Viewing the High Spots in the Grand Tetons

Tuesday We packed a lunch and set out reasonably early to visit the high spot of the Grand Tetons. Except of course the High Spot here is over 13,000 feet and takes two days to climb, but we could look at it anyway. We drove South round the Eastern edge of Jackson Lake to Signal Mountain, only to find that it was closed to clear wood (the hill is completely covered in trees, so I don’t know why they bother, but there you are). So we stopped in for a nice cuppa at the Signal Mountain Lodge, with its lovely views of the lake and the Tetons, which one can see in a long line on the far side of the lake. This also included a v. nice blueberry muffin which we shared. We drove on to see the small lake to the south. String Lake, Leigh Lake and Jenny Lake. The view of String Lake was just like a National Geographic photo with the mountains, trees, lake and tourists playing in canoes in the sunshine or splashing around in the swimming hole. It was very picturesque. At Jenny Lake Visitors Center we took our packed lunch and strolled across the little wooden brdge to the Exum Climbing Center, a very famous climbing school, where they go from to climb the Grand Teton, which you can’t actually see as it is behind a smaller, but closer mountain. We returned to the trailer fairly early so after dinner we went for a gentle stroll down to the lakeside. Only to see some wonderful squalls way out on the other side of the lake, which as we walked round the shore seemed to be sweeping up the lake, at least that is what we thought, until we were struck by a solid wall of wind, accompanied by horizontal rain. We stood behind trees, rather than under them, to get out of the rain. The severe weather only lasted for about 5 minutes, but it was quite scary and shows how quickly the weather can change in mountain areas. The way home was lit up by a very strong rainbow which looked very pretty.