Moose Ponds

Starting just past the Jenny Lake shuttle boat dock, this short loop eases you through a mix of conifer forest and open meadow along the south shore of Jenny Lake. The trail is well-packed dirt — nothing technical, nothing punishing — with gentle undulations that barely qualify as elevation change. Within the first half mile, the trees open up to frame Teewinot Mountain so dramatically it looks staged. The ponds themselves are shallow, marshy affairs ringed by willows, and they're exactly the kind of quiet water moose love to wade into at dawn. If you take the three-mile lollipop variation through Lupine Meadows, you'll trade forest shade for wide-open sagebrush flats with the full Teton Range lined up behind them. This is the trail you bring people on when they say they don't like hiking — it'll convert them.