Yellowstone Day 3

Our final day in Yellowstone started with a tour on a historic White Motor Company yellow bus.  Here is our swagged-out crew posing for a photo.  Thanks to Kourtney (our driver) for the photo.

At the end of the tour, we caught Old Faithful one last time:

Kourtney had mad knowledge of geysers, and hooked us up with some good places to explore.  On her advice we walked over to Black Sand Pool, which had been exhibiting some unusual behavior recently.  Every few minutes a menacing thumping could be heard far below us, and the ground would shake as if some heavy machinery was operating nearby.  Normally the pool is inactive.  It was an odd sensation when the ground shook, and I was glad to leave after a few thumping cycles.  On the way back, we passed the far less ominous Opalescent Pool near the Black Sand Basin parking lot:

Again taking Kourtney's advice, we drove to the Fairy Falls trailhead in order to view Grand Prismatic Spring.  After a short walk, we climbed a hillside and were rewarded with this spectacular view:

This is definitely the best place to view Grand Prismatic; it's far better than the boardwalk trail we had taken earlier.  At this point, Laura's parents headed towards West Yellowstone (and home), and we drove with my parents to West Thumb.  The West Thumb Geyser Basin isn't very large or active, but it is quite scenic since it's right on the shore of Yellowstone Lake:

After a quick tour of the West Thumb Basin, we headed towards Cody, Wyoming where we would spend the night.  Our last (mini) beast jam was for this rugged and thugged bison on the way out of the park:

Yellowstone Day 2

After a night spent dreaming of large mammals, we hit the road in search of more adventure.  During a brief visit to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, we overheard talk of wolves in the Hayden Valley and quickly headed south.  While there were no wolves to be found, we did spot a very distant grizzly bear on the far west side of the valley!  Sadly, I have no photos as he was too far away, but it was awesome just watching him lope across the meadow.

After an uneventful trip back north, we stopped at Tower Falls where Laura and I walked down to the Yellowstone River.  The large yellow cliffs on the far side of the river are one of many formations that give Yellowstone its name.

After lunch in Gardiner Montana, we took a 'family' photo at the Roosevelt Arch with a newly added temporary relation.  This is the north entrance to the park.

Back on the road, we encountered an elk jam near the Mammoth Hot Springs campground.  It's mating season and the bull elk are assembling their harems.  This good looking male bugled just as we pulled up, then herded his ladies across the road.

After watching the action for a little while, we drove into town, where we encountered this big bull:

He had a prime spot on the nicely manicured green grass - right in the middle of town!  After scanning for threats to his breeding dominance, he finally decided cars and people were no match for his 6-point rack, and laid down in the grass near his collection of ladies.

At this point, we pressed on towards the Lamar Valley to continue our megafauna auto-tour.  Right before the Yellowstone River bridge, we passed this lone bison walking down the middle of the road.  Just as he passed us, he decided to switch lanes and oppose oncoming traffic.

The Lamar Valley is a great place to see wildlife.  In addition to the ever-present bison, there are opportunities to see pronghorn, elk, bears, wolves, and coyotes, in addition to many smaller animals.

At one point I thought I saw a pack of wolves emerge from the woods, but it was just a group of pronghorn.  Even so, the late afternoon light was magical for photography, especially with all the dramatic clouds.

After turning around and heading back towards Tower Junction, we got stuck in a massive bison jam.  There are quite a few large herds in the Lamar Valley, and one group always seems to be blocking the road.

It was awesome watching these humongous beasts pass by.  There were also quite a few calves still staying close to their mothers.  After enjoying the delay, the road finally cleared and we headed back towards Canyon Village.

On the way back, we witnessed this awesome sunset as we approached Dunraven Pass.  Despite my best attempts, I couldn't do it justice: the mountaintops literally looked as if they were on fire.  With some regret we returned to our rooms; tomorrow would be our last day in the park before heading to Cody Wyoming.

Yellowstone Day 1

After Matt and Cat's wedding in Big Sky Montana, Laura and I planned to visit Yellowstone National Park for some much anticipated beast viewing!!!  After consuming a months supply of bacon at breakfast on Sunday, we (my parents, Laura, and I) caravaned south with Laura's cousin Tony and wife Erika to the West Yellowstone entrance.  Upon entry, Laura was given this awesome illustrated warning:

It reads: "Warning, Many visitors have been gored by buffalo, Do not approach buffalo."  We were very thankful to have this helpful information, as I had been planning on hugging as many bison as possible!

After meeting up with Laura's parents, we saw this bison grazing by the Firehole River while waiting for the Riverside Geyser to erupt.  Much to my disappointment, no one approached and no one was gored.

After a long wait, the Riverside Geyser finally went off.  Our patience was rewarded with this nice rainbow:

Despite pinpointing the source, I was unable to find any gold...  On the way back to our car we hoped to catch Grand Geyser erupting, but had to settle for Old Faithful instead:

It was getting late, so we left Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin headed for our rooms at Canyon Village.  We passed a herd of elk at West Thumb on Yellowstone Lake:

A little further along, we hit the jackpot: A BEAST JAM!!  Bison are very adept at standing in the road.  At least this one was in the proper lane:

After enjoying our drive-thru safari, we entered the Hayden Valley at dusk.  Unfortunately, a wolf jam was dissipating just as we arrived.  Usually a prime beast jam area, we saw only distant elk and bison, plus a couple of bald eagles.  Thankfully, there would be more opportunities to see wildlife tomorrow.

Tour de Indian

The weekend after climbing Apache and Navajo, we returned to the Indian Peaks for a somewhat easier traverse.  This time we planned to do a circular hike utilizing the two major trailheads at Brainard Lake.  Once again, we left the Long Lake trailhead in the dark, this time headed for Pawnee Pass.  We planned on climbing 3 sub-13,000 ft peaks: Shoshoni Peak (12,967), Pawnee Peak (12,943), and Mount Toll (12,979), with a return via the Mitchell Lake Trail.

Shortly after VERY carefully crossing an ice covered bridge, we were greeted by the first rays of sunshine.  Once we passed treeline, we got our first glimpse of Shoshoni:

Soon we were climbing the switchbacks to Pawnee Pass.  This was a far easier hike than when we did it in early July, as the trail was snow free all the way to the top.

Once at the pass, we climbed an unnamed high point and headed south towards Shoshoni.  After some up and down scrambling, it became a straight forward tundra walk to the summit.

From the summit of Shoshoni, we could see (from left to right) Navajo Peak, Dicker's Peck with the Navajo Snowfield below it, Apache Peak, and Isabelle Glacier below it.  Most of the the route we took last week was visible, and it was cool to see everything from this perspective.

After a short rest, we headed back across the tundra towards Pawnee Pass.

Once at the pass, we made short work of Pawnee Peak, and descended towards the saddle between Pawnee and Mount Toll.  After a fun scramble to the summit, we had a snack and soaked up the views.  To the northeast we could see Mt. Audubon with Blue Lake to the far right:

To complete the hike, we would have to bushwhack down to Blue Lake where we could pick up the trail to Mitchell Lake.  This was the only part of the hike that would require any real route finding.

After hanging out a bit, we began to make our way down.  There hadn't been any marmots on this hike, though we had seen a few distant ptarmigan on the way up Pawnee Peak.  I saw this marmot chilling near Blue Lake a couple of days earlier.  I think many of the marmots are already hibernating, as I've seen fewer and fewer lately.

We did see one more ptarmigan on the way down to Blue Lake.  This time, he was very close!!

He was standing completely still, doing his best I am hiding in plain-sight pose...  Luckily I wasn't a hungry predator, or he would have been lunch.

Further down we encountered some sizable snowfields.  Instead of trying to avoid them, we decided to attempt a glissade.  While it was definitely faster than hiking down, the snow was very rough and made for a less than thrilling descent.

Once past the snowfields, we crossed a wet area above Blue Lake and passed this small tarn:

After skirting the cliffs above the lake, we found some cairns leading us to the trail.  Mount Toll dominates the view from the east side of Blue Lake:

Another view of Mt. Toll and Blue Lake:

It was a quick hike back to the Mitchell Lake trailhead, followed by a half mile of road walking to our car at Long Lake.  No push-ups this time, as Laura and I both agreed that the degree of difficulty didn't warrant them.  Once back in Boulder, we realized this might be our last snow-free, high-country hike of the year.  Next weekend we would be in Montana for Matt's wedding (Laura's brother), followed by a side trip to Yellowstone for some big beast viewing!!!