July 11, 2013 - Yellowstone to Signal Mountain Campground - Tetons National Park

Today we said goodbye to Yellowstone and headed to the Tetons. Everything we have read about Signal Mountain campground said the spots usually fill up around 1pm, so we got on the road about 8:15. We made a stop at Lewis Falls near the south entrance of Yellowstone. Even though we have been to Yellowstone several times, neither of us remembered stopping here before.

It wasn’t long before we left Yellowstone and arrived at the north entrance of Grand Teton National Park. Road construction delays and heavy traffic put our arrival at Signal Mountain at 11 am. We got the LAST campsite available. In all of the park service magazines and on the website it shows 86 campsites and only one RV site with hookups. The fee is listed as $21 per night. WELL, 45% of all the sites have electricity and they are $45 per night. We took it for one night.

After paying our fee we took off in the RV to see some of the park. (It’s times like this we wished we had brought the scooter!) The mountain view turnout gave us a great view of the peaks that seem to rise up from no where!

The black dike seen in the Teton Range was formed when magma was forced upward into a large crack. This molten rock solidified, becoming the dark igneous rock, diabase. Erosion of the surrounding rock makes this vertical, 150-foot-thick dike clearly visible in the mountain.

We continued on to the Leigh and String Lakes trailhead – about two miles round trip between the lakes. There were lots of people out enjoying the water.


We watched a group put in at Leigh Lake. They were carrying all their gear to do some backcountry camping.

After lunch we decided to take a small portion of the Cascade Canyon trail to Inspiration Point which overlooks Jenny Lake – about six miles round trip. The weather started to cloud up, so we grabbed our ponchos and headed out. The trail leaves the parking lot and winds around String Lake before crossing a bridge to the back side of Jenny Lake. Most of the trail was dirt or rock, but with little elevation gain. The cloud cover and breeze made it a pleasant afternoon.

Just before String Lake joins with Jenny Lake, it narrows down and looks like a river. We read that sediment and rocks from the winter snow melt off fill in the lakes. Eventually, String Lake, as well as some of the other lakes in the area, will become so clogged with rocks they will change and become small streams.

The trail skirts along the edge of Jenny Lake and passed through an area burned in a 1999 forest fire. After two miles we arrived at the West Boat Dock area where many hikers arrive from the Jenny Lake Lodge to begin their hike!
From the boat dock we hiked another 1/2 mile to Hidden Falls. This is where the elevation begins to increase, but the view was incredible and it was well worth the effort! The wildflowers were beautiful, too!

Since Inspiration Point was only another 1/2 mile, we forged on. This portion of the trail was quite rocky – and narrow – and steep. The elevation at the point is 7200’. We could see the boats coming and going from the ramp below.

After a short break, we headed back down the trail to String Lake. It was really pretty passing through the wooded areas.

Three hours later we were back to the RV – tired, but glad we had done the hike and happy that the rain held off. We took the one way three mile drive south of Jenny Lake Lodge and stopped at the overlook to finish off our day. It was really windy and felt like winter was on its way!
Back to the campground and the rain started about 8pm. We are hopeful it stops by morning! Tomorrow we will head south to Granite Creek, south of Jackson.