9/25/14

Tuesday we walked the boardwalk around Black Sand Basin near Old Faithful. On the way, Penny spotted an osprey along the Firehole River.

 

After Black Sand Basin we took a  drive to the Lamar Valley and Mammoth, hoping to see the elk in rut. Unfortunately, we didn't see a single elk all day. We did come across a herd of female Mountain Goats and their kids just north of Tower Falls though.

 We also saw hundreds of bison in the Lamar Valley.

 

 The best part of the trip was all the fall colors showing themselves on the deciduous trees.

 

Wednesday we decided to try hiking Purple Mountain. It's a 6.8 mile (round trip) hike that climbs 1500 feet. About 1000 feet up we decided we had done enough, so we turned around and went back. We did get high enough to get some photos of the valley below (actually, the view is better from there than from the forested top of the mountain). You can see how steep the trail is from some of the photos below. It was an almost continuous uphill climb.

When we got home there were a couple of female elk and a baby lounging around the registration office.

 

 

 

9/19/14

After work on Monday, we drove to the Old Faithful area and walked the Daisy Geyser trail. About halfway down the trail a pair of bison decided they were going to rest on the trail, so the walk was over. We turned around and went home, not knowing how long the bison were going to stay there. A pair of bicyclists were coming from the other end of the trail and also had to turn around.

 

Tuesday we walked the Little Gibbon Falls trail. It's an easy mile and a half trail, four miles west of Norris Geyser Basin. The falls are not on any map and the trail goes on to Wolf Lake, but we didn't have time to go that far. It's a pretty little water fall.

 

The trail passes through meadows and forests burned by the 1988 fires and the fall colors were showing themselves.

Wednesday we walked the Two Ribbons trail near the west entrance. There was an osprey cruising the Madison River looking for a fish to catch.

 

We haven't had any real snow yet, but it has started raining more often. There's still plenty of sunshine though, with highs in the 70's. The nice thing about the rain is, we haven't had any wildfires in the park so far this year. Last night we could hear elk bugling around the campground.

9/11/14

Tuesday morning we went on a hike with our hiking buddies, as usual. This hike was to Hellroaring Creek, which is between Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower Junction. On the drive through Mammoth we saw a herd of elk (a buck with his harem) laying in the grass near one of the buildings.

The hike was a total of just over four miles, that travels through burned forest, meadow and river canyon.

Halfway to Hellroaring Creek you cross a suspension bridge that crosses a 400 foot deep river canyon.

After the bridge you get back into forest and meadow.

Before we could cross the meadow, we had to wait for a herd of 20 bison, who kept a wary eye on us, to cross the hiking trail.

 

We also saw a couple of pronghorn making their way across the hills.

 

The creek isn't as roaring as its name implies at this time of the year but we could tell that it gets a lot more exciting in the spring, during the snow melt season.

 

We had lunch at the creek and then headed back to the trailhead.

Besides the forest and meadows, the trail passes near a section of the Yellowstone River.

 

 The color of the foliage is really starting to turn, since fall comes so early at these high elevations.

 

It was a good thing we made the hike as quickly as we did. The last half mile we were being chased by a thunderstorm. Fortunately, we only got sprinkled with a few rain drops, but there were some impressive lightning bolts in the distance (which, of course, we couldn't get a photo of).
 
This hike gave us all our 100 miles necessary to qualify for our pin and shirt, so we all went in to Old Faithful to turn in our hiking records and celebrate with a pizza at the employee pub. Now we can start working on our 500 mile pin.

Wednesday we decided we needed to restock our supplies, so we went into Bozeman to go to Wallyworld and Costco. On the trip back, after we re-entered the park, we saw a pair of bald eagles sitting on the river bank, across the Madison River.

 

After getting back home and putting the cold items away, we went to the company sponsored picnic at the office. They supplied hamburgers, chicken, drinks and desert. While we were cleaning up, a half dozen elk came wandering through the entrance area of the campground, causing a massive traffic jam. We were able to get a good photo of the buck.

 

We had expected things to slow down after Labor Day, but we find that we are still filling up to capacity every night. Good for company profits, but it keeps the staff busy trying to find a place for each guest to stay.

It's been getting down to freezing or below the last few nights and the weatherman says we should expect snow in the next few days. Maybe that will help cut down on the number of campers.

9/4/2014

Monday evening Penny and I drove to the south rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Hiked Uncle Tom's Trail. It's a 1 mile hike on a steel staircase that descends about 3/4 of the way down into the canyon, with 328 steps. When you get to the bottom, you are as close to the face of and as low as you can get to the lower falls.

 

When there's plenty of sun, you can see one, and sometimes two, rainbows in the mist at the bottom of the falls. They are some of the most brilliant rainbows we have ever seen.

 

Our hiking buddies were considering doing the hike at some point but weren't sure they would be able to complete it, due to the number of steps. We thought this would be a good chance to gauge whether or not they could make it. After completing it, we were convinced they could do it too. We were planning on hiking the south rim of the canyon with them on Tuesday anyway, so we added this side trip to that planned hike.

On the way home, we drove around the southern loop of the park, since this would be the last time we could do that. As of September 2nd, they're closing the road between Old Faithful and West Thumb, because they are replacing the bridge over Isa Lake and the construction will keep the road closed well into next season. As we drove through Hayden Valley we saw a pair of swans in the Yellowstone River and stopped to watch them for a while. After they swam around looking for food, they began preening themselves.

 

We also saw a bull elk by the side of the road, just a little farther down the valley.

 

Tuesday, we left the campground before 7:30 with our neighbors, to hike the south rim of the canyon. We took two cars, so we only had to hike one way. We parked our truck at the Chittenden Bridge and drove their jeep up to Artist Point to begin the hike. Artist Point gives you a view of about a mile of the canyon, up to the face of the lower falls.

The hike starts a little south of the viewpoint and travels through the forested ridge of the canyon. Every once in a while you get a view into the canyon.

 

 

About half way through the hike we got to Uncle Tom's Trail. Our hiking buddies were glad they did that part of the hike. They found it a lot easier than they thought it would be, even though the stairs and the trail are steep.

 

Since we had seen rainbows in the afternoon yesterday, we weren't expecting to see rainbows in the morning, but we were pleasantly surprised.

Penny got a picture of me and our hiking buddies going up the trail, each of us at a different level of the trail.

Down the trail a little further, you get to the upper falls and can see it from across the canyon.

 

The photo below is a view of the river looking downstream, from the upper falls.

Here's Penny taking a break along side the river, above the upper falls.

 

The bridge in the background is the old loop road bridge that can no longer support traffic due to deterioration you see in the second photo. It is now used solely as a foot bridge for hiking on the north rim of the canyon. 

We also saw some interesting trees.

On Wednesday Penny and I decided to tour the Lower, Midway and Upper Geyser Basins. Unfortunately, even though we are past peak season, there still was not enough parking for us to stop and see Midway Geyser Basin. The Upper Geyser Basin is where Old Faithful is located, but the areas contain more thermal features and active geysers than anywhere else in the park. Having seen Old Faithful many times, we walked the boardwalk to see some of the other geysers. On the way to the geyser areas we drove through Firehole Canyon and found one of the osprey out of the nest.

A little farther up the drive we noticed there was absolutely nobody in the swimming hole, so we decided to walk down to it just to see what we could see and get a different perspective of the canyon.

 

We had been to the Lower Geyser Basin back in May but did not get too deep into it because the boardwalk was still covered with snow at the time. This time we walked the entire loop and were lucky enough to be there when some of the geysers were erupting. The area also has a number of fumeroles, mud pots and hot springs.

 

In the Upper Geyser Basin, the one mile boardwalk takes you past many active geysers and hot springs.

 

 

 

 

After filling up with gas in West Yellowstone, we went home and rested our tired feet the rest of the night.