Hiking In

Jenny Lake Ranger Station / Visitor Center

The hike in was about 6.5 miles, gaining over 5000 feet of elevation.  As we planned to camp, we were carrying fairly heavy packs. Our intent was to go to the lower saddle, though as I will explain, we fell a bit short of that. Because the airline misplaced Frank's luggage, we had to go to the airport at 6:00 in the morning to retrieve it - fortunately it had arrived - and got started about 9:00 am.  We knocked off the first three miles in a couple hours, but things got more rugged as we went on.

Early Miles

Starting Up Garnet Canyon

As we entered Garnet Canyon, and approached the Platforms campsite, the terrain became very rough, with numerous large and small boulders mixed with some snow cover.  At times, we were able to follow a hiker's trail, or tracks in snow, but often we were just picking our way through and over the boulders. This was followed by multiple switchbacks up the right side of the canyon, past the 'Caves' and finally to the Moraines campsite.