Cruising in Style  on Jenny Lake

Locals and visitors alike love the shuttles and scenic cruises on this lake in GTNP.

// By Jim Mahaffie 

It’s a little before 7 a.m. on a crystal-clear summer morning in Grand Teton National Park. A few dozen hikers and some tourists are already gathered on a wooden boat dock on the eastern shore of Jenny Lake, the second largest and most well-known of the six glacial lakes at the eastern base of the Tetons. The small crowd is there to be ferried two miles across the lake in a motorboat, from its developed eastern shore to its wilder western shore. They’re here so early to beat the crowds that cause a line to form by late morning most summer days. National Park rules forbid private craft with engines greater than 10 horsepower on Jenny Lake, but concessionaire Jenny Lake Boating is allowed to run 34-passenger boats. Between May 15 and the end of September, about 160,000 people enjoy the views and hiking opportunities these boats provide.

Jenny Lake is startlingly pretty, framing the Cathedral Group. Even before GTNP was established in 1929, entrepreneurs began shuttling visitors across the lake. The first to do this was Charles Wort (who later built the Wort Hotel in Jackson). Three generations of the McCain family held the concession for 50 years, until 1998, when Solitude Float Trips, run by Doug Colonel, took over. In 2008, Colonel sold the business to four longtime employees, and they still run it today. 

It is not only a scenic excursion that offers the possibility to see wildlife like moose, bears, otters, and eagles, but it also eliminates two miles of hiking around the lake to get to popular sites on the western shore. A short distance from the boat dock is Hidden Falls, a 100-foot waterfall. Farther up the trail is Inspiration Point with views over Jenny Lake and out to the Gros Ventre and Absaroka mountains. Without the boat shuttle, Hidden Falls is two-and-a-half miles and Inspiration Point is a three-mile hike from the eastern shore. With a boat ride, it’s only a half mile to Hidden Falls and a mile to Inspiration Point. 

“There is little bang for the buck for undertaking the exhausting walk halfway around Jenny Lake,” says local Cliff Sobin. “Whereas the boat ride, which deposits you, rested and eager for more, at the Inspiration Point boat dock, provides a compelling bang for only a few bucks.” JH