If you are ever at Old Faithful, try and check out the myriad of different geothermal features in its vicinity. I know Old Faithful itself has the brand name recognition, but in my opinion it is one of the least interesting sights to see in the area. I’m just sayin’…
The morning we were at the Tetons I woke up at 5:00 and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I grabbed the camera and went down to the lake. The only sounds were the occasional bird, Jackson Lake was completely still.
We hiked to Bullhead Lake.
We ate peanut butter and jelly.
We hiked to Josephine Lake.
We saw a moose.
“Sunshowers that I’m aiming at you, cause I’m watching you my baby”
Thanks for visiting Val. I am lucky to have a friend like you.
These were all taken during a walk around the Old Faithful area.
My friend Valerie is visiting and we just came back from a brief trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone. I’m getting more pictures than I know what to do with and going to Glacier later this week is not going to help that situation.
We saw some really excellent geothermal features around the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone yesterday. The geysers and multi-colored pools are some of my favorite things in Yellowstone National Park.
This was the last hike of our trip and we made it count.
Due to driving we didn’t get started until about 1 in the afternoon. Our plan originally was to head up the trail towards the top of Half Dome and then turn around somewhere along the way. It is a 17+ mile round trip to the summit with a decent amount of elevation gain, so we didn’t expect to reach the top starting so late. We passed two amazing waterfalls that would certainly be destinations in themselves, and indeed the crowds we encountered at the bottom disappeared after the 2nd one.
After a while we passed a sign for Half Dome in 4.5 miles. There was still a decent amount of daylight when we passed the “Half Dome: 2 miles” sign. I think it was right about there that we decided to just go for it.
We reached the top via a steep cable-assisted ascent at about 7 or so. It was excellent, there was no one else to be seen and the sun was setting all around us. We hung out, avoided mauling by the local creatures, ate a sammie, and decided it was time to descend. The downhill was fairly pleasant. Although we were in the dark for the last 2 or 3 hours, we had headlamps so it wasn’t a big deal. I did see quite a few scorpions on the trail coming down, which was a little disconcerning for someone in Chacos.
All in all it was a fitting ending to a great trip.
In Sequoia National Park there is an area called “The Giant Forest” that has some of the largest trees in the world in it. Including General Sherman, the largest tree in the world when measured by volume. It is a humbling place and one of my favorite places on our entire trip.
Back to the events before Sasquatch…….
After Zion we drove past Las Vegas and into Death Valley. I had no idea how big this park is. It is oblong in shape, and despite the fact we drove across it the short way it still took a couple hours to get through. The areas right by the road seemed extremely desolate and hostile, the vast expanse nowhere near the road must be amazing.
We turned off the main road to check out the Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the United States. I’d never seen a salt flat before. The ground is crusted and definitely very salty (I tasted a little).
After we made it out of the canyon we hitched a short ride back to our car and high-tailed it for Southern Utah. We drove past the Glen Canyon Dam and planned to camp but it was already dark, fairly cold, and actually raining so we grabbed a hotel room in Kanab, Utah.
Th next day we got a campsite at one of the 2 mega-campgrounds in Zion and did some day hiking. We did a 10 mile out and back that included Angel’s Landing.
Still to come…..Death Valley, Sequoia, and Yosemite National Parks….it was an action-packed trip.
Our last day in the Grand Canyon involved starting at the river and climbing up the New Hance Trail to the rim. The first half is completely open without a lot of vegetation and the last is through what constitutes a forest in the Southwest. It was also one of the more rugged trails we encountered during our entire trip, especially as you got closer to the rim. We passed a couple of parties on their way down that really seemed to be struggling. Including an older gentlemen with a decent amount of dried blood on his arm.
On a separate note, we talked with a fellow down by the river who volunteered to take our picture. He was certainly friendly, although he was convinced we were grossly unprepared for the hike out, with only 7 liters of water between the 2 of us. He said he had 5 liters just for him coming down and ran out. We showed him up by ending up on the rim with more than a liter to spare.
Aslo, Davy found his description of the hike out as “fucking brutal” quite amusing, and it became an often repeated phrase. It wasn’t that it was the easiest hike in the world, but it wasn’t the Ho Chi Minh either (I’m assuming that would be really hard) We were done around 1 in the afternoon. .
The hike from Horseshoe Mesa to the river was really excellent, as if I would have expected anything else. The Kaibab Plateau is an interesting place to hike. You see the trail far ahead winding around a bend, and then in an hour (or more) you’ll actually be there after you weave your way around this fractal pattern of trail with endless side canyons needing to be circumnavigated. All in all we probably saw 4 people that day. It was a long hike, I don’t know how long but after we got to where we were camping moving any extra really summoned some willpower.
I was wrong about how far we got the first day, we actually stayed that night in Arizona. We made it to the Grand Canyon around noon or so and went to the Backcountry Office to try to get a permit. The woman there was quite helpful and we got a permit for 2 nights.
The plan was to to hike down to Horseshoe Mesa via the Grandview Trail once we packed our bags. (I’d been to Horseshoe Mesa over spring break). The next day involved hiking down the east side of the Mesa (all new territory for me now), onto the Kaibab Plateau, upriver and down the canyon ending near the Hance Rapids on the Colorado River. The third day was planned as hiking from the river to the rim via the New Hance Trail.
Spring Break the Grandview Trail was covered in snow and ice and made for a hella scary hike. This time everything was totally dry and that made the goings quite nice. It was a mild hike to the mesa and we had time to explore some. We went into the Cave of the domes but didn’t make it to the signatures as Ghostbag hindered our progress.
Over the weekend I went with the MSU Ultimate team down to Pocatello Idaho to play in the end of season tournament for the Big Sky Section.
It is a nice drive and only having to travel 4 hours is basically nothing. We didn’t win the most games but we had fun doing it. It must have been 70 degrees on Saturday which was the warmest weather I’ve been in around here in about 6 months.
