GTNP-Cascade Canyon

As a lot of our friends and family know, almost 4 years ago to the day (15 days early) Dave and I met on trail while each solo hiking Cascade Canyon to Lake Solitude. While planning this roadtrip we knew we wanted to try and find the exact spot on the hike that we met and today we set out to do just that. We really hoped to spot a moose along the way (the hero of our relationship) and I guess we hoped too hard! While walking along Jenny Lake to the start of the canyon we spotted a momma moose and her young calf at (of all places) Moose Pond. They were fairly far away and in the brush, but we still really loved seeing them and feeling like it was a great sign for the day. That…was an understatement. Less than a mile later we came upon 3 other hikers who asked if we had seen moose on the trail. They meant ON the trail as one of them saw them shortly before but the other two didn’t. Turned out the one who saw the moose is from Germany and was every startled seeing them. Shortly after continuing down the trail, low and behold the two moose were back on the trail!! We made sure they knew we were there to avoid surprises, and they didn’t seem to care. These massive animals can turn moods quickly and are much faster than we are so we tried to give them as much space as we could. At one point they moved off trail and we tried to scoot by while they munched on vegetation. As we were almost even with them, the bull moose calf decided he wanted back on trail and we quickly back pedaled. They kept on trail for a bit in front of us and we slowly meandered until they moved far enough off trail for us to pass successfully. 4 moose in 2 miles! A stunning start to the day.

The trail along the lake is fairly level but once around to the boat dock on the far side it climbs steadily to Hidden Falls (not hidden at all), and to Inspiration Point. These are two popular spots for any visitor to the park for good reason, and we started on the trail at sunrise to avoid most of the masses. After enjoying these spots we headed into the canyon and spotted another female moose! 5 moose is a blessing that some visitors don’t get to experience in multiple visits and we were incredibly grateful. We found our spot (maybe a “little” further into the hike than we both remembered) and spent some time there reminiscing and exchanging our marriage vows. We could not have asked for a better hike.Read more