Grand Teton National Park

On our last day of summer holiday, Tom and I drove to Grand Teton National Park for a final day of sightseeing. We picked a looped route through the park, and were able to take in sights at Jackson Bay, Colter Lake, Jenny Lake, Moose Junction, Gros Ventre Slide, Snake River, Cunningham Cabin and Oxbow Pond.

The Jackson Lake Lodge sits on a scenic plain with lake and mountains in the background. The lodge is huge with 385 rooms, and was fully constructed by 1955. The lodge was was named a national historic site in 2003.

View from Jackson Lake Lodge.

Our next stop was Jenny Lake. Tom and I decided to make our way down to the lake edge via a short trail so we could dip our toes in the water and see how cold it was. I had only had a few minutes to snap a few photos of the lake, when a ranger at the top of the trail called down that everyone needed to come up the trail, because there was a bear headed our way.

A view of Jenny Lake.

There were about a dozen other tourists with a few kids at the bottom of the trail, and everyone started collecting their things so they could head up the trail. A lady started to make her way up the trail, when a couple of kayakers in the lake started yelling at her. 

"LADY! DON'T GO UP THE TRAIL! LAAAAAAAAADY! YOU'RE WALKING RIGHT TOWARDS A BEAR! LAAAAAAAAAAADY!"

At which point, about half the people started to FREAK. OUT. 

"OH MY GOD! A BEAR! WE CAN'T GO UP THE TRAIL! WHAT DO WE DO?"

There was a guy standing next to me that was holding a camera, and was perfectly calm. He called out to the kayakers, and asked what kind of bear it was. They responded that it was a lone black bear. At which point, I said, "There's a big group of us, just stick together, we'll be fine."

So there we were, about a 12-15 of us standing at the base of the trail, watching the bushes by the lake shoreline. A small black bear came out of the trees. He (or she?) looks at us, and appeared to be thinking, "Oh crap! What have a stumbled into?" The bear eyed us warily, and hurried past. As it went one way, the group went in the opposite direction up the trail. One of the women stepped on me in her haste to get away from the... Uh... Vicious bear?

Black bear at Jenny Lake.

The best part was that as everyone was walking up the trail, talking excitedly about their close encounter with a bear, a little boy said, "I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO THE CAR! I WANT TO MAKE MORE MUD PIES!" And his dad told him, "No honey, there was a bear down there!"

Tom and I, unscathed after our bear experience.

Our next stop was at the Gros Ventre slide. The slide occured in 1925 after a heavy snowmelt and weeks of heavy rain. The slide created a dam over the Gros Ventre river, and eventually created the Lower Slide Lake.

Rock debris at the Gros Ventre slide.

Next we took in sights of the Snake River from a roadside outlook. 

View of the Snake River.

One of our final stops was the Cunningham Cabin. The cabin is a reconstruction of a homestead cabin built without nails or metal fastenings. John Pierce Cunningham came to Jackson Hole in 1895, but left for Idaho in 1928. The roof was very low-- Tom had to stoop in order to go inside. The cabin was also the scene of a shootout 1899, between a Montana posse, and some alleged horse thieves.

Cunningham Cabin

After viewing Cunningham's Cabin, Tom and I drove back to Big Sky for our last night in Montana. We made the 10 hour drive home the following day, and arrive home tired and satisfied.  If you like a good road trip, go check out Yellowstone and Grand Teton. You won't regret it!

Shoshone Geyser Basin Trail

If I may take a moment to brag, my husband and I are slowly building up an impressive list of backcountry trail hikes. So far we have hiked rim to rim of the Grand Canyon, the Juan du Fuca trail, a Mount Rainier Loop, and now, Yellowstone National Park.

Shoshone Geyser Basin Trail.

This year we took on the Shoshone (pronounced, much to my surprise, SHOW-SHOW-NEE) Geyser Basin Trail. This 22 mile (35km) trail is comprised of sections of the Lonestar Trail, Shoshone Geyser Foot Trail, North Shoshone Trail and DeLacy Creek Trail. The hike was rated as "strenuous" (more on that later), and promised hydrothermal features and picturesque lake views.

Day 1: Lonestar Trailhead to 8G1 Meadow Campsite

I think I might be in danger of becoming a hiking snob. As we hiked the first 2.7 miles down the Lonestar Trail, I couldn't help but think how easy the trail was. The trail is (what I presume to be) an old maintenance road, and is apparently used regularly by hikers and cyclists. The trail offered no incline and limited scenery-- just trees, and a few glimpses of a meandering creek.

At the end of the trail was the Lonestar Geyser. We had tried to plan our trip so that we could arrive before the geyser erupted, but we were about 45 minutes late, and were still heading up the path when a flood of people (okay, it was only like, 8 people) were leaving.

Lonestar Geyser steams in the afternoon heat.

Andrew and Ashley boiling water for lunch.

The Lonestar Geyser steamed away while we stopped for lunch, but it wasn't scheduled to erupt for another 1.5 hours, so after a lunch of Buffalo Chicken wraps, we headed off.

I tried to find a photo that would suitably demonstrate what the rest of the trail was like, but I really didn't take many photos for the rest of the day. My next series of shots are from when we reached our first backcountry campsite, 8G1, just past Grant Pass.

Tom observes our food hanging from the bear pole.

On previous hiking trips, we have either had bear lockers, or metal bear poles for hanging our food and toiletries. The Yellowstone campsites all had bear poles, but required us to have our own rope to hang the bags. This was a new experience, and kind of fun!

Day 2: 8G1 Meadow Campsite to 8R3 Shoshone Lake Campsite

Ahhhhhh... Camping. Somehow, each year, I always forget how terribly I sleep. My senses go into high alert, and I wake up at the most innocuous noise. It probably didn't help that we watched a 20 minute video on backcountry camping when we picked up our hiking permit, and it made me incredibly paranoid about wildlife. So in the middle of the night, when something fell into the creek running behind our campsite with a huge splash, a lay there in high alert for the rest of the night.

I was happy when morning came, and started the daily ritual of bandaging up my feet. I am incredibly prone to blisters. Sometimes I can hold them at bay by strategically placing band aids and mole skin, but I've come to realize that I will blister, and I just have to deal with it.

Bandaging my feet for Day 2 of hiking.

In the morning, we hiked another 5km through forest. There was a bit of incline, but for the most part, the trail was pretty flat. I began to wonder-- were we going to see anything other than forest on this hike? And then we finally came across the Shoshone Geyser Basin.

Hydrothermal features.

Finally, something to look at! We wound our way through steam vents, fumaroles, hot pools, and brightly coloured streams with bright white calcite deposits.

Hydrothermal pools.

A backward glance at the steam rising from the Shoshone Geyser Basin.

Once we exited the geyser basin, we were able to catch our first glimpse of Shoshone Lake. We passed through wide field of tall grasses that were thick with mud, and wound our way to the shore.

Heading towards the Lake Shoshone.

Arriving at campsite 8R3, lakeside.

By the time we arrived at our campsite, it was about 4pm. We made quick work of setting up our campsite so that we could test the waters of the lake and take a quick dip.

Setting up tents, lakeside.

The water was freezing! It was cold, cold, cold, cold! But it felt good to be in the water after two days of hiking.

Swimming in the lake.

We ate dinner while flies tried to bite us through our clothes, and were treated to a lovely sunset. The sky was hazy with smoke that had blown in from the Idaho forest fires, so the sky was purple, pink and red.

Ashley and Andrew watch the sun set over Shoshone Lake.

Day 3: 8R3 Shoshone Lake Campsite to DeLacy Creek Trailhead

Somehow, I managed to get a slightly better sleep on our second night. I use the term "better" in a relative sense. I did not sleep well-- just better than the previous night...

In the morning we ate a quick breakfast of Raspberry Granola and Milk. Then we set off for the last 12km of our hike, following the lake shoreline. When we stopped for a mid-morning snack, we noticed tracks along the sand. At first we weren't sure if they were grizzly or black bear prints, but a little research later on lead us to believe they belonged to a grizzly.

Lakeside bear prints in the sand.

Lakeside deer prints in the sand.


Tom heading away from Lake Shoshone.

Around noon, we turned away from the lake and began to follow the DeLacy Creek trail. This portion of the trail was about 5km to our car at the trailhead, and we thought it would take us about an hour and a half to make our way there. Apparently we were much faster than we predicted, because an hour later, we saw the trailhead straight ahead!

Ashley and Andrew happily approaching the finishing trailhead.

I struggled to rank this hike compared to the other three we've completed. But my thoughts on the rankings are as follows:

1) Rim to Rim Grand Canyon 

2) Mount Rainier Northern Loop

3) Yellowstone Shoshone Basin Trail

4) Juan du Fuca Trail

If it weren't for the lakeside campsite and thermal features, the Shoshone Basin Trail might have dropped to the bottom of the bunch. The hike itself was not very challenging, but the sights made it worthwhile. 

Something else that made this hike worthwhile-- the fantastic meal we ate afterwards at Olive B's Big Sky Bistro. We gorged on steak, fish and seafood, and finished off the meal with three desserts. Dessert included mud pie, skillet cookie with huckleberry ice cream and peach raspberry cobbler with peach icecream.

Celebrating our hike with multiple desserts.

Now the question remains-- where will we hike next year?

Sights of Yellowstone National Park

We spent our second day in Yellowstone taking in all the major sightseeing attractions.

Within the first 15 minutes of being inside the Yellowstone Park boundaries, we became familiar with "animal-jams." That is, traffic jams caused by animals. Our first was an eagle-jam. THE LARGEST golden eagle I have EVER seen was sitting in a tree by the side of the road, and dozens of cars were pulled over with tourists snapping photos left and right. I'm pretty sure this eagle could eat small children. We weren't quick enough with our cameras on this occasion, but we didn't need to worry. Ten minutes later we were in a bison-jam.

A bison wanders down the side of the road.

We headed toward the Old Faithful area, and made our first stop at the Lower Geyser Basin at the Fountain Paint Pot. Here we had our first taste of hydrothermal features. We saw steam vents, hot pools, fumaroles, and small geysers spewing water into the air. The air smelled strongly of rotten eggs from the hydrogen sulphide.

Trees coated in minerals precipitated from hot water.

Bacteria and other thermophiles (heat loving organisms) create brightly contrasting colours of orange, yellow, brown and rust-red around the rims of the hot pools. A bright white precipitated silica coats the ground.

Hot pool in the Lower Geyser Basin.

Geyser eruption in the Lower Geyser Basin.

Next, we arrived in the Old Faithful area to find that the next predicted eruption was over an hour away, at 1:36pm. Old Faithful erupts, on average, every 91 minutes. We had lunch while we waited, and found that in the mean time, hundreds of people were crowded around the Old Faithful boardwalk. In some areas, the crowd was four to five people deep.

Old Faithful erupts.

Our next stop was the Fishing Bridge. Back in the day, hundreds of people would fish off the bridge at the same time-- lines would become crossed, hooks tangled and get stuck on passing cars! Eventually the park put a stop to fishing off the bridge when they realized it was affecting the local trout population.

The Fishing Bridge.

Nowadays, there isn't too much to see from the Fishing Bridge. Or... So we thought. As we were heading back to our car, we were surprised to find a herd of bison running across the bridge towards us.

Here we also witnessed our first act of tourism stupidity. Three ladies, transfixed by the herd of bison, stood in the road ooing and awing, while a Park Ranger yelled at them to get out of the way and back to their cars.

A herd of bison running towards us.

Our next stop at the mud volcano was less exhilarating, but interesting. The mud volcano, used to be a quiet cauldron until a minor earthquake in 1979 increased heat and water activity. As a result, mud started spilling from the crater onto the boardwalks. The activity eventually decreased, and the mud volcano resumed a more peaceful existence.

Mud volcano bubbles away.

Between the Canyon Village and Tower-Roosevelt area, along the banks of the Yellowstone River, we passed an open field full of bison basking in the afternoon sun.

Bison in an open meadow.

There are many waterfalls throughout Yellowstone, but the Tower Falls are one of the most well known.  Tower Falls plunge approximately 132 ft (40m) with the Yellowstone River.

Tower Falls

At this point in our day, we were waylaid by construction. While waiting for our turn to convoy down a one-lane road, we photographed strange layers of columnar basalt in the surrounding cliffs.

Columnar basalt near Tower-Roosevelt.

The most anticipated stop of the day for me was Mammoth Hot Springs. On the side of a hill, a huge complex of travertine terraces have formed over thousands of years as hot water has cooled and precipitated calcium carbonate. The shear magnitude of the terraces are overwhelming, and the variety of colours are pleasing to the eye.

Travertine terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Mammoth Hot Springs.

The final sight we took in at Yellowstone was the Midway Geyser Basin. The Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the United States, spanning 300 ft (90m) in diameter. The spring has a beautiful array of colours from microbial mats and thermophiles. The water is an intense blue-green, fringed in oranges, reds and browns. A huge expanse of mini terraces extend outwards from the spring.

Mini terraces at the Grand Prismatic Spring.

Grand Prismatic Spring

In retrospect, we should have left ourselves more than one day to take in all the major sights of Yellowstone. We spent over ten hours in the parking driving from one sight to the next-- and there were a few more that we would have liked to have seen. Yellowstone offered dozens of beautiful sights, and we were not disappointed in anything we saw.

After a long day, we made our way back to the hotel and packed our backpacks for the 3-day, 35km hike that would follow. My next post will document our hike past Shoshone Lake and through the Shoshone Geyser Basin.

Seven-Mile Hole Trail

It took us nearly 12 hours to drive to Big Sky, Montana-- our home base for our Yellowstone trip. The drive should have been 10 hours, but we lost an hour waiting at the border, and another half hour on a wild GPS goose chase, thanks to our un-updated, four year old GPS maps!

Big Sky is a beautiful little town nestled in the mountains that is mainly based around the recreational skiing industry. We stayed at the Summit Hotel in the Big Sky Resort, and it was a luxurious stay! After a long day of driving, hiking, or sightseeing, we always knew we were heading back to comfortable accomodations.

On our first day in Yellowstone, we drove to the Canyon area to hike the Seven-Mile Hole Trail, along the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone." Our guide book classified the 10-mile (16km) trail as "strenuous" due to it's 1500ft elevation drop in just over two miles of trail.

The hike started at the Glacial Boulder Trailhead.

The Glacial Boulder-- not quite as big as the Big Rock!

Views of the canyon are stunning near the trailhead. The Yellowstone River winds its way through bright white and yellow canyon walls. It was a little daunting knowing we would be making our way down to the bottom of the canyon.

 

Views of the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone."

The first half of the hike was relatively flat through forest along the rim of the canyon. Surprisingly, once the trail started heading down into the canyon, there were only a few switchbacks. Having hiked that actual Grand Canyon (see here), which was switchback after switchback, I was surprised by the steep incline-- and relieved that it was not nearly as deep!

Along the trail we passed our first thermal feature, a fifteeen foot sinter cone.

Andrew observes a fifteen foot sinter cone.

We exited the trees, and headed across a shadeless, bright-white thermal zone where vents released steam and potholes bubbled with boiling water.

Thermal zone features.

Ashley poses at the top of the of thermal zone.

We slowly picked our way through the features, passing a few other hikers on our way. We slowly wound our way down to the river, where more thermal features bubbled along the shore. We dropped our day packs and dug into some sandwiches we had picked up in the morning for a much deserved lunch.

The Yellowstone River at the base of the canyon.

Unfortunately this wasn't a loop trail, so we had to make our way back along the same path. It took us about 2 hours to hike down to the river, and only two hours and fifteen minutes to make the arduous trek up the steep terrain again. 

16km later, we were sore but satisified. We stopped at some outlook points to take in the huge roaring waterfalls upstream of the path we had just hiked.

Lower Falls.

Tom and I in front of the Lower Falls.

Stay tuned!

To come: Sights of Yellowstone National Park!