More trail work is scheduled for the Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park/NPS file
Crews are returning to the high country of Grand Teton National Park to resume rehab work on the Teton Crest Trail that crawls through the spectacular backcountry framed by the rugged Tetons.
Last year work on the iconic trail was focused along Hurricane Pass. Now crews are going to be working on the trail near the summit of Paintbrush Divide. As a result, there will be 30-minute closures on that section between July 22-27 and August 5-10. Visitors planning on hiking over Paintbrush Divide during these dates should expect delays in both directions.
The Teton Crest Trail is a 45-mile long trail through the high country of the Teton Range. Sections of the trail were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps dating back to 1934, and despite constant use, much of the trail has remained largely untouched by park maintenance crews since then.
Paintbrush Divide is the highest point along the Teton Crest Trail at 10,700 feet/3,261 meters in elevation. The eastern slope is a scree slope and over time, water flow from melting snow and yearly visitor use has eroded and shifted the trail. The trail damage now poses safety hazards to hikers.
During construction, loose materials such as rocks and gravel may be moved downhill and cause a safety hazard to hikers below. For safety purposes, the trail will have intermittent closures during construction activities. Closures will allow uninterrupted work to be performed and time to clear the trail of any newly created hazards.
Work on Hurricane Pass, another highly impacted section of the Teton Crest Trail, began last summer and will continue this summer. There will be no delays at Hurricane Pass.
The Grand Teton National Park Foundation has committed to help enhance and sustain the park’s spectacular trails. The Foundation’s support enables the National Park Service to assess, plan, and execute specialized trail initiatives.
The recent completion of restoration projects at Jenny Lake, including the backcountry trails leading to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point, and the current Snake River Gateways project are other successful examples of how the Foundation and the park work in partnership to enhance the visitor experience and protect park resources.
Comments
Brings to mind working trail crew at GRTE with crew leader Burt Russell more than 40 years ago. Burt had begun his 50+ seasonal summer years on trail crew at the park in the mid-1960s (as a seventeen year old) working primarily on project to construct a safer better route over Paintbrush Divide. It may have been then and there he first heard and repeated one of the mainstays one of his leadership repetoire, "more rock, bigger rock ..."