6/12-6/23
Spent the first couple of weeks hanging around Heron. I did do some hikes however.
-I hiked up to Scotchman's Peak in Idaho and climbed another nearby mountain. Did some fun snow glissading
-Hiked up to lower and upper cedar lakes then up to Dome Mtn. There was lots of snow and beautiful views of the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness from the top of Dome Mtn. Bushwhacked up to the top of Grambaeur mountain. It was quite a challenge with the snow and bushwhacking. Then hiked the Gramauer Ridge. Occasionally a trail here and there. Climbed Scenery Peak, then it was back down on the trail down to the car. A great day! About 23 miles in total
-Hiked with Elisha to the gorgeous Leigh Lake at the base of the Cabinet Wilderness' tallest peak, Snowshoe Peak
6/24/20
Drove to Yellowstone National Park. Camping at Madison CG. S'mores and brats for dinner. It's a nice campground by the river.
6/25/20
We visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. W went to many viewpoints of the canyon and the 2 big waterfalls. The waterfalls were super impressive with all the water and their force. We also took a beautiful hike to point Sublime, along the super colorful canyon with the raging river below. We also hiked down into the canyon and took another hike to the "brink of the upper falls"
After lunch we went to Norris Geyser basin, which was really cool and is home to the tallest geyser in the world (Steamboat Geyser). The Norris Geyser basin had lots of springs and bubbling areas, and we witnessed Veterans (I think was the name) Geyser erupt. Next we visited an area called Artists Paintpots, which was an area full of bubbling mud. Back at camp we walked to the river before enjoying a Thai dinner by the fire.
6/26/20
We first drove on the Firehole Lake Drive and saw white dome geyser erupt. It was really cool. We raced in the car to get there. We then visited Midway Geyser basin with the unbelievably beautiful Grand Prismatic spring that is multicolored like a rainbow, and the steam rising has the colors of a prism. We then hiked up to a very impressive viewpoint on the Grand Prismatic spring!
We had lunch along a meadow and then visited Biscuit Basin where there were some gorgeous pools and where we saw a cool geyser erupt several times. Next we headed over to Lower Geyser Basin. In this basin there were some pretty pools and bubbling mud as well as a really fun geyser, spasm geyser.
Next we headed over to the Old Faithful area (Upper Geyser Basin). We watched old faithful, which was cool and of course a must do. We then walked the Geyser hill area and saw some stunning pools. We got super lucky and saw Grand Geyser erupt. It was so impressive and powerful!! It's the tallest predictable geyser in the world. We also saw sever other smaller geysers in that area erupt, including spasmodic geyser, tardy geyser, and penta geyser. We then finished the trail through the upper geyser basin that goes along the Firehole River (what a great name!). So many geysers! Many with cool "towers" such as Castle Geyser and Grotto Geyser. And we had a good chuckle at the name economical geyser. There were also many gorgeous pools including the cleverly named "beauty pool". The most wondrous of the pools was Morning Glory pool. On the way back we saw the Lion geyser group erupt.
Next we started the drive to Yellowstone Lake. We stopped at West Thumb Geyser Basin, which was cool because it was along the lake. The lake was so calm with a backdrop of snowy mountains. There were also several elk in the thermal area, including some cute calves. We then drove along the lake shore until we arrived at our camp: Bridge Bay
6/27
Our first stop today was the mud volcano area, which had really impressive bubbling mud and some fieresome roiling areas. Next we went to the Mammoth Springs area. We first walked the upper terrace oop, then the lower terrace loop. There was the beautiful canary spring and some cool red terraces, including Painted Terraces. We had lunch at Arch Park below Teddy Roosevelt's large entrance arch. There were 7 cute elk calves in the area. We walked a bit through Gardiner, MT, had ice cream, and took a shower.
In the afternoon we drove to the Lamar Valley. What an amazing afternoon we had there! We saw black bears at to separate locations, saw 2 grizzlies together up on a ridge, lots of pronghorn, and hundreds and hundreds of bison. We also saw a wolf pack in the far distance feeding on a bison carcass. Later, right before darkness fell across the land, we saw a black wolf harassing (and in return being chased) a bison. We got back to camp really late
6/28
We went back to the Old Faithful area. Saw Old Faithful erupt again as well as the Beehive Geyser at the same time. The Beehive geyser was pretty cool as it was a powerful and noisy jet of water. I then walked the basin trail in the rain (Elisha stayed back at the lodge to get a coffee) and then saw Daisy Geyser erupt (I had to run to make it in time as it erupted earlier than predicted).
I had a strong memory of a spooky geyser from our trip as a family when we visited Yellowstone for Christmas. Bro and I had skied up to it. We were sitting next to this quiet pool surrounded by thick forest and deep snow when all of a sudden the pool produced a huge bubble. Well, I hiked up to Solitary Geyser and watched it's bubble eruption, and I'm 99.9% sure that's the geyser I remember from my childhood. On the way back down to meet Elisha at the car, I witnessed Old Faithful erupt yet again.
We had a lunch of ramen under the porch of the lodge as it was still drizzling. After lunch, we walked back out to see Riverside Geyser erupt, and we were again lucky to see Grand Geyser erupt again (and after a brief pause, and awesome and powerful encore).
There are a handful of large geysers that can be reliably predicted +/- 90ish minutes, which makes it possible to time when to see them (ex. grand, riverside, daisy). Other geysers erupt quite regularly, so if you just wait for a bit you'll see them (they are typically smaller ones), and then there are geysers that aren't predictable and some whose last eruption could have been 2 years ago (like steamboat geyser)
Next we visited Black Sand Basin, which had some nice pools and a couple erupting geysers, including the cool cliff geyser that kept on erupting. We got back to camp early for fire, beer, and jiffy pop. It then started to rain, but we sat by the fire all the same.
6/29/20
It poured rain all night, and it was very cold in the morning. A Chinese-American couple in the spot next to us, couldn't get their fire started and thus couldn't cook, so we boiled some water on our stove for them so they could make their noodles. We drove to some of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone vistas again---in the snow!
After leaving Yellowstone, we drove to Missoula via Big Sky and had dinner with Elisha's friend Hannah.
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