Climbing Glory Peak, Wyoming (08/06/2026)
Watching as wildfire smoke rolls in over the mountains of Teton Pass.
If you want to summit a mountain in under an hour or so, Glory Peak is the one to do. If your fitness allows it, you could be up this mountain in 45 minutes or less. I’m sure people have done it even quicker than that.
Gaining about 1,700 feet in just under 1 mile, it’s a burner. Both for the legs and the lungs. But boy is it a treat! For such a short, accessible trail, the views are spectacular. Ours (I climbed this with my sister, Anna) were enhanced—fortunately for our viewing pleasure but unfortunately for everything else—by wildfire smoke rolling in and taking over the area. It made for some amazing colors dancing around the sky at sunrise, but it was also a bleak reminder of how terrible the 2026 fire season was.
This trail starts from Wyoming Highway 22, also known as Teton Pass Highway. Anna and I slept in the large parking area just across from the trailhead the night before. We ate Cup Noodles by the red light of my headlamp and, being that we forgot forks, used the ear hooks of our sunglasses as utensils. You do what you gotta do! They tasted just as good.
We set out early, hoping to catch the sunrise at the summit. It was biting cold in the dark, even in August—not surprising given the trailhead sits at around 8,400 feet.
Off we went in beanies and jackets, only to (of course) shed them within 15 minutes. On a trail this steep, I’m frankly surprised we didn’t shed them sooner. There’s no soft entry to Glory Peak: You cross the highway and start going up immediately.
The vast majority of the trail surface consists of small to medium-sized rocks on loose dirt. And the vast majority of the trail has a grade greater than 30%. It’s slippery. It’s not hands-and-knees slippery, but hiking poles give a much-needed assist.
As we went up, up, and up some more, we marveled at the sunrise, only to realize when the sun was fully up that all those beautiful, vibrant colors danced in the sky because of wildfire smoke.
Nonetheless, we enjoyed some coffee on the summit—in empty Gatorade bottles because, surprise, we had forgotten our mugs. It fit with the theme of the outing.
After sufficiently caffeinating ourselves, we headed back down the mountain toward Highway 22. By the time we returned to the parking lot, the smoke was so thick that the view of Teton Pass was hardly visible.
