This cute little fella is a 50 mile ridge line loop in the Gros Ventres wilderness. With two potential starting points you can choose where you want to start and which direction you would want to travel. Beginning and ending at Granite hot springs has the distinct advantage of more places to park your vehicle, camp, and soak in the hot springs if you so desire. Starting at Flat Creek Ranch is more limited in parking, more rustic, but slightly closer to Jackson Hole. One can choose how they want to circumnavigate this area of the Gros Ventres, but for the sake of simplicity start at Granite Hot Springs and go clockwise on this route.
Begin on the bridge over Granite Creek, moving to the obvious trailhead of the Granite Highline trail SW towards the Tetons. Run this section for roughly 4 miles until you meet a creek crossing. It is advised to fill up on water here, as this may your last option for free flowing water for sometime. Immediately after you cross this creek go right (NW) towards the ridge line. You will travel roughly 2,000 vertical ft up to gain the ridge line that you will then take SW towards Pinnacle peak. It is not advised to go up Pinnacle without proper climbing gear and protection, as it is very loose. Skirting around Pinnacle peak on the south side continue on the ridge line towards Gros Peak about 6 miles. This section will be a mix of loose scree fields, knife ridges, and steep rocky couloirs. Once you are on top of Gros Peak you will have another ~2 miles of knife edge ridge line scrambles, before the ridge relaxes to more sloping scree. Move along the ridge up to Cache Peak. Move down off of Cache on the NW side and get back on the ridge moving towards Jackson Peak. At some point you will meet the trail going up to Jackson Peak which you can take to the summit.
Back track down the trail off of Jackson Peak until you come to the sign post showing Flat Creek Trail and Jackson Peak Trail. You will leave the trail Northward towards Table Mountain. This is a very gentle increase in vertical gain until you get to an obvious limestone section the looks like a mountain lion den. Come through this section moving slightly NW until you reach a wide open plateau of Table Mountain. Stick to the middle ridge line on Table Mountain that goes NE and drops you into Flat Creek Ranch. DO NOT go to far east, there are many very large limestone cliffs, that you do not want to end up on top of. As you descend into Flat Creek you will have to wade across the creek as there is no bridge.
After crossing Flat Creek take the trail ENE up to the top of the 'nose' of Sheep Mountain (Sleeping Indian). It is a large climb that is roughly 4 miles. From the nose move eastward across a very large plateau towards peak 10827. You will come down on to a pass and then back up the ridge line towards Pyramid Peak. Do not get distracted by the amount of amazing crystal and rocks, there is much work to be done. Off the summit of Pyramid Peak go ENE down towards Pack Saddle pass only to go back up the ridge line eastward towards Antoinette. This is a very long section of ridge that is almost entirely scree fields. Keep along the ridge line, taking the well trodden big horn sheep trails towards peak 11199 (we call it UFO peak, for its large sloping knob). You do not go up UFO but left around it into one of the three couloirs that lead towards crystal creek. Once you exit the couloir, go right up the small basin towards Antoinette Peak. Moving west to east you will go up Antoinette from the south in the obvious very steep, very loose couloir. This will take you up to the summit of Antoinette your last summit. Come off of Antoinette on the east ridge to meet up with Swift Creek trail. Swift Creek trail will lead you another 5 descending miles out and back to the bridge across Granite Hot Springs.
Make no mistake The Belly Button as cute as it may sound is a tough route through big country with big animals, including bears. Be sure to take as much water with you as you can and fill up often, you do not know where your next water source may be. If you like being out in the wilderness where you are destined to see more big horn sheep than people this route is for you. Destined to be a classic.
