Snow King

A few days ago my sister, mom, and I hiked up Snow King, the town hill of Jackson. To start we went up the requisite front face with me leading as I always like to. After looking out from the Panorama House at the top of the King, we walked to the northeast, down into a saddle, and up the next ridge. It was a steep climb on a very, very faint trail; even though the trail is marked on the map of the mountain and it's visible from the opposite ridge, it was much more difficult to follow from the ground.

When we got to a good lunch spot, a few rocks at the top of the ridge, we got an amazing view of the Tetons. Or at least, it would have been if there hadn't been so much smoke from the fires in Idaho and to the north of the park. Still, it was pretty up there. We could see all the way into the bowl behind the circle of ridges as well as the little trail snaking down into it. It was a nice day, too.

The third part of the hike was back down to the base. Instead of taking the chairlift as we do on occasion, we walked back to the saddle between the two ridges and down the front in the woods. It's really a bike path and has a lot of switchbacks which go down the hill. It's a surprisingly long way down but all very pretty because it's in the deep but sunny part of the pine forest. In all, we think the hike was about 6 miles or so. It was a great day hike and I do recommend it.