Delta Lake in Grand Teton National Park on a Monday in early August 2025.

Once upon a time, there was a hidden gem in Grand Teton National Park called Delta Lake. Few people knew how to get there, and though directions were available if you knew where to look, they were vague: start at a popular trailhead, go off-trail a few switchbacks up the mountainside, pick your way through pine trees and up a rock field to an icy turquoise lake, opaque with glacial silt. 

I first visited this lake in 2015, shortly after moving to Jackson, Wyoming. It was before the pandemic, before the surge in remote jobs, before the rise of breathtaking, geo-tagged photos on social media. Jackson was, of course, already on the tourist radar for its world-class skiing and national park. But it was relatively quiet. You could still secure parking spots and first-come, first-served dispersed camping sites without much competition. 

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There was (and still is) no official trail to Delta Lake. My friend and I got lost by entering the woods too soon. We ended up turning around, retracing our steps, and eventually finding the right way. Prickly vegetation hugged the rock field, and the only way to ascend the hillside was to boulder hop. When we got to the lake, there was no one there. 

When I revisited the lake in the summer of 2025, everything had changed. Thanks to social media and GPS hiking apps, the lake is now one of the park’s most photographed destinations, and a maze of paths stomped into the vegetation have supplanted a rugged, bushwhacking adventure. 

Visitors enjoy Delta Lake in August 2025.

“It was shocking,” said Christian Beckwith, longtime local, founder and executive director of the Teton Climbers’ Coalition, of his first time seeing the destruction in 2025. “I was finding toilet paper and plastic bottles. It was a dagger to the heart.” 

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An average of 308 people trek to the lake daily in the summer, according to Grand Teton National Park data. Last year, on the Sunday before Labor Day, more than 750 people did the hike. In 2016, the year the park began tracking visitation, an average of 57 people visited the lake during the summer — accounting for a whopping 440% increase on the route in the past decade. 

Delta Lake’s visitor surge is just part of a bigger story of booming recreation in the Tetons. Last year was the second most popular year on record, with more than 3.7 million people visiting the park through November. Nine popular trailheads, used to gauge hiking pressure, have seen a 54% increase in use since 2005. While visitation has increased 15% in the last decade, there’s also been a 25% increase of people hiking on the park’s trails. “We’re seeing people on the landscape in a very, very different way than we did 10 years ago,” Superintendent Chip Jenkins told SFGATE. 

When I........

© SFGate