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!