Wow I feel like I've been gone a long time now. With a tinge of homesickness I have continued on through Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is huge! I think the three days I was there I drove over 300 miles, no lie. Although Yellowstone had it's pretty moments and the geysers are pretty cool, Yellowstone so far has been my least favorite place I've visited so far. It's just too big and most of the hikes are not loops so it's either hike in and then back or you have to keep going and hope to hitch back to your car. Not alot of fun. The park really is pretty and the thing that struck me while driving though it was how different the landscape and scenery is from the other places I've been so far. The one image that really is Yellowstone for me is a dark colored river running through a beautiful golden meadow.
I did go on a eight mile hike one day that took me out to fairy falls, not that impressive compared to Yellowstone falls, But I was all by myself and I got to get right up to the bottom of the falls. After a long hike in the heat the mist of the falls was quite refreshing. After I left the falls I continued on, as with many of the hikes in Yellowstone they take you to some type of Thermal feature. This hike was no exception I wound up witnessing a small geyser called imperial geyser. Although after spending much of my first day at Old Faithful I realized I didn't to hike to anymore geysers. Seen one you've pretty much seen them all. As I left the geyser I continued through the imperial meadows, which judging by the amount of bison droppings, tends to be a large bison grazing area. Alas I saw no bison, except a skeleton of a dead one. It was real neat and made the whole hike worth it. I also hiked out to Riddle Lake which was a great hike though lodge pole pine forests and really pretty meadows. This is where a trend started for me. Since hiking to Riddle Lake, every hike I've done since I'll get to the end and need to turn around and a storm starts to come in. With Riddle Lake the scary part was towards the end of the hike the wind started to pick up. The problem with wind is that in a lodge pole pine forest trees easily blow over. So I'm trying to get out of the woods and I could hear trees falling and cracking all around me. Fortunately I didn't see any of the tress fall, until I was at the parking lot for the trail head. The storm trend continued the next day as I hiked up Mt Washburn to the fire look out. Pretty neat hike mainly for the views as you hike up, and once you get to the top. Once I got to the top and started to enjoy the view again a storm started to blow in, so I decided to try and get back to the car before it hit. I almost made it. Good thing I had brought my Jacket.
So after three nights of freezing my booty off in my wet tent, because of the thunder storms, I left for the Grand Teton national Park. Wow! this park is really cool the landscape and views are amazing. The thing so far here that has stood out is how the light plays off the mountains and the valleys. Great Purple and Blue mountains with golden fields below and the clouds cast great shadows over the landscape. This part of Wyoming has got to be one of the prettiest places I've seen. I got into the park this morning ready to just drive home and once I saw the mountains I felt like I had entered Disneyland and all I wanted to do is get on a ride a soon as I could. I went to the visitor center got my Day Hikes pack and headed out. I decided to do the Amphitheater Lake hike at Lupine Meadows. Holy crap this hike was almost ten miles, and 5 miles of it was all up, 3100 feet. As I huffed and puffed up the mountain I was treated to some amazing vistas, which made it pleasant to stop and catch my breath. After two and half hours I made it to the top. As I sat at the lake enjoying my accomplishment, the sky got real dark and I had to roll. Packed up my stuff and back down five miles to the car. It just sprinkled which was great and the best thing going back down was I saw a Black Bear. My first bear since I've been in bear country for the last three or four weeks. He or she just ate berries and walk right across the trail ahead of me and continued up the mountain side. Well I guess that's it so far.
Oh one more thing, the food in Yellowstone is awful, but the showers are great.
Also I got all my photos up look at the links bar to the right. I got my glacier walk photos, lake louise, jeff and I in Glacier and more.
till next time
Stephen
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