Running in Wyoming: Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park touches Yellowstone yet it's hard to imagine so much difference. If Yellowstone is all about fumes coming from boiling water under the surface, Grand Teton contrasts by its peaks, with 34 of them culminating at more than 11,000 feet!

From Jackson we drove to Teton Village and Phelps Lake in the morning, then Jenny Lake, and a hike to Taggart and Bradley Lakes. I told you in the previous post, we make the most of the time we have!

I did run up and down Death Canyon, passing along Lake Phelps.

Lake Phelps lookout:

 Touching the snow!

 At the Alaska Basin Trail junction

 This marmot was so social!

 Back at the car

In this Strava trace, you'll notice a major bug of my Garmin GPS watch which got me flying over a mountain. I only wish...

I included a few pictures in this 3D flyover (click on this link or the picture below):

Only 9 miles but it reminded me so much of the Alps with the breathtaking views, the varied vegetation and terrain, and technical sections, I highly recommend this route for quite a workout. I was super careful on the way down but stupidly twisted my ankle in the very last easier section, just before getting back to the trail head. No cracks but quite painful this Thursday evening. Fortunately, we don't have any big hike planned for tomorrow. We were supposed to visit another National Park tomorrow, on the Idaho side, Craters of the Moon but opted to stop by a friend in Salt Lake City instead. The ankle should appreciate the 6-hour drive instead! ;-)

Speaking of (Facebook) friends, I was hoping to run a few strides with local running legend, Lisa Smith-Batchen (e.g. 10 time Bad Water including 2 wins), but she was working all day today. I was looking forward to the encounter and another #RunningBuddyTourism opportunity like the last minute meetings with Mike Wardian then Mark Godale, I will have to come back and try again!

Both Yellowstone and Grand Teton are spectacular, yet so different. If it was a popularity contest, my love for the mountains would place Grand Teton to the top of the 7 National places we visited these past 7 days. Our heads are fulled of wonderful images, as well as our cameras! And, again, we know we rushed these visits way too much, still, what an enriching cross-country road trip experience until we have more time to come back! Maybe include some biking on the many miles of pristine bike paths across the park, more runs and hikes definitely, and some rafting? We can't let these bears having all the fun, can we?

Running in Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park

20 years that I've been dreaming of visiting this mythical National Park, the oldest with such status in the world. And we only had a day to enjoy it...! But we made the most of it. We left Billings at 7 am and were at Mammoth Hot Springs by 9 am.

Spectacular multi colored fall in terraces and already some crowd (and, for my pandemic coverage report, less than half wearing a mask...).

From there we drove down to the Norris Geyser Basin, in full activity. We also hiked to the Steamboat geyser: the highest eruptions in the world but not as frequent.

A quick stop at the Gibbon Falls, before the Madison junction point, where I changed to start running from the Fountain Flat Drive cycle path.

It's called a cycle path but I saw more hikers and horse riders than bike (bikes prefer asphalt lanes which Grand Teton is super rich of, in the Jackson area, further South).

At the end of that fire road, I reached the lookout over the incredibly colorful Grand Prismatic Spring.

I had to run alongside the busy road before finding a super nice trail connecting to the super famous and touristic Old Faithful geyser.

This geyser holds its name to the fact that he erupts very predictably every 60 to 90 minutes, a boon for the visitors. Luckily, I arrived 5 minutes before it erupted, lucky me!

On the way, the Power Line Trail passed along boiling pools off the touristic trails so I was able to taste the water, I mean just tipping my fingers in! 60F is hot... In one pool you could see down as much as 6 feet (estimate). Another pool looked like the Grand Prismatic Spring, in miniature.

Overall, a relatively flat run but a super tough one from a breathing standpoint, at 7,200-7,500 feet of elevation. As much as I wanted for Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile to happen in July, in retrospective, I'm very glad it got cancelled as I already enough breathing issues since February, at sea level.

 Check this 3D fly over, it has some pictures inserted (click on this link or the image below):

I have to add that, with 8.6 miles, I barely scratched 1% of the surface of the Yellowstone's running potential: this National Park boasts more than 1,000 miles of trails!!!

From Old Faithful, we exited the Park to the South, saw some wild life again, and driving straight to Jackson and having an appetizer of the Grand Teton National Park by crossing it at sunset. A long Day 6 full of amazing images of our Planet Earth, if not on fire, on steam!