Path in Paradise

The view from the park road had always been awe inspiring. You could barely keep your eyes on the road when driving through Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The magnificent Teton Mountains rise up from the valley floor and simply overwhelm the landscape with their towering beauty. So when I heard that the park service had built a bike path in the park from Moose to Jenny Lake, I knew it would be something special.

Our guides for this day’s trip were Denny and Sally Becker, local owners of A Teton Treehouse, an eclectic bed & breakfast nestled in the forest in Wilson, Wyoming located at the base of Teton Pass. We began our journey at the Taggert Lake Trailhead and proceeded north toward Jenny Lake. The scenery was unbelievable. In a car, you travel 40-45 miles an hour and have to pull off the road to really take in the scenery. By bicycle, it is simply all right there next to you as you leisurely pedal your way on the smooth asphalt surface.

I had brought my rather large Nikon camera with me on the trip and it was tucked safely away in my backpack. I could not resist trying to capture the view. I literally had the couple of thousand dollars worth of camera in one hand trying to take a few pictures, looking back on it, not the wisest thing to do. Stopping was a much better option.

So we rode northward, soaking in the beauty, bathed by sunshine and a refreshing breeze. We passed horses on ranches grazing beneath the giant mountains. We smelled the sage as we eased our way down the path. When we arrived at Jenny Lake, there was a flurry of end of the path activity. There were signs and facilities and a lot of RVs parked for the day.

My wife and I decided to continue on northward on the park road toward String Lake. From there, we took a nice one way road back to Jenny Lake that was all downhill. We made our way back on the bike path to the Taggert Lake Trailhead parking area and then proceeded on the rest of the way down to Dornan’s Restaurant in Moose. There were some nice downhill hairpin curves on our descent.

Our friends had arranged to meet us at Dornan’s for a great event called “The Hoot”. For the past 50 years, “the Hoot” has been a venue for local musicians to practice their craft to the delight of the Jackson Hole community. On this night, we were treated to a variety of music from the old timers to the younger generation. One gentleman named Bill had performed some 637 times at the Hoot. It was quite a scene and like the bike path in the park, one we would not soon forget.