I left that afternoon, and arrived the next afternoon outside of Yellowstone National Park. Of course, at 1:30 in the afternoon all the camping spots in the park were full. As a result I camped outside of the park in National Forest land. After spending two nights in the park, besides the inconvenience of being slightly further away from all the sights, the national forest was a much nicer place to camp, (and was cheaper.)
Driving into the park I immediately encountered wildlife. A minor traffic jam was created due to about 4 elk doe and two fawn browsing along a creek. After taking pictures, I moved on, and found even more elk.
After seeing some of the more touristy spots in the park (meaning people just drove up, hopped out of their cars for approximately 5 minutes, then jumped back in again), I was getting sick of the crowds. So I set out on a little 6 mile round trip hike to Shoshone Lake, the largest back country lake in the US. It took me about an hour to hike out on the flat trail. I lazed about on the beach and wading in the water for an hour, then hiked the hour back.
It was the perfect recuperation for the mad crowd at Old Faithful. You can't go to Yellowstone and not see Old Faithful.
That evening, while driving to my campsite, I spotted this beautiful rainbow over Yellowstone Lake.
That evening at my campsite, I made made friends with my neighbors, two girls from NY State, one in grad school, the other a high school shop teacher, who were making their way around the country on a 3 week, National Park tour. We sat around the campfire for hours, exchanging fieldwork, and other stories.
The next morning I woke up and made my way over the Continental Divide within the park to hike Avalanche Peak, a 10,600 foot knife-edged mountain in the North East of the park. I figured a 2 mile hike up couldn't be that bad... I thought it might even be faster than the Shoshone Lake hike the day before. As soon as I started hiking I quickly re-evaluated that thought... I had forgotten to think about the fact that I would be gaining over 2,000 feet in elevation in those two miles. The work was well worth it though, as I sat on the summit, eating my lunch, while taking in views of other peaks in the area and watching a rainstorm blow in over Yellowstone Lake.
That afternoon I made my way to "The Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone, and took in the 100 foot Upper, and 300 foot Lower falls in the Canyon.
The hike up Avalanche Peak, and the approximately 300 steps from the viewpoint at Lower Falls, was a warm up for what I would tackle the next day... The Middle Teton in Grand Teton National Park, just South of Yellowstone.
I ended up getting a later start than I wanted, (Lost my old watch, bought a new one, and apparently didn't figure out how to set the alarm), so I didn't make the whole 17 mile round trip, but I did get the 13 mile round trip up to the lower saddle, between Nez Perce Peak, and the Middle Teton. This put me at 11,692 feet after about 5 hours of hiking. I plowed through the first 4 miles up. Hiking nearly every day in Sheldon didn't hurt my condition. But the higher in elevation that I got, the steeper the trail got, and the thinner the air. Where we were living on Sheldon we were at at least 6,000 feet all summer, so I had that going for me. But I started to feel it when I got to the Moraine region of the mountain, while hiking up next to the Middle Teton Glacier.
How exhausted I was at the end of the day was well worth the beautiful views from the Lower Saddle.
1 comment:
that is a lovely rainbow... how did i never see anything like that living on that lake for 3 months? I had a yellowstone moment yesterday driving in glacier when someone stopped their car in the middle of the road to take a picture of a mountain goat. and the tetons look like they have a lot more snow than they did last summer... i didn't see much on the way up middle.
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