Grand Teton National Park

The best backcountry in the national park system, hiking and backpacking Grand Teton has a special place in my heart. On a 3 day backpacking trip of the Death Canyon loop with my friend Katie back in 2015, we saw blackbears, moose, marmots, and even had our packs and boots eaten up by porcupines. We camped on top of a 100 foot cliff overlooking a small lake, surrounded by massive cliffs, and slept under the light of a full moon. We made friends with other backpackers at this lake, which was too far for dayhikers, so everyone back there had relatively the same easygoing, dirtbagging mindset common to backpackers. And emerging from the backcountry beaten and tired, we filled up on pizza and a local brew.

Five years later, early on in the pandemic, I visited this park again with my dog on a month long trip out west. Sally unfortunately wasn’t allowed in the park, but between doggy day car and doing what we could from the car, I had yet another incredible experience in this park. No backpacking this time around, but I did squeeze in a nice day hike, of which I got to scramble over boulders overlooking a stream created by glacial run off. I saw a brown bear cub (didn’t stick around long enough to see if it was a black or grizzly bear), and then later saw a juvenile bear scrambling around in the woods for about 5 minutes. And the mountains, the glacial lakes, the snake river, the multicolored hills! The beauty of this place is tough to beat, and I can’t wait to go back again.