This post could also be titled "The One With Too Many Pictures." Luckily, they are beautiful scenery pictures that we took on our most recent hike to Amphitheater Lake in Grand Teton National Park.

The hike to Amphitheater Lake was about 5 miles each way and had an elevation gain of almost 3,000 feet. The hike is labeled as "strenuous" by the park service. I would agree with the label, only because there really is no break from going uphill for the first 5 miles to the lake. That being said, it is not super steep or slippery, and was really easy going down. It seemed like there were varying levels of hikers on the trail because it is easy to take breaks and make your way to the top slowly if needed. There were also a good amount of kids and families. It was a great day hike!

View of the mountains towering above where we parked

Great view of Bradley and Taggart Lakes. The color was really pretty (hard to tell in pictures) but I think Switzerland has us beat on the color of their alpine lakes.

It started getting a lot rockier towards the top. Must be why they call it the Rocky Mountains...

Surprise! This little lake is 0.2 miles before Amphitheater Lake. It wasn't really a surprise since they had it listed on the trail map.

Surprise Lake

Finally there!

Amphitheater Lake

View of Surprise Lake looking down from Amphitheater Lake

A marmot posing for us!

Awesome view of the valley below

One of the peaks... I should probably know which one. It's actually a lot harder  to tell when you are  so close to them than from far away!

More views of the valley

Reflection photo of Surprise Lake on the way back down

An alpine meadow

This is probably hard to see, but there were a bunch of these birds around the trail. They walked around like turkeys, but were smaller than turkeys. William thought they might have been grouse (or grouses?)

Bradley and Taggart Lakes again

On the way down...

Lots of  golden-mantled squirrels on the trail (aka chipmunks without face stripes)

I rounded a corner and saw this guy standing SO close to me! It definitely scared me for a second. (Glad it wasn't a bear!!) He was just munching away on some grass and leaves. His antlers were so furry, unlike any deer I have seen in the south.

On the way back, we stopped at Dornan's to get some gatorade (underestimated how thirsty we would be) and saw this guy hanging out on the Snake River! He is hiding in this picture, but he did end up going further out in the water and almost running around. He was big!

Moose on the Snake River

Now since you've seen pretty much the whole trail you don't even have to do it yourself! Really, though, it is hard to refrain from taking tons of pictures in such a beautiful area. 


Other than this hike, there hasn't been too much going on. We did go to the county fair... It was really small, but had some of the typical fair rides and food. There was a mechanical bull set up, which was definitely not something I've seen at a fair before. I feel like the summer is flying by- it seems like just yesterday I was saying "I can't believe it's already July" and now it's almost August! It won't be long until I need to start researching how to ski...