Taggart and Bradley Lakes

Our original plan yesterday was to ride our bikes around the loop just north of Jenny Lake. We realized after studying the bike trails map that the portion of the trail we wanted to ride was not completed yet, and wouldn't be until 2014. So, we opted to take a hike to a location where we hadn't previously gone - Taggart and Bradley Lakes.

I also wanted to drop off my entry to the Teton County Fair, but discovered that the date for dropping off my classification of entry wasn't until Tuesday, the 23rd. That enabled us to get an earlier start on our hike. The drive was beautiful on this clear and warm day:

and we arrived at the trailhead and were on our way at 10:15 AM:

The hike was one of the best we have taken so far in the Tetons. The countryside was beautiful and we walked through many different variations of terrain. There were creeks and bridges with water falls:

wide open trails through beautiful hills:

Some parts of the trail took us through wooded areas:

and we finally arrived at Taggart Lake at the base of the Tetons:

It was, of course, beautiful as are all the lakes in the Tetons. We stopped and rested and had some of our "light" lunch that we brought. We took some shots of ourselves while on the break:

and also this one of a brave and hungry chipmunk who was ready to pounce on any crumb we would give him::

Following our "break", we continued on the trail until we reached Bradley Lake which was about another mile away from Taggart Lake:

This portion of the trail continued on to an area that was high up into the Tetons - Amphitheater Lake - that was very strenuous and rose 3000 feet over about a 3 mile hike. We passed on that portion of the trail.

We saw many, many wildflowers on our hike, and this is only a small sample from the photos we took all along the way:

and there were several different varieties of berries that we saw, one of which is below:

 

 We concluded that this entire area would be a haven for bears in the fall.

 

We hiked a total of almost 7.5 miles and ended the hike back at the trailhead at around 2:15 PM. This is a shot of the final field of wildflowers as we reached the end of our hike:

 

 

It was a very physical day for us and the temperature was about 87 when we finally reached the end. We stopped at DQ on the way home and had a Blizzard treat to complete our outing for the day.

 

It's back to work today but we had a great time on our days off and we will be planning other great hikes and bike rides before we leave in early October...