Devil's Staircase/Alaska Basin Run

Mark and I, and one of Mark's coworkers, Nate, had planned to do the Devil's Staircase/Alaska Basin loop for a trail run. It's a beautiful 17 mile loop by the Tetons. The weekend we were supposed to go, there was terrible weather in that area. There was wind, snow, and really cold temperatures, so we had to postpone it a few weeks. That 3 week difference sure made for an adventure! It was 29 degrees when we started, but once we got running, it felt perfect. We ended up with a beautiful day in the upper 50s, low 60s. We ran the first few miles to the start of the Devil's Staircase climb. We walked up the hill for the next mile. When we got to the top, we came across snow. We thought we'd see snow, but we had no idea how much there would be! We are talking FEET of snow! We fell through it with each step we took, so it made for some slow going! We thought if we just pushed through until the Alaska Basin junction, we'd be fine! WRONG! It got deeper! We walked through 7 miles of snow, and in some places we could no longer tell where the trail was, so we had to guess and make our own. Good times! It was actually pretty fun, but it took a lot longer than we thought, because we couldn't run, so we were starting to stress out that we were gonna miss Bailey's cross country race that evening. Once we got through that 7 miles, we were able to run the last 7 miles back. It was still muddy, and a little snowy, but that made it fun. We ended up running about 9-10 miles of it, and walking 7-8. We were really sore from pulling our legs out of the snow with each step. It was rough on our lower back muscles. I'm happy to say that we made it to Bailey's race, mud and all! We are already planning on doing it again next year, but not so late in the season!

At the Devil's Staircase junction.

Not a bad view!

Getting into the snow....

Mark and Nate with the Tetons behind them.

This is what the trail looked like most of the way. Sometimes it wasn't that easy to find, and we would lose it for awhile.

This was only Nate's second trail run! Good thing he's a good sport!

We lost the trail at this point, so we made our own down a mountain!

Hahaha, look how deep it is! You can't tell from the picture, but this area came above my knees!

This gives a good view of the trail we made.

Refilling water.

So pretty!

This was the only wildlife we saw!

So much fun! Mark is loving the trail running! We have a few long ones planned for next season, so we're both pretty excited! I wish fall could last forever in this area, but clearly winter has already hit the mountains!