A Great Backpacking Trip

I’m trying to catch up on my blog posts for the summer now.  The weather has finally turned cold and snowy outside, so it gives me more time inside to do things like this. 
Well, as many of you already know, I had knee surgery earlier this summer.  And because of this, I wasn’t able to do all the hiking and backpacking that I normally try to squeeze into any summer that we are in such an amazing place as Grand Teton National Park.  My last visit to the doctor told me that I could take a backpacking trip as long as it wasn’t too extreme.  Well, that’s all I needed to hear to send me off packing into the woods!!  I began my trip going up Cascade Canyon, which is still amazing and some of the waterfalls were still flowing. 



And so was Cascade Creek down the entire valley.  It wasn’t flowing as much as the last time we were in this area, but it is still just as beautiful.  






After passing that last cascade, it was all new territory for me!  I hiked up the South Fork, and followed that part of the creek along the trail. 






The trail had quite a few creek crossing along the way too.  I was in seventh-heaven out in nature.  This is where I truly find my peace and serenity.  Hiking and backpacking have been a passion of mine since I don’t know when.  If I don’t get enough of it, I start to get real antsy!  How could you not enjoy a scene like this????? 



The wildflowers were still blooming at this higher elevation too. 


As I kept hiking up and up, at times, it felt like I was climbing up to the top of the world.  This is looking over towards North Fork Cascade Canyon. 



The views just continued along the hike.  I did get rained on a little while.  I just found a place under a tree and hung out for about a half hour until it had passed over me. 



The trail crossed over the South Fork of Cascade Creek numerous times along the way. 
Here’s the view looking back towards Cascade Canyon where I had begun my hike.  As I got closer to where I would set up my camp for the next two nights, this cascade was right along the side of the trail. 




I finally arrived where I was going to set up camp.  The view from the location was amazing!  This is looking one direction. 



And then this is the view looking the other direction up at the rock formation called The Wall.  Shortly after I got the tent set up, I had to wait out a thunderstorm as it passed over.  It rained really hard so I was lucky it happened AFTER I had the tent up and not during or before!  I wandered down to the creek to fill water bottles later so I could cook some dinner.  It is such a beautiful area!!! 


After the rains, it cleared up nice and allowed the moon to look incredible that night above all the rocks. 
I’m going to stop this post and I’ll do the rest of the trip in another one as to not overdo it with too many pics in one post.  It’s already written, so you can just continue with the next one!  Don’t miss the views from Hurricane Pass!!