Hiking and Backpacking the Palisades Creek Trail

 Recently I've gotten into backpacking! Scott and I got a bunch of gear in May to commit us and then, since December, I have tried to train by hiking the Y every week. There's nothing like planning a trip for motivation so we made a plan to hike the Alaska Basin on Friday and Saturday of this last week. This is an area adjacent to Grand Teton National Park which wouldn't require a permit. We planned this for weeks and then saw that the weather forecast was looking pretty bad with rain, low temperatures, lightning, etc. This would be especially bad at the high elevation we were going to. So we decided to change the hike to the Palisades Creek Trail, hiking to the Upper Palisades Lake and then hiking back out the next day. This turned out to be a really good decision for not just the weather but my hiking abilities. We were still worried about rain so Friday morning, we bought rain suits at Walmart in Rexburg, where we were staying with my sister. Then we drove out to the trailhead which is in Swan Valley.

We started hiking about 11:30am. It was me, my husband and my brother.

It was slightly rainy when we started but never got heavy. I used my backpack cover most of the time while Scott used a plastic garbage sack since his pack didn't come with one. My pack weighed about 20 lbs. while Scott's weighed about 35 lbs. since he was carrying my chair, our tent, and the bear can with our food. I really appreciated him carrying so much of the gear. 

We saw a few snakes on the trail as well as some chipmunks and squirrels. But no bears. We were prepared with bear spray regardless since bears inhabit the area.

The temperatures were ideal, not too hot or cold. It was overcast and we also did not have a bug problem. I mostly hiked in a short sleeve shirt, as did Scott. Four miles into the hike, we arrived at the Lower Palisades Lake. There are six bridges on the way to this lake.

We took a break and then kept going to the Upper Lake, eventually arriving about 5:30. It was 7 miles from the trailhead and about 1600 elevation gain counting some ups and downs. We set up camp in one of the campsites and had some dinner.

After dinner we walked down to the lake and then retired early for the night since we were feeling pretty tired.

That turned out to be good timing because it started raining about 30-45 minutes after we went to bed. It seemed like a ton of rain falling on our tent but probably wasn't that heavy. It rained periodically throughout the night and was raining when we woke up at 5:30. We eventually had breakfast in the rain and then about 7:30 it stopped raining in time for us to pack up our stuff. We started hiking back about 8:20, and with several breaks, we were done by 12:40.

Temperatures were in the mid-50's and were quite comfortable. Scott and I wore out rain spots so the wet bushes along the trail wouldn't soak us. The trail got pretty wet and muddy in spots and there were some giant puddles. My shoes got quite wet and I enjoyed changing into dry socks about halfway through. However, it didn't rain on us and the scenery was very picturesque, especially with the mist rising up from the trees.

We saw more people on the way back, not surprising since it was a Saturday. Some people were just going for a short hike while some were going up to camp. Fishing is quite popular on this hike.

In the end, I realized that this was a much better and doable hike for me. This still felt like it stretched my abilities and I'm not sure I could have done anything more difficult--longer or higher. I need to train more if I want to do more difficult hikes. And this hike was really beautiful too. I'm glad I got to do it and we didn't let the ominous weather forecast stop us.