Surprise and Amphitheater Lakes Hike

Unbelievably, someone Laurie works with was in Jackson Hole at the same time we were visiting so we actually met four other people for a hike in the Tetons. What's incredible is that they were planning to do this exact same hike on the same day as we were!!! If we had not called them, we could have run into them on the trail at some point. What a small world...

Amphitheater Lake and View of the Grand Teton!

All the hikes we had done to this point prepared us well for this 9.8-mile hike with a 3,000-foot vertical rise. Wanting to avoid the heat, we met at the trailhead at 8:30am. (This was a good move as it turns out because it was in the upper 80s by the time we completed the hike.) We cruised up the switchbacked trail mile after mile and we reached the lake by about 11:30am.

Yes, for all you skiers viewing these photos, that thin line of snow above the lake had one set of ski tracks in it and I was drooling. Not that I would have skied it now! It needed way more snow but what a run that would be.


After a quick lunch/snack, we scurried down .2 mile to visit Surprise Lake. We saw a couple of marmots near the lake and they were not disturbed one bit by our presence.

At Surprise Lake

We made it back down to the car by 1:45pm, just as it was starting to get oppressively hot. Everyone else on the trail reported seeing a young black bear but the six of us were not that fortunate.

This was a really nice hike and the trail was excellent as long as you don't mind the back and forth of the switchbacks. From the lake the Grand summit looked tantalizingly close. It's hard to believe that it's another 4,000 feet higher!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nonetheless, after all this hiking I am somewhat inspired to attempt a "grand" feat like that some day. Of course, to accomplish a hike like this (or Rainier, e.g.) I would need to have a guide and get some basic mountaineering training. At least I feel like I could do it physically, which is a good feeling. Maybe next summer...