In looking over our last day in Grand Teton National Park, we ended up making some changes to the itinerary. What was originally going to be a light hike followed by travel ended up being a 14+ miles round trip hike, up 2,400+ feet in elevation gain, through Cascade Canyon to Lake Solitude. Boy was it worth it.
This was our greeting into the canyon, and we proceeded 3.3 miles further to the fork. Along the way, we saw a moose on the trail.
And we saw a moose hiding in the bushes.
We stopped and had a mid-morning snack just before the fork, then headed toward the fork, which we were originally considering our final destination. Just after we left the fork we met some people we rode over on the boat with, and we asked them if the hike up to Solitude Lake was worth it (another 5.4 miles on the trip, making it a 14 mile round trip total). We were told that it was definitely worth it, so we turned around and ventured up the canyon, past the fork, and toward Solitude Lake. We were not disappointed on this portion of the ascent either.
This stream heads back toward the fork and looks directly at the Grand Teton (I believe, it’s hard to tell where specifically we are). Regardless of what we’re looking at, it was just breathtaking. Further up the way, there was a beautiful stream meandering between thick beds of wildflowers.
When we finally reached Solitude Lake, we were greeted with what we called one of the most beautiful lakes we’ve seen on this trip so far. Here’s a vantage point from a rock that juts out into the lake almost in the middle.
There were some people crazy enough to swim in that lake, too! It was very cold, so I’m sure it was rough. Overall, we rated this the second-best hike we’ve done on the entire trip so far, second only to the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park. This hike was beautiful the whole way and had a wide variety of sights to see.
Our night ended with the trip to Yellowstone, where we saw some beautiful views of the Yellowstone River and a waterfall.
That was one hell of a day!