Park to explore access options for Delta Lake

Social trail that sometimes sees as many as 500 visitors per day needs TLC.

By Christina MacIntosh

ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTER

Grand Teton National Park will be working with the Teton Climbers’ Coalition and the Access Fund, a national climbing advocacy organization, to find strategies to prevent erosion on the (very) social trail to Delta Lake.

The partnership comes after the coalition raised concerns about the state of the trail and offered its services in finding a solution.

A site visit with the organizations is in the works, with potential solutions including clarifying the route to prevent a proliferation of social trails and mobilizing community volunteers to disseminate information about responsible recreation, said Chip Jenkins, superintendent of Grand Teton park.

The partnership with the climbers is an example of “active shared stewardship,” Jenkins said.

“The Climbers’ Coalition and no doubt other people in the community are raising their hands, raising their voices and saying, ‘Hey, we have questions and we have concerns about what’s happening here,’” Jenkins said.

Tucked into Glacier Gulch beneath the East Face of the Grand Teton at 9,000 feet, Delta Lake was until recently a seldom-visited spot that few hikers even knew of. There is no official trail or sign directing people there. But in the age of social media, the glacially fed lake has become a must-visit backdrop for people to snap selfies with the Grand Teton in the background.

The Delta Lake trail counter clocked 500 visitors per day this past Fourth of July weekend, Jenkins said. Data collected in 2024 indicates that 52% of the cars parked at the chronically busy Lupine Meadows Trailhead are hikers in search of Delta.

The park does not necessarily have an appetite for an official trail, which could have unintended consequences such as increasing foot traffi c to the lake or diverting visitors in search of a rugged experience to other, less visited parts of the park, Jenkins said. It’s also not a visitor experience issue.

“People who are going up there appear to be having a really good time,” Jenkins said, citing the trail’s high rating on the AllTrails site.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a rugged trail, and visitors in search of developed trails can hike elsewhere in the park, such as to Hidden Falls or Inspiration Point, he said.

“Is the problem at Delta Lake that it’s a really rugged route and that there’s a section that’s a couple hundred feet long that is denuded of vegetation and is really hard to get up?” Jenkins said.

Visitor enjoyment aside, the park is concerned about impacts to vegetation and wildlife, as well as human waste. But building a wider, formal trail also would create a disturbance, Jenkins said.

Christian Beckwith, founder and executive director of Teton Climbers’ Coalition, understands that the park is not pursuing a “full-blown rehabilitation of the trail,” but the Access Fund’s conservation team can help with “stopping the bleeding,” he said.

The aim of the project is to initiate a rapid intervention that consolidates the grading and erosion in place on the social trail, Beckwith said.

Jenkins previously worked with the Access Fund in the early 2010s, while superintendent at North Cascades National Park in Washington. The organization was “terrific” in helping the park rein in social trails from a parking lot to the Newhalem Crag, including mobilizing volunteers and disseminating information to climbers about responsible recreation.

“We’re all in on getting that help,” Jenkins said, adding that it aligns with the park’s interest in shared and community-based stewardship.

The park is public land, and it’s not the superintendent’s or the National Park Service’s opinion about Delta Lake that matters most, Jenkins said.

“We make decisions in concert with the community and the public about what we’re doing,” he said.

Delta Lake is a microcosm of the challenges facing Teton park, Jackson Hole and even the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Over the past 10 years, visitation to Teton park increased by 20% and visitors on trails or in the backcountry increased by 40%.

“People are looking for the next cool place,” Jenkins said. “What does that mean for all of us? What does it mean for the community? What does that mean for the land managers?”

Contact Christina MacIntosh at 307-732-5911 or environmental@jhnewsandguide.com.