:
On the hike we passed Hidden Falls, which are nicely framed by trees.
At Inspiration Point we could look down on Jenny Lake and watch the wind move across the water. Since it was pretty windy, it was cool to see the waves shift and move on the surface of the water. You can see some of the effect in this photo, although a still shot doesn’t really do it justice.
After all of the iPhone-toting photographers left the area, Thom and I enjoyed some solitude the sound of the wind in the trees. It was inspirational. (Get it? Inspiration Point?)
On the way back down, we continued to be disappointed in the rolling storm clouds, but again, they sort of defined the character of the weather that day.
We headed to our tent that night hoping that the next day would be warmer and sunnier…