No vacancy

The Browns faced a conundrum.

They had tried and failed to secure a permit to camp at the picturesque alpine bowl around Marion Lake, in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, after standing in line before 6:30 a.m., when park headquarters had opened. So the father-daughter hiking team of Rick and Laura Brown had decided to hike across park lands past the lake, then up and over a ridge to unrestricted national forest camping just beyond the park boundary at Fox Creek Pass. Then they would traverse another part of the park the next day, a broad alpine shelf, until ultimately reaching a canyon where they had secured a Park Service permit.

But time, age and a nagging doubt late on their first day had stopped them short. Rick, 68, had prepped for his Teton Crest adventure by toting a backpack around Petaluma, California, over six months. Now, though, he was at Rocky Mountain altitude—and slowly climbing—and there came a point at which the pair questioned whether they could make the miles to Fox Creek and avoid stopping to camp in the park illegally. To be