Amphitheater Lake is a lake formed by glaciers in Grand Teton National Park. It can be reached from Lupine Meadows trailhead or Taggart Lake trail head. The hike to Amphitheater Lake is considered to be strenuous due to the 10 miles round trip distance and the elevation gain. However, Amphitheater is still one of the most popular lake that visitors go to.
We hiked to Amphitheater Lake from Taggart Lake. We were not planning to go to Amphitheater Lake originally. But since we visited both Taggart Lake and Bradley Lake already and still have a lot of time left, we figured that we might as well go visit Amphitheater Lake. When we got to the junction of Lupine Meadow trail and Taggart Lake trail, we were still 3 miles away from Amphitheater Lake. We had a look at the amount of water that we still got and figured that we should still be good to go.
The hike started to climb rapidly from the junction. The good thing was that it was still early in the morning and the temperature was not hot yet. We kept our pace and did quite well for the first 1.5 miles. We passed many other hikers who were taking rest for a long time.
We then got to another junction where the trail branches off to the other canyon. We stayed on the trail and knew that there was only 1.5 miles left. There was a lot of switch backs. Since we were so high up, we could see Taggart Lake and Bradley Lake far below us.
After about an hour, we got to Surprise Lake. Now we know we were only 0.2 miles away from Amphitheater Lake. We were tired due to the hot weather. The last 0.2 miles seemed to take longer than ever. The trail was still climbing and we finally got to Amphitheater Lake.
The temperature at Amphitheater Lake was amazing due to the glaciers and the ice cold water. It had really cooled us off. When we got there, there wasn't that many people around as we were the first few to get here. The lake has mountains surrounding it with patches of snow here and there. We sat down to really enjoy this beautiful view while having some snacks.
While we were resting, more people started to come up to the lake. We also noticed that there was another path that goes up to the mountain. This trail was not on the map but we figured that it probably leads to the top of the mountain. We were thinking of doing that next time.
Over all, we really enjoyed the hike to Amphitheater Lake. The lake was really different from the other lakes that we have seen so far. The temperature was perfect there and we almost fell asleep.
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