JUNE 2026 · ADVENTURE
Grand Teton day hike, Wyoming
Cascade Canyon · Wyoming, USA
Cars were already backed up onto the road, queuing for the boat dock lot at Jenny Lake. We parked at the quieter lot instead and walked the extra mile along the water, which meant we had the first stretch of trail almost to ourselves.
Cascade Canyon opens up fast once you're past the shoreline - granite walls closing in, the trail climbing through boulder fields thick with lupine and paintbrush. Somewhere in the first mile a bull elk stood in the trees, unbothered, close enough that we stopped talking.
The canyon keeps climbing under the Cathedral Group - three grey spires that stay visible for most of the ascent, snow still packed into their north faces in June. The trail narrows past dead standing timber, old burn scars silvered and upright, and the wildflowers get thicker the higher you go, right up until the rock takes over completely.
You hear Hidden Falls before you see it, the last switchbacks.
Jenny Lake — June 2026
You hear Hidden Falls before you see it, the last switchbacks. Three drops down a rock face, spray thirty feet either side. We stood there longer than we needed to.
On the way back down, a second elk - or the same one, further along - grazing in the same patch of light.
We camped that night at a site nearby, not by the lake. The rangers on check-in warned of extreme grizzly activity in the area - bear boxes only, nothing in tents, the usual list read out slower than usual. We made s'mores round the fire anyway, listening hard between marshmallows, and any trip to the toilet block after dark meant a headtorch and a fast walk, hoping not to meet anything on the path.
Waterfall dropping through a rocky forest chasm at Hidden Falls
Hiker leaning on a wooden dock rail before snow-capped Teton peaks and Jenny Lake
Rushing creek tumbling over rocks and driftwood in dense forest
Two hikers with red backpacks walking a forest trail
Hiker walking toward the jagged Cathedral Group peaks above Jenny Lake
Two hikers with backpacks on a brush-lined trail below rocky slopes
Bull elk grazing among wildflowers in dappled forest light
Hikers on a wildflower trail beneath snow-streaked Teton spires
Hikers on trail approaching a jagged snow-streaked Teton peak
Hiker crossing a boulder-strewn clearing among wind-bent dead trees
Lone hiker walking a forest trail toward jagged mountain peaks
Forest trail winding below snow-patched Teton cliffs
Two hikers on a lakeside trail with distant mountains across Jenny Lake
Hiker pausing on trail above Jenny Lake with distant peaks
Whitewater creek rushing through a shaded forest gorge
Creek churning past a mossy rock outcrop in Cascade Canyon
Hidden Falls thundering down rocky ledges through the forest
Waterfall cascading through a narrow forested gorge
Wildflower meadow among granite boulders below jagged peaks
Granite boulders and wildflowers beneath the jagged Cascade Canyon peaks
Close view of Hidden Falls crashing over granite boulders
Hidden Falls in full spray tumbling over dark rock
Hiker standing on a rocky promontory above Jenny Lake
Bull elk stepping through dense forest undergrowth
Hiker walking beneath snow-streaked peaks near a lone pine
A tent pitched among trees at a forest campsite