The Delta Lake hike in Grand Teton National Park is a humbling one. It’s an uphill grind, partly up steep rocky off-trail terrain that leads to a majestic, unforgettable view: the Grand Teton itself framed by the lake’s pristine turquoise blue waters. It’s a quintessential sight of the Rocky Mountains and, in our opinion, the must-do of the park.
Delta Lake might be the epitome of Grand Teton National Park. When we think of Grand Teton, we think of craggy peaks, alpine lakes, steep hikes, sage brush, the Snake River, bison, and bears. The Delta Lake hike hits on many of these notes. We only had time for one longer hike in the park, and while we also considered the hike to Cascade Canyon (we didn’t realize the Jenny Lake ferry hours were reduced post-Labor Day), we just couldn’t pass up an up-close view of Grand Teton from an alpine blue lake.
The Delta Lake hike begins at Lupine Meadows Trailhead, one of the most popular trailheads in the park. It’s the starting point for many mountaineers looking to summit the Grand Teton, plus hikes to Delta, Surprise, and Amphitheater Lakes. We arrived at the trailhead early around 7 AM and easily found a parking spot, but it was still surprising busy. We put on our boots and sunscreen and hit the trail.
The first section of the trail heads due south as it gains a ridge extending from the mountains to the west. The forest is thick through here so we were on alert for bears, but we didn’t see any likely because of the heavy use this trail sees (though we’ve read many reviews mentioning bear sightings). What we did see – or more accurately, hear – were elk bugling loudly in the distance.
Once the trail gains the ridge it runs west and climbs straight up into the mountains. Generally speaking this section of the trail is well graded, but as you can see from the picture below it wastes no time gaining elevation.
Every once in a while an opening in the forest would give views to the peaks above or the large glacially carved lakes below.
After 1.7 miles and 700 ft of elevation gain, there is a trail split where the left fork leads down to Bradley Lake and the right continues higher up into the Tetons. This trail split also marks a drastic change in the character of the trail. The trees thin (RIP shade) and a switchback section begins.
This part of the hike is tough (but not yet the toughest part of the hike!), especially on a warm summer day. Thankfully it only lasts for 1.4 miles, 1000 ft of elevation gain, and approximately 6 switchbacks.
Pay attention in this section: at the end of one of the switchbacks, a small use trail heads in the opposite direction. This is the split that leads to Delta Lake.
It should be mentioned that the trail to Delta Lake is not “official” – it is not mentioned at the trailhead and there are no markings for it on the way. It is supposedly not maintained by the Park Service, however we did see workers on the unofficial section clearing some debris.
Not long after the split, the trail gets rougher: there’s a lot of deadfall and talus to climb over. It’s less than 0.5 mile to the lake from the split, but it took us almost an hour to scramble up the rocks. Part of us wishes that the Park Service would do some trail maintenance to limit the human footprint, but another part thinks keeping this trail on the down low will reduce that footprint. It will be interesting to see how they manage it in the future.
After the slog up the last 500 ft, we were finally rewarded with our first glimpse of the lake. We’ve seen our fare share of breathtakingly blue alpine lakes, but we were definitely awestruck by the view of the Grand Teton framing the turquoise waters. It was nothing short of majestic.
After catching our breath from the hike and the view, we walked around the north side of the lake and out onto some rocks where we ate lunch, took in the views more, and snapped some photos. The hour or so we enjoyed at the lake is one of our most vivid memories from our trip to the Teton and Yellowstone area.
We could have stayed all day, but it was getting later and we knew the hike back would likely take just as long as the hike up due to the steep rocky terrain.
While the hike is definitely steep at a 2300 ft total elevation gain, it is not the hardest we have done, in large part because the trail begins at “only” 6300 ft and the lake sits at 9000 ft. While that’s nowhere near sea level, it doesn’t compare to many hikes in Colorado that begin at or above 10,000 ft and often have destinations above 12,000 ft, where to us, the air feels noticeably thinner. To us, this was a definite “pro” for the hike.
A couple hours later, we made it down, feet a little bruised and stomachs a little hungry, but hearts humbled by the mountains yet again. Being at Delta Lake is likely the closest many people will ever be to Grand Teton itself (short of climbing it), and we are grateful to have been in its presence.
