Wyoming Reflections: Walking to a Different View

Jade Lakes Trail

Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming
5 miles round-trip, easy

You can’t see anything from a car; you’ve got to get out of the goddamn contraption and walk.... With apologies to noted essayist, ardent environmentalist, and quintessential American curmudgeon Edward Abbey, the story of this hike begins where the rubber meets the road, behind the wheel of a rented 2017 Midnight Black Toyota Sienna, with a view through dust-dashed, bug-bespattered windshield glass. We are withdrawing from the spectacular-if-circumscribed splendor of Grand Teton National Park for the day, heading east on Wyoming Highway 26/287, travelling through a section of the southern Absaroka Range near the continental divide. A few miles east of the Togwotee (for the phonetically inclined, that's toe-guh-tee) Pass, striking scenery comes into view: a miles-long monolith of stratified volcanic bluff rising majestically, almost incomprehensibly, into capacious Wyoming sky. The vista from our rented 2017 Midnight Black Toyota Sienna inspires us: generally, to remove ourselves posthaste from said vehicle and specifically, to take an easy hike to a pair of high-country lakes proximate to those majestic, almost incomprehensible, Breccia Cliffs.

Across the Meadow and toward the Cliffs....

After turning off the highway and bouncing along gravel road for a few miles, we park near a campground and guest ranch and locate a signed trailhead on the southern shore of Brooks Lake. Our hike begins with a half-mile-or-so stretch on Yellowstone Trail 823, a flat, easy ramble across broad meadow, with Breccia Cliffs dominating the western horizon. The route welcomes horse traffic and thus requires a bit of bobbing and stutter-stepping to avoid deposits of, shall we say, equine excrement. At a trail split where signage would theoretically point the way to Jade Lakes, we find instead a toppled gray-weathered post minus a sign—but we correctly choose the left-split, northwest toward the cliffs.

A Stream Meanders through the Meadow, Yellowstone Trail 823.

Over the next half-mile-or-so, the trail ascends through wooded terrain. We gain approximately five hundred feet, with several steep climbs followed by several give-some-of-it-back segments. The way is not torturous at all; however, we suck a little wind at elevation and, before the trail levels, I find opportunity to mutter a comical, expletive-laced mantra while stumble-scurrying down a drop-off.

Late-Season Wildflowers Line the Trail.

We soon find ourselves winding through meadow and open forest. Dappled sunshine, precipitation, and elevation have conspired to create a late-season trailside bloom show. We wonder at all this uncontrived color dotted amidst meadow green: pink and coral, yellow and periwinkle, purple and red. Beautiful! Beguiling!

Not a Jade Lake.

We also encounter a smallish, sluggish pond: this murky, olive-drab pool in no way qualifies as a Jade Lake, and so we snap a documenting photo and continue on our way. Not Quite As Beautiful! A Bit Less Than Beguiling!

Upper Jade Lake.

In a mile-and-a-half-or-so, a fleeting glimpse through pine trees leaves little question about the etymological roots of Upper Jade Lake. Steps quicken, and we descend eagerly into the basin that holds an elongated splash of jade-hued water. We mention here that Nephrite Jade is the official gemstone of Wyoming. So that's a little bit interesting.

Reflecting Beauty: Upper Jade Lake and Breccia Cliffs.

We are struck by the visual aesthetics of this place... a reflecting lake, set against something well-worth reflecting: the ancient striations of Breccia Cliffs, jutting hundreds of feet skyward, upturned and echoed in the glorious green-glass of Upper Jade Lake. Standing there, breathing there, being there, taking it all in, it seems as if Nature declared, This is good. Let's see it twice. And let's add wildflowers.

Wildflowers at Upper Jade Lake.

The waterside wildflower display does indeed invite us to browse, to linger. It is quiet here: just the whisper of breeze-stirred grass, an occasional bird call, the click of a camera shutter, the hollow padding of our hiking boots on damp lakeshore dirt.

Home for Trout.

Upper Jade Lake, elevation somewhere between 9500 and 9600 feet, is reportedly fair-enough for fishing, and we spy trout, cutthroat we think, moving soundlessly through waters beyond the shallows. 

Along the Shoreline Trail, Upper Jade Lake.

Crossing the Connector Creek.

We continue on a narrow path that traces the eastern shore of Upper Jade. Looking across the lake, we observe evidence of pine bark beetle kill, a moody swath of silver-gray hugging water's edge. Stepping on well-placed flat rocks, we cross a connector creek and descend just-a-bit, and to the northeast just-a-bit, to Lower Jade Lake. 

At Lower Jade Lake.

This is Upper Jade’s fraternal twin: not as photogenic, a more pedestrian view, perhaps. But there's a fallen tree along the shoreline that provides a nice spot for light refreshment... a ration of Chips Ahoy, a shared Red Delicious apple, hydration from a wide-mouthed bottle we carry with us.

On the Return, a Glance Back at Breccia Cliffs.

Although we had read about several looping return-hike options, we go back by the way we came, encountering one fellow human along the way. The congenial, chatty woman from California confides that she is on a leisurely Wyoming walkabout after a stint of driveway camping during the total solar eclipse. Far out!

Brooks Lake Panorama.

Before declaring the hike complete, we pause to take a longer look at Brooks Lake, loveliness located pretty much smack-dab at the trailhead. There are fisher-people scattered along the windswept water's edge, undoubtedly meeting with various levels of angling success—and certainly sharing sublime views of a cerulean mountain lake in the craggy shadows of Pinnacle Buttes.

Wildflower Memories, Jade Lakes Trail.

You can’t see anything from a car; you’ve got to get out of the goddamn contraption and walk, better yet crawl… When traces of blood begin to mark your trail, you’ll see something, maybe.... Happily for us today, the seeing something was more than maybe, did not draw blood, and did not require crawling. Just a hankering for a change of scenery, several thousand upright footsteps, and half-a-sleeve of Chips Ahoy.

 Leigh Lake, Late Afternoon in Shadow of the Tetons.

Re-ensconced in Abbey's goddamn contraption, driving west once more, we turn from volcanic cliffs, jade-green lakes, and serendipitous mirror images. We reflect upon the goodness and utility of changing views and prospects and perspectives in this life: of being near and far, close and removed, inside and outside, of being above and below and beyond something in a wide and varied world. As we cross the continental divide, a blue-blanketed silhouette of the Teton Range returns to view, a prospect changed by where we've been and where we're going... a perspective at once diminished and made more eloquent by opaque haze from distant wildfires.