An unbroken wilderness a few years ago, the Grand Teton National Park is now penetrated by some of the finest trails in the national-park system. These trails, suitable alike for travel afoot or on saddle horses, are 3 to 4 feet wide, free of boulders, and of grade so moderate they may be followed by old or young with full safety and a minimum of physical exertion. While the trails are traversable during the greater part of the summer, some of them may be blocked by snow early in the season. Those visitors expecting to climb the high trails should inquire at park headquarters or the office at the museum at Jenny Lake for information regarding the condition of the high trails.

The Lakes Trail runs parallel to the mountains, following closely the base of the range and skirting the shore of each large body of water from Leigh Lake at the north to Phelps Lake at the south. It makes accessible the most important lakes, canyons, and peaks of the park, and is naturally the one from which all expeditions into the range begin. One can encircle by trail either Jenny Lake or String Lake, the hike around the former being one of the most popular in the park.

The Canyon Trails described below are spur trails extending westward from the Lakes Trail, back into the most rugged areas in the Teton Range. Intervening canyons have been left in their splendid wildness.

The Teton Glacier Trail extends up the east slope of the Grand Teton to two alpine lakes, Surprise and Amphitheater, at altitudes close to 10,000 feet. By means of the 17 switchbacks on this trail the hiker or horseman climbs to a point on the face of the Grand Teton, 3,000 feet above the floor of the valley, throughout this ascent enjoying matchless panoramas of the entire Jackson Hole country, and witnesses a view extending eastward 80 miles to the Wind River Mountains, whose peaks and glaciers are sharply outlined against the horizon. Amphitheater Lake, at the end of the trail, occupies a protected glacial cirque and is the starting point for Teton Glacier, the most accessible of the ice fields, three-fourths of a mile northwest from the end of the trail. Though seasoned hikers make the climb from Jenny Lake to the glacier by way of this trail, one can, if he chooses, take horses as far as Amphitheater Lake, and continue on foot with a guide over to the glacier.

The Indian Paintbrush Trail starts near the outlet of Leigh Lake and follows up the bottom of Indian Paintbrush Canyon to connect with the Cascade Canyon Trail by way of Lake Solitude, a lakelet of rarest beauty at timber line near the head of the north fork of Cascade Canyon. The wealth of wild flowers along this trail gives name to the canyon, and early or late in the day one may see big game, especially moose, near the lakes and swamps. This trail affords superb views of Jackson and Leigh Lakes eastward beyond the mouth of the canyon, and westward along the Divide glimpses of snowclad ridges and peaks.

The Cascade Canyon Trail passes through a chasm whose walls rise sheer on either side for thousands of feet. By this trail one penetrates into the deepest recesses of the Tetons. It skirts the base of several of the noblest peaks, Teewinot, Mount Owen, Table Mountain, and the Three Tetons, and it enables one to see these titans not only at close range but from new and impressive angles. Lake Solitude may be reached by means of this trail, by taking the Cascade Canyon-Indian Paintbrush loop trail leading up the north fork of Cascade Canyon.

The Death Canyon Trail traverses the full length of a canyon which in its lower portion is of profound depth and grandeur, as awesome as its name, but which above opens into broad, sunny meadows. No canyon better illustrates the difference between the rugged, alpine landscapes developed in the crystalline rock of the Teton east border and the softer contours formed in the sedimentary strata to the west, near the Divide.

The Skyline Trail is that portion of the trail system which connects the Indian Paintbrush, Cascade Canyon, and Death Canyon Trails. Following down the north fork, then up the south fork of Cascade Canyon, it crosses the head of Avalanche Canyon to Alaska Basin, in the western watershed of the Tetons, thence over a high saddle on Buck Mountain and down a series of switchbacks to join the Death Canyon Trail. This trail takes the hiker, or rider, through alpine meadows to rugged cliffs and ledges above timber line from which can be viewed to the westward the valleys and mountains of Idaho, as well as the Wyoming country to the east as far as the Wind River Range. In traversing this loop one completely encircles the three Tetons and adjacent high peaks, viewing them from all sides, and learns to know them with an intimacy impossible to the visitor who contents himself with distant views.