Hi there!
I read over and over again how the trail to Delta Lake can be difficult to find.
Basically everyone says it’s an unofficial trail and an unmaintained trail.
You won’t find the Delta Lake hike on the National Park Service list of Grand Teton National Park hiking trails.
While the first part of the trail to Delta Lake is easy to find (that’s at the Lupine Meadows trailhead!)…
The last part of the hike is a bit of a hidden trail to Delta Lake!
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I went to Grand Teton National Park in September. What the weather will be like from year to year can vary (which means the colors can vary!), but this is what it was like for me!
👆 How to get to Delta Lake and Grand Teton National Park: These are the stairs you will be looking for that’s directly off of an official Grand Teton National Park trail. aka the stairs lead to an unofficial trail to Delta Lake. aka the REAL start of the hike to Delta Lake! These stairs to the Delta Lake Trail are easy to miss if you don’t know where to look!
👆 The final steps of the hike to see Delta Lake!
There is no sign to tell you which way to go to get to Delta Lake.
There was even a google review that mentioned people started off on a hike to Delta Lake… they tried to find the trail to Delta Lake… they had difficulty locating it (more directly: they did NOT find it!)… and then they returned to the parking lot having NOT seen Delta Lake!!
That must have been a couple hours of hiking at least without the reward you were putting in all that effort for!
Don’t let this be you!!
Well, with the right preparation, you most definitely do NOT need to go through that disappointment!
Although if you do end up not finding it, you can just continue hiking and you will end up at Surprise Lake and Amphitheater Lake! So I guess that’s your back-up plan if you give up looking for the trail to Delta Lake!
How to prepare to get to Delta Lake
THE single most helpful thing you can do to prepare for getting to Delta Lake is to download the free app called mapsme!
You will want to be sure to also download the Wyoming map on mapsme before you start driving to Grand Teton National Park.
I used this app for hiking to Delta Lake, and it made it super easy to find the spur trail to Delta Lake!
👆 Delta Lake hiking map: The app that made getting to Delta Lake easy!
I used it for basically all the other day hikes in Wyoming that I did too.
The mapsme Wyoming map will make it VERY easy to get to Delta Lake!
How does it work?
You just need to have your GPS locator on your phone on.
You may not get much data in Grand Teton National Park, but you will generally get GPS.
It may not be perfect, but it works well enough!
It worked well enough for the purposes of knowing where to look out for the side trail to Delta Lake!
Once I got really near Delta Lake, I happened to look down at the app and it was a little weird, but by that point I was close enough that the app wasn’t necessary!
More below about how to get to Delta Lake!
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Now…
How to get to Delta Lake
Here are the simple steps to get to Delta Lake:
- Enter Grand Teton National Park
- Drive to the Lupine Meadows trailhead
- Start hiking the Surprise Amphitheater Trail and follow that until the Delta Lake trail junction
- Pay attention to the mapsme app as you’re hiking so you know where to find the trail to Delta Lake!
- Start hiking the trail to Delta Lake!
- Arrive at Delta Lake!
1. Enter Grand Teton National Park
The start of Delta Lake is in Grand Teton National Park, so you will have to go through an official Grand Teton National Park entry booth to get there.
Cost to hike to Delta Lake
Because the Delta Lake hike is within the paid entry area of Grand Teton National Park, it means that there is a cost to hike to Delta Lake. That is the Grand Teton National Park entry fee.
In 2023, this iss $35 per car for a 7-day Grand Teton pass. (There is no one-day pass.) See current fees.
👆 Cost of Grand Teton National Park entry fees in 2021.
If you will be visiting at least 3 national parks in one year, then you may want to consider getting the annual national parks pass.
2. Drive to the Lupine Meadows trailhead
The starting point of the Delta Lake hike is at the Lupine Meadows trailhead.
Google maps will get you there. (map)
Once again you may not have data service in Grand Teton National Park, so you may want to download offline google maps before you go. This is free.
You will be driving on part of the Grand Teton Scenic Loop Drive to get to the start of the Delta Lake hike. Depending on which direction you’re coming from you might want to also drive along the Jenny Lake Scenic Drive on your way to the Delta Lake hike.
When you are near the road to the Lupine Meadows trailhead, you will see a sign for it.
And then you will keep driving until you get to the Lupine Meadows trailhead parking lot!
It is a scenic drive to get to the parking lot aka the start of the Delta Lake hike!
👆 On this particular late September day between 10am and 11am, parking was not an issue at all. But it seems that if you go at peak season in the summer, parking can be an issue. Many people recommend getting to here early to secure a parking spot.
3. Start hiking the Surprise – Amphitheater Trail and follow that until the Delta Lake trail junction
Then off you go hiking to Delta Lake!
You can start off following the signs to Surprise Lake and Amphitheater Lake.
The spur trail that goes off to Delta Lake is located directly off the same trail that leads to Surprise Lake and Amphitheater Lake.
4. Pay attention to the mapsme app as you’re hiking so you know where to find the trail to Delta Lake!
And then once the map tells you that you are basically right at the Delta Lake trail… look for the stairs!
Your back-up plan: How to find the Delta Lake spur trail without a map
If you realize that you forgot to download the mapsme app or you forgot to download the specific Wyoming map on mapsme (do it now!), your back-up plan is to look DOWN basically any time the trail loops back around completely! (aka any time there’s a switchback.)
As you see on the map, there are many such switchbacks.
You will be looking for the stairs on the RIGHT side as you are hiking up the Surprise Amphitheater Trail.
5. Start hiking the trail to Delta Lake!
Off you go hiking the final part of the trail to Delta Lake! Up until now was mostly the easy part of the hike!
Now you will be hiking across big rocks and boulders. There’s a bit of an uphill to get to the lake too.
6. Arrive at Delta Lake!!
I hiked the Delta Lake trail in September 2021. Everything subject to change, but this is how it was when I went!
And that’s a bit about how to get to Delta Lake!
More for your trip to Grand Teton National Park and beyond:
- How to spend one day in Grand Teton National Park
- Driving the 42-mile Grand Teton scenic loop drive
- Driving from Grand Teton to Yellowstone
- How to spend one day in Yellowstone National Park
- Wyoming hikes with amazing views
- Best places to visit in Wyoming
HAPPY GETTING TO DELTA LAKE!
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