10/9/14

This was our last weekend before we leave for Washington and Oregon on Monday the 13th. We decided to hike with our coworkers one last time on Tuesday, after seeing off three of our other coworkers, who left a week earlier than the rest of us.

Penny and I had not hiked Storm Point or to Natural Bridge, both on the east side of the park. Our hiking partners had, but they wanted to do them again, so that's where we went. Both are relatively short hikes an neither have significant hills to climb, so we were able to do both in one day.

On our way to the first trail head we saw a male grizzly bear walking across the meadow just west of Canyon Junction. His name is Scarface because of all the scarring he has on his face and the lack of one ear. We assume it's because he got into a lot of fights in his earlier years. He is now going on 25 years old. He has been hanging out in the Canyon area since he was young.

Storm Point is at the north end of Yellowstone Lake. There is a town of Marmot that live near the point, but they apparently go into hibernation early and we didn't see a single one. Our hiking partners said there were dozens of Marmots in a pile of rocks near the point, when they were here earlier in the summer. The hike is a pleasant walk along the northwest corner of Yellowstone Lake, with a loop back through the forest.

 

After the hike, we drove east to an observation point that gives a view to the south end of the lake and beyond, all the way to the Tetons.

 

After the observation point, we drove back a few miles west and had lunch on the north shore of the lake. After lunch we drove to the trail head to Natural Bridge, near Bridge Bay. Not far from where we lunched we saw another grizzly bear coming down the hill, foraging for roots and berries. It came within 20 feet of the car.

Natural Bridge is an interesting feature, formed by water erosion and freeze/thaw cycles.

 

There is a trail that leads up to the right of where I was standing, that goes up to the top of the rocks. It was getting late, so we didn't go that far but we are already planning on going all the way up next year.

On the way back to the trail head Penny saw a Grey Jay and got a nice photo of it.

Wednesday, Penny and I went back to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and hiked Uncle Tom's Trail and down to the Brink of the Lower Falls. Both of those hikes are climbs of 600 or more feet, so they gave our legs a good workout.

I've shown photos we took on Uncle Tom's trail when we hiked it earlier in the year, but we hadn't hiked to the Brink of the Lower Falls until now. The first photo is from the brink of the falls, looking upstream from the observation deck. The second is looking at the brink of the falls and the third is looking downstream after the falls.

 

We will be leaving Yellowstone Monday morning, making our way back to the Seattle area over the following few days. We may not get there until sometime the week of the 20th, but there's a chance we'll get there sooner. We won't be driving for long hours and we don't want to drive every day either. If we find a nice place to stop, we may stay there a couple of days. We'll let you know when we get there and we will keep in touch.

10/2/14

It's been raining for the last few days, but we went for a drive Tuesday afternoon, around the upper loop. They had just opened the road between Norris and Mammoth, after a two week closure for construction. There is now a new section of roadway, built above the old road, but none of it has been paved so it was a muddy drive through that section.

   
We saw three young bull elk in the Mammoth area and a few bison around the loop, but no large groups of either. There was a bit of snow falling on Dunraven pass but it wasn't sticking.

 

 

Heading south from the Tower Junction we stopped at the Calcite Cliffs Observation Point.

 
As we were leaving, we saw a herd of mountain sheep up on the top of the hill across the road.

 

We think Wednesday was our best sightseeing day ever. At first, we figured we'd stay home and do some needed house cleaning. After cleaning the kitchen and vacuuming the carpet in the living room, we decided to take a drive down to the Midway Geyser Basin and see if we could climb the hill overlooking Grand Prismatic Spring. About halfway there, we saw a grizzly sow and cub just in the trees across the road. Only a couple other vehicles were stopped, so the bears must have just reached the area where they could be seen. We were able to watch them forage for berries for about 10 minutes. They crossed the road in front of our truck and headed across the Firehole River to the exact place our friend Phil had been fishing earlier this summer.

 

A bit farther on, there was a herd of bison lounging in the meadow just west of the Lower Geyser Basin

As we approached the Old Faithful area we could tell it had been colder there than at the campground the night before, because the hills were blanketed with the first light snow of the season.

 The parking area for our hike was full, so we parked on the road, but there's a trail between the road where we parked and the trail head since this trail is extremely popular. The climb up to the observation point behind Grand Prismatic Spring is steep and cluttered with fallen logs, but the logs actually help to some degree by giving you a handhold for climbing. It's well worth the effort once you see the view it affords. Had it been 20 degrees warmer, there would have been less steam and the images would have been even better.

 

After climbing the hill, we drove on to Old Faithful and were lucky enough to find Castle Geyser erupting. Something we hadn't seen before.

 

Around the corner the Old Faithful Inn still had snow on the roof. We went inside and treated ourselves to a scoop of ice cream. When we came out, it was snowing again and the roof of the Inn was really turning white.

The snow stopped a couple miles west of Old Faithful and we drove through the Firehole Lake area. We got to Grand Fountain Geyser just as it was erupting, so we sat and watched it for the next 20 minutes. White Dome Geyser also erupted in the background while we were there, as you can see in the third photo below.

 

 

When we got back to the campground, there was a bull elk with his harem lying in the meadow by the Gibbon River.

 

It's a tough job seeing all these sights, but somebody's got to do it and it might as well be us. It was a great day.

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.