Most guidebooks will have you park in the South Jenny Lake parking lot and walk three miles around the lake to the beginning of trail leading to Inspiration Point. Alternatively, they will point out the option of taking a boat from the Jenny Lake Boat dock. Not me.
Instead you should drive to String Lake. You can reach it by heading ten miles north of the Moose Entrance to Grand Teton National Park. Turn left at the signed North Jenny Lake Junction. It is another one and a half miles to the String Lake parking lot access road on the right. There are three lots, park in the first one. If it is full, you can go to one of the others, get out of the car, head for the lake and turn left on the trail until you reach the first lot.
From the first parking lot head south, following the short trail that skirts the eastern edge of the lake. Within a couple of hundred yards you will see a bridge on your right cross it, or perhaps stop in the middle and marvel at the view.
After the bridge the trail bears west and south. It passes through area burnt from a forest fire in 1999, incredible views of the Tetons looming over the hills, and a fast moving stream on your left. When you reach an intersection after about one third of a mile, bear left, rather than breaking right to continue around String Lake. The path will take you about 1.5 miles to Jenny Lake and then head west along the lake shore for a short stretch to the western edge of Jenny Lake where the boat ramp is located  (hopefully you arrived at a different time than the boat).
From the boat ramp, head up the rocky path a half mile to a short signed path to the 200 foot drop of Hidden Falls. After marveling at the view, retrace your steps and move on, cross the bridge in front of you and head uphill another half mile and almost 500 vertical feet, the last part of which is up a wide rocky ledge to Inspiration Point. Sit down, take off your back pack and drink in the view before turning back the way you came back to String Lake.
Speak Your Mind