Wilderness Wandering

We are back at it! 

Tim left with our van Calypso in early July to visit several of his friends on his way west and do a lot of cycling.  I flew into Denver with friends and we rendezvoused in Medicine Bow Forest in Wyoming with another couple for four days of adventure in The Snowy Mountains. The hikes, weather, and flowers were amazing. 

July 25, 2024

Tim and I drove about 7 hours from the southeast corner of Wyoming to the northwest  corner of Wyoming. Neither of us had driven in this area before and we were surprised at how beautiful it was. 

As we drove across the state, we stopped at several Oregon Trail sites and crossed the Continental Divide numerous times. 

We stopped at a historic spot along The Oregon Trail called Split Rock for lunch and had a lovely chat with 8 people who were cycling across the country. Tim has his bike with us. I was afraid he was going to leave me and join the cycling group. 

To reach Yellowstone, we had to drive through Grand Teton National Park. We could have possibly done Grand Teton first, but back in January when I made the reservations, we had not yet planned the Snowy Mountain trip, and there was no way I was going to attempt to change our reservations in the middle of the busy summer season!

We entered Yellowstone and drove to Bridge Bay Campground, our rest stop for the night. Our campsite had nice mature trees and the bathroom was very close by. We warmed up some leftovers and had a nice campfire and went to bed. 

July 26, 2024

We were up pretty early and got ready to go explore Yellowstone.

Yellowstone was declared a National Park by President Grant on March 1, 1872. It was the first National Park in the United States and apparently in the world!

It is massive- 2,221,766 acres!

The name Yellowstone comes from the fur trappers of the early 1800s calling the river Rock Yellow River because of the sandstone on the river banks. 

Yellowstone is centered on top of The Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super volcano on the continent! There are more than 10,000 geothermal features, including 300 geysers. Interestingly, there was an unusual explosion in the Biscuit Basin geothermal area about 3 days before we arrived that threw steam and rocks high into the air and destroyed the board walk! Amazingly, no one was seriously injured!

We came to the turn off for the Lake Yellowstone Lodge. We always enjoy seeing how the other half lives. The Lodge was very pretty and had great views of the lake. We saw a bison as we left. 

Our next stop was the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center. We approached the rangers and asked them about good hikes in the area. They said we should leave immediately and drive to Storm Point because there was an excellent Ranger lead hike starting in 10 minutes and it was a 5 mile drive, not to mention that there was a “bear jam” along the way. 

We did as we were told and went right back to Calypso and made it to Storm Point just as the hike began. Our guide was a Ranger who was at Yellowstone for his 50th season! The tour was a real treat!! Ranger Harlan lead us on the 2.3 mile easy hike and taught us an amazing amount of information about the geological and human history of the park. The trail crossed a lovely meadow and wound through some forest before we reached Storm Point with amazing views of Yellowstone Lake, which is the largest lake in the world above 8000 feet. We saw several yellow bellied marmots, a coyote, and a bald eagle on the hike, as well as “evidence” of bear and bison. 

After the hike we returned to the VC to get the rest of our questions answered. 

We had lunch at a nice shady picnic table at the VC. 

After lunch, we drove to the West Thumb area of the park. At that time of day, the parking lot was very crowded! We carried our bear spray and set out on the Yellowstone Lake Overlook hike, a moderate 1.5 mile loop. There were some geothermal pots right next to the trail. It was fun to watch them bubble. 

After the hike, we wandered down to the West Thumb Geyser Basin Boardwalk. It is an extensive boardwalk that meanders past about 20 active geothermal features. An interesting one was the Fishing Cone. It is a geyser located right on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. People used to catch a fish in the lake and then dip it in the fishing cone to cook it without ever taking it off the line!

After exploring West Thumb, we set off to find the Madison Campground, where we are spending the next 2 nights. We had to pass by Old Faithful to get there, so we turned in and parked at The Old Faithful Inn and went in search of a cold drink. We walked by Old Faithful on our way to the bar. A Ranger said it should be erupting in about 50 minutes, +/- 10 minutes. It is not a precise schedule.

We found the bar and had a wonderfully refreshing Mule. Then we arrived back at Old Faithful exactly 50 minutes later to find that it had just finished erupting. We planned to return to the area tomorrow anyway. We found our campground and checked in. Storm clouds were gathering. We ate a quick dinner and walked down to the Madison River about 1/4 mile from the campsite. What a beautiful setting! We saw some lightening and got back to camp before it briefly hailed. We decided not to make a campfire and went to bed. An excellent first day in the park!

July 27, 2024

We were up and out of our campsite by 7:30 AM. We drove straight to Old Faithful Village and over to the viewing area. We learned that the next eruption was estimated for 8:50 AM +/- 15 minutes.  We  went and watched the park movie and then back to Old Faithful to wait. The eruption began at 9:03 AM. It was very impressive! 

Next we drove to the Fairy Falls parking area. The Ranger told us the best place to view Grand Prismatic Spring is from the overlook. It is an easy .8 mile walk from the parking lot to the overlook. The view was very good. There was a wide viewing platform, but the trees have grown since they put in the platform, so there was only one two foot area where you could a perfect look at the Spring without tall trees in the way, so there was a bit of a wait for the prime spot. 

Next we decided to continue on the trail to Fairy Falls. The entire hike was 6 miles, but it was really easy hiking on a wide granite path most of the way. 

Fairy Falls was a beautiful waterfall! There were quite a few wildflowers growing near the falls. 

Once we returned to the Fairy Falls parking lot, we hoped to find parking at The Midway Geyser Basin and see Grand Prismatic Spring at ground level as well, but parking was terrible, so we decided we will come back another time. 

We pulled off at a picnic area and enjoyed some tasty sandwiches in the shade as we planned the rest of the day. 

We stopped at the Fountain Paint Pot and did the quick 1 mile loop to see all the unique geysers and boiling pools. 

Just past there was probably our favorite stop of the day. We turned onto Firehole Canyon Drive, which leads to Firehole Falls. This was a stunningly gorgeous drive along the Firehole River. The river raged through pristine forest. The other best part of it, although we were not alone, this drive was the least crowded thing we did all day. 

As we continued North, we stopped at Gibbon Falls and enjoyed another beautiful river and waterfall. 

Our last stop of the day was North Geyser Basin. We checked out the geyser museum, the book store , Porcelain Basin, and Steamboat Geyser. We learned that Steamboat Geyser is the world’s tallest active geyser. 

It erupts irregularly, between 30 days and 3 years apart. It last erupted on July 15, 2024, so we didn’t hang around C waiting for its next eruption! It was still spewing lots of steam. 

We headed back to Madison Campground and made dinner. Then another thunder storm moved in, so we spent the night inside. 

July 28, 2024

We were on the road in the dark at 5 AM in order to get to the Northeast quadrant of the park for the best wildlife viewing. It was a foggy morning. We were not sure if it was fog or geyser activity. We drove through The Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone as the sun burned through the fog. It was spectacularly gorgeous!

The first animal we saw was a black bear near one of the pull off. It walked toward us and then veered down the hillside. Next we saw two grizzlies and 2 cubs far in the distance. We saw 2 elk. 

In the Lamar Valley we saw countless bison from our car on the road. We could have reached out and touched them. We drove to the east entrance of the park and took our picture. Then on the way back, we stopped to do a 1.5 mile easy hike to Trout Lake. It was a gorgeous lake. It was perfectly still and the reflections were amazing. 

Next we drove to the trailhead for Mount Washburn, a strenuous 5 mile out and back hike. Mount Washburn is 10,243 feet and 1400 feet of elevation gain. It was strenuous in terms of elevation gain, but it was a wide gravel path much of the way. We saw several Big Horn Sheep in the distance on the way up, but we ended up in the middle of a whole herd of Big Horn on the way down. They were not the least bit frightened of us. 

After the hike we checked in to our next campground, Canyon Campground. They have showers and a laundry and we took advantage of both!

Tim took me to the Yellowstone Hotel for a lovely dinner. I had trout which was fantastic. Tim has Coq au Vin (chicken). 

After dinner I walked over to Canyon Village to see if I could get any cell service. I had been off the grid all week and my daughters were a little nervous that I hadn’t responded to any of their texts. While checking emails, we learned that we had gotten a notification that our reservations for Lassen Volcanic NP were cancelled. I was able to see that there is a large forest fire near the park. For now, they have closed the park. We will have to see how this develops. 

Our next park is Grand Teton, so we have a few days before we head toward Lassen. 

What an eventful day! We loved seeing so much wildlife!

July 29, 2024

We drove to the South Rim of The Canyon of The Yellowstone. We drove to the end view point which is called Artist’s View Point. The sun through the smoke was dazzling! We saw some marmots sunning themselves. 

Next we took them easy Cascade Lake 6 mile hike through a sun dappled woods to a lake. We startled 2 deer on the way in and only saw 4 people while we were hiking there. 

 We decided to spend the afternoon getting a head start on Grand Teton National Park which is only about 30 miles south of Yellowstone. It takes a very long time to drive anywhere in the parks due to low speed limits and wildlife jams. We decided we would not drive back into Yellowstone and will look for a place to stay in Grand Teton tonight. 

Yellowstone is magnificent and stunning! This was Tim’s second time here, and my first. I’m so glad I finally got to see for myself what everyone raves about. 

The park was rather crowded, which is to be expected in the middle of July. But honestly, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as I feared it would be. The key is to get to the popular sites early and then explore the outer reaches later in the day. 

Smoky Sunrise