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- May 16, 2016
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My oldest kid was in Utah doing a NOLS river trip and needed to be picked up eventually. I figured I would drive to Wyoming again and do some backpacking with my son who was going to be starting high school in the fall and then get my daughter. This timing ended up lining up with a trip that some friends had planned in the Salt River Range in western Wyoming, so my son and I would do a 5 or 6 nights and then meet up for 5 more nights with the fellas.
It is almost exactly 24 hours of driving to get to Brooks Lake. We had a long day that got us to a crappy hotel outside of North Platte NE and then about 8ish more hours got us to Brooks Lake.
I had thoughts of the Brooks Lake campground near the boat dock and maybe doing a short hike. But, it was horribly buggy. So, we tried the Pinnacles campground right around the corner. A little higher above the lake and a little bit more wind made for a much better campsite. We walked around the campground and actually drove over to the other campground for a short hike, but the bugs were annoying and we were tired. A little reading and then crawled in back to sleep.
Day 1 (July 1)
Woke up to a beautiful day.
Drove up to the Pinnacles Trailhead and started hiking.
We had an early lunch near Bonneville Pass
I had read that there were some social trails up to the plateau, but I wasn't sure exactly where I would find a trail. As we were eating, I looked over and saw what appeared to be a trail. We loaded up and went to check it out and found the trail very easily. Soon we were climbing.
A storm was building which caused us to set up camp earlier than I wanted, but it had great views once the storm blew through.
Elk on the ridge (200mm lens and highly cropped)
This is more like the actual view.
Looking down at Cub Creek
Day 2 (July 2)
Perry N Boday Lake, looks pretty, but buggy as hell
Heavily cropped photo of a bald eagle
Tetons in the distance
Once again a storm was building forcing us to set up camp early.
My son said "it looks like someone is summoning a demon"
Dinner time and a brief bit of sun
Day 3 (July 3)
Woke up and the sky is already ugly, pack the camera away, so this is the only camera photo for the day
We looked at the sky and checked weather on my InReach and decided that spending more days up high was a bad idea. So we backtracked back to Perry N Boday and then down to Cub Creek.
Something else up on the snowfields
Along Cub Creek
We ended up camping where the CDT crosses Cub Creek. The exact same spot I camped a couple years earlier.
The bugs were horrible. I knew they would be which was why I wanted to be up on the Buffalo Plateau.
We ate dinner and then dived in the tent for the night.
Day 4 (July 4)
Weather looks terrible, the bugs are horrible down low, let's head towards the car and figure out something else.
Upper Brooks Lake
We headed towards Jackson with the idea of camping at Granite Creek for a couple of days and hoping the weather blew through.
Stormy weather over the Tetons
Day 5 & 6 (July 4 - 6) Granite Creek
I was worried that Granite Creek would be full because it was a holiday weekend, but we found a great campsite and then went to check out the hot spring at the end of the road.
In the parking lot of the hot spring
Our campsite
Great view for morning coffee and hot chocolate
The whole Granite Creek area is beautiful, a great place to hang out for a couple of days.
The Open Door is pretty cool looking
Granite Falls
We did a couple of short dayhikes, it was a lot hotter than the Buffalo Plateau
Time to move on down the road, we meet the fellas (@scatman @Bob and @Chuckwalla) in Afton in the morning
It is almost exactly 24 hours of driving to get to Brooks Lake. We had a long day that got us to a crappy hotel outside of North Platte NE and then about 8ish more hours got us to Brooks Lake.
I had thoughts of the Brooks Lake campground near the boat dock and maybe doing a short hike. But, it was horribly buggy. So, we tried the Pinnacles campground right around the corner. A little higher above the lake and a little bit more wind made for a much better campsite. We walked around the campground and actually drove over to the other campground for a short hike, but the bugs were annoying and we were tired. A little reading and then crawled in back to sleep.
Day 1 (July 1)
Woke up to a beautiful day.
Drove up to the Pinnacles Trailhead and started hiking.
We had an early lunch near Bonneville Pass
I had read that there were some social trails up to the plateau, but I wasn't sure exactly where I would find a trail. As we were eating, I looked over and saw what appeared to be a trail. We loaded up and went to check it out and found the trail very easily. Soon we were climbing.
A storm was building which caused us to set up camp earlier than I wanted, but it had great views once the storm blew through.
Elk on the ridge (200mm lens and highly cropped)
This is more like the actual view.
Looking down at Cub Creek
Day 2 (July 2)
Perry N Boday Lake, looks pretty, but buggy as hell
Heavily cropped photo of a bald eagle
Tetons in the distance
Once again a storm was building forcing us to set up camp early.
My son said "it looks like someone is summoning a demon"
Dinner time and a brief bit of sun
Day 3 (July 3)
Woke up and the sky is already ugly, pack the camera away, so this is the only camera photo for the day
We looked at the sky and checked weather on my InReach and decided that spending more days up high was a bad idea. So we backtracked back to Perry N Boday and then down to Cub Creek.
Something else up on the snowfields
Along Cub Creek
We ended up camping where the CDT crosses Cub Creek. The exact same spot I camped a couple years earlier.
The bugs were horrible. I knew they would be which was why I wanted to be up on the Buffalo Plateau.
We ate dinner and then dived in the tent for the night.
Day 4 (July 4)
Weather looks terrible, the bugs are horrible down low, let's head towards the car and figure out something else.
Upper Brooks Lake
We headed towards Jackson with the idea of camping at Granite Creek for a couple of days and hoping the weather blew through.
Stormy weather over the Tetons
Day 5 & 6 (July 4 - 6) Granite Creek
I was worried that Granite Creek would be full because it was a holiday weekend, but we found a great campsite and then went to check out the hot spring at the end of the road.
In the parking lot of the hot spring
Our campsite
Great view for morning coffee and hot chocolate
The whole Granite Creek area is beautiful, a great place to hang out for a couple of days.
The Open Door is pretty cool looking
Granite Falls
We did a couple of short dayhikes, it was a lot hotter than the Buffalo Plateau
Time to move on down the road, we meet the fellas (@scatman @Bob and @Chuckwalla) in Afton in the morning
