Tag Archives: camping

Day 13: Day Two in Yellowstone.

Our plan for the day was to sightsee along the “upper loop” of the figure 8. We headed left out of the campground, and boom! BISON.

IMG_4652_thumb1 — That was from the car.

We could probably have spent hours there watching them and photographing them, but Mammoth Hot Springs seemed a long way away, so we continued on our route.

Here’s something I didn’t know to think about: road construction. After we started onto a part of the road we hadn’t been on the day before, we found ourselves in road construction, and how. There were two parts that were one lane roads, which meant we had to wait on a flagger. One of them we waited for a very long time. Our day was not looking up to be very exciting, as mostly we seemed to be waiting in traffic.

Finally we were clear of it all and able to make a few stops.

IMG_4661_thumb1 — Some scary roads, but really great engineering!

Oh, and we learned that not everything that has a stripe down its back is a chipmunk. We learned this the awkward way, by arguing with another couple…so ground squirrels don’t have stripes on their faces, only their backs, and chipmunks have them all the way up. Good to know. It was even more awkward when we ran into them at the next stop, after having checked our field guide and verified…oh yes, they were correct.

Anyway. We finally got to Mammoth, and parked at the Upper Terrace parking lot.

I’ve read that people didn’t like Mammoth as well as other places. It wasn’t the case for me: I was simply blown away by this area. And like the other thermal features, the springs here are constantly moving and changing, even from day-to-day. I found the entire experience to be fascinating…the way that the water trickles and makes these crazy looking terraces and steps, and how it happens gradually over time.

The trees especially are interesting, how the springs just take over and kill the tree, but the tree often just remains standing. What a funny planet we live on.

We followed along the boardwalks, heading down to the Lower Terrace eventually. It was a hotter day than we had experienced since leaving Boulder, so I was definitely glad I’d brought my backpack with the water in it.

When we got to the bottom of the hill, we decided to walk over to the Mammoth Hot Springs Visitor’s Center. There’s a little village around there, with a hotel, restaurants, and even some private homes, which I guess are from quite some time ago. Creating the National Parks sometimes meant that land was already “owned” before the park was created, I guess.

I paused here in my writing and did some internet research on this, but didn’t get very far. I know our maps and guidebook said there were private homes there, but as to who owns them, I couldn’t find out. Or maybe private as in, not open to tourists but people who work at the parks live in them. That might make more sense. I just don’t know!

We saw this elk hanging out at the terraces of a spring that is currently not active. That could change at any time though!

We decided to get lunch at the “Terrace Grill” which was really just a fast food restaurant. We hadn’t eaten out for some time and the thought of making another pbj wasn’t super appealing to us. We got fish sandwiches, black bean burgers, fries, salad, and fruit. The whole thing was fine, and more expensive that anywhere NOT in a park, but totally fine. It made me sad for people who didn’t have picnic lunches most days though, and I was glad that mostly we didn’t have to eat the National Park food! It was a nice change for lunch though, and the coffee was pretty good too.

After lunch we had to walk back UP from the Lower Terrace to the Upper Terrace, to where our car was parked. This would have been a nicer walk if it weren’t so darned hot!

But we made it back, and then did a quick little drive through a loop of MORE springs.

All in all, I found Mammoth Hot Springs to be really interesting and unique, of course!

Next our plan was to continue along the upper loop, but we actually took a wrong turn out of Mammoth and headed into Montana for a bit, BUT it worked out well because we saw more elk! I didn’t get pictures of too many, but we saw dozens of them.

We found our way back to Mammoth then, and had to do mildly annoying things like drain the cooler, get more ice, that sort of thing. Camping is hard work sometimes! And then more sights…the afternoon wasn’t super exciting, but we saw a few neat things.

For instance, the Petrified Tree. Right before this we took an ill-advised drive on a gravel road—it was one-way, and right after the turn we realized we shouldn’t have done it but it was too late. So we got to the Petrified Tree and were tired and exhausted and SOO hot…and it was a petrified tree in a cage! Evidently there used to be two, but people stole the other one in bits over time (this is why we can’t have nice things) so they put a fence around it. Evidently there are also a few more but it’s an unmarked path to find them.

Our next big stop was Tower Fall. It was a neat little stop with a general store and crowded parking lot. The north part of Yellowstone had a different feel from the southern part, and was definitely less crowded overall, by the way.

I guess in other years there is a hike down to see Tower Fall from the bottom, but that hike was closed for reconstruction. We did a little hike down to the river….but the trail ended before we were all the way down. There was a sign saying basically, proceed at your own risk. Which was ridiculous in a way, since all hikes are at your own risk!

I made it down to the river though! It’s not a great drinking water area though, since there is so much sulfur around…

The bad part about hiking down into a canyon of sorts is that the hard part is the way back. We decided ice cream was in order at the top! Then it was more driving, some real mountain driving, which Louie loves and I’m terrified by! We got out at a ton of overlooks. There was a lot of this sort of landscape, with trees that were fire damaged (1988 fires, I believe) and the new growth around them. This went on for miles and miles.

Finally we were getting back to the Mud Volcano area from the day before, and we got stuck in some horrible traffic. After 30-45 minutes of barely moving, we finally saw what seemed to be the reason…

Many, many bison, slowly crossing the road and taking their darned time. I believe we were stuck in a good old-fashioned bison jam! It was entertaining ONLY after we were able to see the bison!

We stopped near Lake Yellowstone to watch the sunset on our last night here.

I’m a little sad looking at these pictures! It was so beautiful there…my mom was surprised I guess, reading my blog, (hi Mom!) by how much I loved Yellowstone. I just felt that it was so full of different things, animals and beauty and desolation, all together…just one of the most unique places on earth.

Day 14: Day 3 in Yellowstone

We had to pack up our campsite that morning. So the last thing we felt we needed to do was to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Since we had mostly been in the car the past two days, Louie and I decided to take a hike. I found one in my book that was a loop with the South Rim of the Canyon, so we headed out! We ran into a few bison on the way to the Canyon, but traffic was light enough that it wasn’t an issue.

We kept thinking that we were “over” the bison, but for me, every time I saw them up close I was really excited. They are such magnificent creatures and a testament to how we CAN turn things around…at one point they were nearly extinct.

The first thing we saw when we found the trail was a bald eagle. Just staring at me before it flew away. I did not get a picture, but I can picture him in my head!

It was nice to get off the beaten path and away from the crowds.

We decided to go down Uncle Tom’s Trail. It was a series of 700 million steps. Well, 328 metal steps that go down to the bottom of the falls. It was horrible. I nearly had a panic attack on more than one occasion. I guess I’m proud that I made it, but I honestly didn’t enjoy any part of the trail, so I won’t do that one again! Louie really liked it, I think. Silly man!

The South Rim Trail basically followed along to a variety of viewpoints that one could drive to, but instead we walked and enjoyed the beautiful scenery all along the way AND didn’t have to deal with parking.

We got rained on a little bit, but it wasn’t too bad. We had rain jackets (well, I did, and Louie had an emergency poncho with him.)

Just to mention safety: we had bear spray and we tried to keep talking or making noises the whole way. It’s tough because you hate to scare off wildlife…but you would hate to sneak up on a bear! We didn’t see any bear scat, so I don’t know what we would have done if we did.

Just amazing views the whole way. Louie kept standing near the edge to take pictures and on occasion I had to look away. I’m sure he was being careful and safe, but I have a huge fear of people falling.

And then the path turned away from the canyon, and we walked by a lake called Lily Pad Lake.

And the trail headed by some paint pots and other thermal activity, no boardwalks, just out in the middle of the woods! How cool is that!!

And to this green pond, called Clear Lake, that is DEFINITELY not okay to drink out of.

I loved this hike. LOVED it. We had been surrounded by so many people since getting to Yellowstone and while yes, we passed quite a few people hiking, it was far fewer, and we really did feel like we had our own private little bits of Yellowstone for awhile. Private thermal activity and private green lakes. I loved it.

After Clear Lake the hike headed through a sagebrush field and back to the trailhead. We saw something from a distance that might have been a rock or a bison, and we just couldn’t decided, but finally when it rolled over playfully we knew which it was.

We made peanut butter sandwiches at the car and then headed north. We had decided we would take the Northeast exit out of Yellowstone to the Beartooth Highway and wanted to be on our way. I didn’t have a reservation for us on this night. Well, I kind of did…originally we’d thought of going to Cody and I’d tried to reserve something there but the place I reserved a cabin at wanted us to call by 3 pm if we weren’t there and I knew that wouldn’t work, since we didn’t have service! So they gave it away, which is silly. How could we call coming from Yellowstone where there was no cell service? We didn’t have service until nearly 5 pm. Oh well.

On our way out of the park we went by Lamar Valley, another place where wildlife and BISON are plentiful.

Those brown dots are bison, grazing all over.

Another awesome thing that I don’t have a picture of (but Louie does, he needs to share!) is: we were driving and the car in front of us suddenly stopped….and we saw a black bear running up a hill to our left! Louie got a picture of the tail end of it running. So we were thrilled that we got to see a bear up close…and safely from the car!

So that was Yellowstone…someday I will return!

To be continued…

Road Trip 2015, Travel

Yellowstone…everything here is more amazing than anywhere else (Road Trip Part 5)

September 12, 2015 hannahviolin

Part 1: There and Back Again

Part 2: Bouldering in Boulder

Part 3: Camping isn’t so bad

Part 4: There really is no place like Wyoming

Day 11, continued:

We drove into Yellowstone through the Southern entrance. Right after entering the park a coyote went across the road. That was, in retrospect, the first sign that Yellowstone was going to be an amazing time!

Honestly. One of the reasons I’ve had trouble getting started on this post is because we just did so darned much in Yellowstone, and I took so, SO many pictures. I’d been to Yellowstone as a kid, in 1991, and I remember really enjoying it, but man, oh man, I had no idea. Just no idea.

One thing to know is that the park is huge. Nearly 3500 square miles. We had three nights of camping reservations, and then we would have to leave. So we weren’t going to be able to see it all, and in fact, we would be lucky to see the highlights!

Anyway, we entered the park and then had about an hour of driving until we’d get to our campground, and since it had already been a very long (and wonderful) day at this point, we decided to mostly drive straight there with perhaps an occasional photo stop. Like the above one at Lake Yellowstone…which made us say, Tetons who?

We found Bridge Bay campground within any trouble, and went to check in. Check in was really busy, but well organized. There are nearly 500 sites at the campground, so you can imagine that around evening plenty of folks are checking in! We got a very nice wooded site where our tent was tucked into a corner with nice privacy—the views weren’t like Glacier Bay in RMNP but the woods were lovely and the lakeview was a short walk away.

This was a great picture…except the construction truck drove into it. And then started setting up for construction so things only got worse. But really, it was a quick walk from the campground!

I should also mention: when I checked in the ranger was VERY stern about the bear safety rules, and in fact I had to sign that I understood and agreed to properly store all food and toiletries, and in fact we weren’t even allowed to have WATER in the tent with us. We could keep things in the car trunk though, which I’m told isn’t an option in Yosemite, so there’s that. Anyway, our first night at the campsite, basically, we set up the tent, went for a walk, made a fire, and ate dinner. And that was that!

Day 12: Our first full day in Yellowstone! I’m excited just remembering how awesome it was.

We decided to tackle the lower loop of the road through Yellowstone on this day. (It’s a figure 8). Basically, today was GEYSER day.

Here you can see Lake Yellowstone and see the West Thumb area (I think) with the geysers and other thermal features. The West Thumb Geyser Basin, as it’s called, was our first stop for the day. We were there before 8 am and just barely beat a busload of tourists! Luckily there was enough room for everyone, though we had to duck around folks taking selfies and whatnot, but the boardwalks are pretty roomy. Being around these thermal features was like being in a different world: after spending nearly two weeks in the mountains, we were (mostly) used to them, but hot water and steam coming out of the ground? Totally new and weird!

We learned so much about the thermal features over the course of the day. I enjoyed West Thumb because they were set right up against the backdrop of the beauty of Lake Yellowstone and the nearby mountain ranges…the steam from the various thermal features is otherworldly. I could definitely see why nobody believed the first explorers!

We got back on the road and headed towards Old Faithful. We made a quick stop to look at a waterfall.

One thing that started hitting us about Yellowstone was that these little side stops that hardly anybody visited, random water falls and such…these little stops would be the HIGHLIGHT of other places! We might have hiked several miles somewhere else to see this waterfall…that we hurried by in our quest to get to Old Faithful before everybody else.

The Old Faithful area is pretty crazy. There were multi-lane exits off the road to get there, and huge amounts of parking. The geyser itself has seating for hundreds in front of it. We naturally arrived right after an eruption, so we took advantage of the indoor plumbing at the nearby lodge (and HOT water to wash my hands in, just crazy) and then headed out to explore the nearby Upper Geyser Basin. We caught a few interesting eruptions there—the Castle Geyser, one of the Lion geysers and the Anemone geyser for sure.

After looking around a bit we headed back to Old Faithful as it was near the predicted eruption time. We didn’t have to wait long—there was a giant crowd at this point so we didn’t get terribly close. Maybe it was more impressive up close, but I don’t know.

One thing we had to remind ourselves of repeatedly was that we needed to practice patience with the crowds and potential idiots that we would be surrounded by. One thing that made me almost lose it was seeing a couple of parents encouraging their toddler to feed a chipmunk cheerios. Aside from the fact that this is completely illegal…I mean really. First off, if you feed a wild animal then they might grow to depend on humans, who aren’t around year-round so said animal might starve in the winter. If you don’t care about THAT then maybe you’ll care that they might bite your kid’s finger (we were told by Brandon, our bike tour guide from earlier that finger bites were the number one reason for ER visits in Estes Park) and if that doesn’t mean anything, remember that they might be carrying the plague.

The other thing is just that there is a lot of traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, and that can be frustrating. So practicing patience is important in order to keep the stress levels low and keep the fun levels high!

After Old Faithful the next stop was Midway Geyser Basin, home of the Grand Prismatic Spring.

The Grand Prismatic Spring was giant and overwhelming and absolutely beautiful. The colors were unbelievable.

This was a beautiful stop!

Next we had a little picnic lunch and then drove through Firehole Drive. We saw a few more springs and geysers and enjoyed a slightly less crowded area than we had been seeing. It’s funny how quickly Yellowstone can go from busy and overcrowded to empty and quiet!

We skipped quite a few potentially interesting stops next, but we knew we couldn’t see it all. We decided to do a “quick” stop at the Artist’s Paint Pots because there was a little more walking involved and we wanted to get out of the car for a bit more. The paint pots were awesome and different enough from anything else we’d seen yet, so of course totally worth it.

The last big stop I wanted us to do for the day was the Norris Geyser Basin. Wow, was the parking lot crowded. We got lucky and were able to squeeze into a tiny spot at the end that most of the bigger cars couldn’t fit into! Norris was amazing. It was truly the best actual representation of a post-apocalyptic world that I could imagine. And in fact, one day the Yellowstone Caldera will likely kill all life as we know it…

Things that I did not do at Norris: use the toilet. I went in, and I walked back out. It was one of the most disgusting bathrooms I’ve ever been in and I figured I could wait…forever.

Louie and I were desperate to see wildlife by this point. Where were all the bison?? We soon found out. We were driving away from Norris and heading back on the loop towards Bridge Bay and noticed someone coming towards us flashing their headlights. Naturally we thought they meant a cop, but suddenly we saw a single male bison walking along the road. That’s what they meant! We were panicking with excitement, and I managed to take a picture out the window right up close to it! After we went by we were just so thrilled. Such magnificent creatures, but so funny looking really, with huge heads, and somewhat skinny looking legs, and just walking along the road with no cares.

Then we got close to Hayden Valley…and we saw more bison. So many more! At first it was a little group, and then it was perhaps 100’s. We realized if we had just turned left out of our campground in the morning rather than right we would have seen so many bison first thing!

Quickly we got the hang of the “pull off the side of the road” for wildlife move. Louie and I had a lot of fun looking at and photographing bison, and then we found a huge group of cars and it turned out there was a bear, way far away though. We spent quite a lot of time trying to see it though, but didn’t have too much luck. Then we ran into an area where people were trying to look for wolves, which seemed scary, but also those people were intense, with high-tech looking scopes and whatnot. Louie made a snap decision then to pull into the Mud Volcano area, and that’s where a couple of bison were walking across the parking lot! Just when we’d think that we were over the bison we’d get all tickled by them again—I think they are fantastic! We saw that about 5 of them had headed up into the thermal features area of Mud Volcano, so we parked and went up the boardwalks to check them out.

We were careful to keep our distance, but it was neat to see them a little closer and doing something more interesting than simply eating grass! They were snorting, and two of them were butting horns a bit.

We decided, after awhile, to head around the other side of Mud Volcano to see the springs and stuff, and that’s when we saw another group of bison, with a young one too, come galloping across the boardwalk and roll around in the mud, leap around the various hot springs, and then run further away. They were moving so fast, and seemed to be really having a good time! I was pretty frightened while at the same time being really excited. Louie wanted to follow them and get closer and I was a little scared especially since I’d seen how fast they could move! We could hear them, snorting and making all kinds of noise, but they were a bit out of sight.

We finally decided to head back around and down towards the car. We saw a park ranger and asked her about the bison, and we learned that it was mating season, which explains the head-butting, and she also said that the bison DO walk on the boardwalk sometimes (Louie was thinking maybe they didn’t, kind of like how roads will have those bars in them so the cows don’t cross) and that they break them a lot and especially over the winter. Good to know!

We finally headed back to the car after all the excitement. Seriously, it was the best day of the vacation! Louie and I couldn’t get over what an amazing day we had had…we made it back to our campsite around dark, and quickly made dinner and a fire to relax by.

(And since I have been having trouble finding the time to finish these posts…I’m going to publish this day alone and then finish up Yellowstone in a later post. Enjoy!!!)

Hiking, Road Trip 2015, Travel

There really is no place like Wyoming (Road Trip Part 4)

August 30, 2015 hannahviolin 1 Comment

Part 1: There and Back Again

Part 2: Bouldering in Boulder

Part 3: Camping isn’t so bad

Day 9: We were sad to leave RMNP. On our way out of town we wanted to stop by a donut shop that had been highly recommended, called the Donut Haus. We waited in a long but fast moving line and ordered. I was totally unimpressed…I got a nutty cinnamon thing that tasted a bit stale 🙁 I guess St Louis may not have the natural scenery, but it has better donut shops! Seriously, people had been raving about this place…maybe I ordered poorly but I hate when baked goods look far better than they taste. ANYWAY. Louie’s fritter was a bit better but I’m still annoyed that mine wasn’t as good as I imagined it would be.

Our plan for the day was to drive to Grand Teton National Park. That’s it. It was around a 8 1/2 to 9 hour drive and we wanted to enjoy the drive too.

Let me just tell you. Wyoming is perhaps the most beautiful state on earth. I thought Colorado was great, but from the moment we entered Wyoming until the moment we left we were surrounded by the most beautiful natural scenery I have ever experienced in my life. Some parts of the state are very desolate and sparsely populated, so it might not be the place I want to LIVE but wow, just miles upon miles of unique and beautiful mountain ranges. All day long our jaws were dropping, and we hadn’t even gotten to the Tetons. We took a few scenic byways to get off the highway, which I’m sure added to the beauty of the drive.

And then…after hours of driving, and wondering, hmm, are we seeing the Tetons, we did, and they were unmistakable, towering above the horizon. We had a reservation for a tent cabin at Colter Bay (in Grand Teton National Park) for two nights. What they call a tent cabin is a cabin of sorts with two canvas walls and lightly padded bunks. (We stayed in the tent cabin because regular campgrounds here were first-come, first-served, and I was worried they would be full by the time we arrived.)

We drove to Colter Bay from the entrance of the park and gasped at the beauty of the Tetons. We checked into our cabin and then headed out to explore the Bay.

None of my pictures of the Tetons really show their scope. They were overwhelmingly large and just incredibly beautiful.

We took a short hike/walk around the Colter Bay area, trying to get a better picture. We saw a bald eagle dive towards the water to catch a fish, and what might have been a beaver or maybe a muskrat swimming along the shoreline.

After the sun set a bit further, we decided it was time to go shower and make dinner. SHOWER. For $4.25 you could get a shower as long as you wanted with hot water and everything. Since I hadn’t showered since Boulder it was definitely money well spent. And then we made dinner outside of our tent cabin. It was much like camping since we had to walk to the bathrooms and we had a picnic table AND our own bear box, but inside the tent cabin there was a wood burning stove, so Louie made a lovely fire to warm us up. We had rice and beans and canned veggies I believe and then went to bed.

Day 10:

Really we had one full day in the Tetons and we wanted to make the most of it. We decided to do what was called the “signature hike” in the Tetons—Jenny Lake to Cascade Canyon. We woke up around 6 am hit the road for Jenny Lake, which was about 20 to 25 minutes away. These parks are so big! There weren’t shuttles like in RMNP and I’d read that the parking lots could get completely full by mid-morning. Since we were so early naturally we had no trouble, and we got on the ferry to Jenny Lake around 8 am. I did have a minor breakdown involving a vault toilet and a stuck giant roll of toilet paper, but I managed to persevere without too many tears.

A brochure said that the ferry across Jenny Lake cost a “modest fee” and I’d forgotten in the meantime what that would be. It was $15 round trip for each of us, which in my opinion is hardly a “modest fee” and is actually a “giant rip-off” but the ride saved us about 5 miles so we had to pay it or waste two hours of the day wandering through the forest rather than hiking in a more awesome place.

On the ferry ride over I was sitting next to a fellow who was with a group of people preparing to rock climb on Mount Moran the next day. That didn’t sound the least bit fun to me!

Once we got off the ferry it was straight uphill for us. Our first stop was Inspiration Point, and within minutes we were both shedding our outer layers and getting down to short sleeves. It’s amazing how cold it could be overnight and in the morning and then hot during the day.

After the initial steep uphill to get to Inspiration Point, the trail leveled out quite a bit as it went the several miles to the Forks of the Cascade Canyon. We were enjoying quite a bit of shade and some lovely views.

We did see some bear scat along the trail, and though it didn’t look particularly fresh we kept our bear spray handy and tried to keep up conversation as to not sneak up on any bears!

We’d kept up a decent pace on this portion of the hike and when we sat down for a small lunch at the Forks of Cascade Canyon, we decided to continue on to Lake Solitude. Partly because we felt great, and partly because another couple of hikers had been encouraging us—we joked that nothing gives you inspiration like when complete strangers tell you that you can do it! Going to Lake Solitude would make our trek over 15 miles but we thought it should be possible with our timeline, and the reviews said that each step past the Forks was more beautiful than the last. Spoiler alert: this was true!

The trail was pretty busy overall even for such a long and intense hike. We passed very few people, but quite a few passed us! When we finally arrived at Lake Solitude..it was filled with people, including at least one person who had done the hike with a toddler on his back the whole way.

But it was beautiful, and even though the last bit of the hike was a real challenge for me due to the incline and the sun, I was so glad we’d continued.

After relaxing and resting a bit at the lake, it was time to head back. Our return trip took even longer, I think, but mostly because we saw so much wildlife! We were constantly on the lookout for bears, because of the scat and also because we’d heard that a ranger had seen a mother and cub earlier in the day. We didn’t see any bears, but we saw marmots, several pika, lots of chipmunks or ground squirrels, and then…a family of moose. A male, female, and a young one. We watched them eating and playing in the water near the trail for a very long time!

I didn’t get a good picture of them, but here’s the male moose.

And a marmot.

We finally made it back down the trail to catch the ferry back. We had about 30 minutes to spare—the ferry stopped running at 7 pm and I believe we boarded around 6:30. What a day!

After that day of hiking, we didn’t feel like cooking, so we decided to check out a place called Dornan’s. Louie’s stepdad told us that back in the day when he had visited it was a neat little cafe down by the river where you could get really good pancakes. Well…when we got near the place the road was packed with cars pulled over on the side and loads of people walking. We didn’t realize how packed it would be, and we also didn’t realize there were a variety of restaurants, a grocery store, a gas station, and more. We found a parking spot with only a little trouble, and then had to decide where to eat—at this point we were pretty tired and overwhelmed but I thought we were too far away to try anything else. We considered the chuckwagon but were a little nervous about that so we ended up at the Pizza place. Rather than having to wait in line to order, since we were both over 21 we were allowed to sit at the bar and order there, so we got some beers, tons of water (I was really dehydrated…I never seem to drink quite enough while hiking) and got a pizza and a salad. It all really hit the spot!

We had a little bit of a drive back to Colter Bay then—I think nearly 45 minutes! The good news was that then we could sleep. The bad news was that we had to get up at 4:45 am in order to drive back south to Jackson in order to go whitewater rafting on the Snake River! Louie made a fire in the tent cabin again so that we were pretty warm going to sleep.

Day 11:

The alarm went off around 4:45 am and we got coffee going. We had to pack up and leave, and we decided since we had an hour drive to wait a bit to make breakfast. We drank coffee and loaded up. I should say—that morning I was annoyed that people had stacked trash next to the trash bins, which is a huge no-no because of bears. We worked so hard in these campgrounds not to leave anything out, and then we’d run into things other people did who obviously just didn’t care or at least, didn’t think. Luckily these incidents were few and far between and most people had a good respect for the rules.

I’d signed us up at Dave Hansen Whitewater for a scenic float trip and whitewater trip. We’d start with 8 miles just floating down the river enjoying the scenery and then 8 miles of white water rafting in an 8 man boat. It was quite cold in the morning and we got wet suits to wear.

Obviously wetsuits are a great look for everybody. We took a bus to the river and then met our guide, Lily. Louie and I had the raft to ourselves for the first segment of the trip, which was really neat. Lily rowed and we just relaxed and looked for wildlife. We saw a bunch of bald eagles, juvenile and fully mature, other birds, ducks, river otters, a beaver, some deer, and more. It was a really neat way to spend the morning, and we also enjoyed chatting with Lily and learning about how she had ended up living in Jackson and being a whitewater guide.

Next we loaded up the raft for the hard part. I was a little nervous about the rapids, but it ended up being pretty straightforward. We did get soaked, but they weren’t too bad and it was a nice introduction to whitewater rafting. Lily was a great guide and we always knew what to do. Louie sat in the front as one of the leaders and did a good job setting the pace—I sat right behind him and let him try to block the water from me. Overall the trip was a blast and I would totally recommend it!

Afterwards we wandered around Jackson for a bit, and then drove up to Teton Village to look around.

There was a tram there that was highly recommended but once we saw the ticket price (nearly $40 a person) we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it. We’d been gouged enough in this area, so we decided instead to just head off to Yellowstone, with some stops along the way. Yellowstone is north of Grand Teton NP so that meant we would have one last drive through the Tetons.

We saw there was a road up to the top of Signal Mountain and so we did that. It didn’t take too long and the views were really beautiful.

I’m sad looking at these pictures though—as wonderful as Yellowstone was, the Tetons were just amazingly beautiful, and I wish I still had that view all around me. We were sorry to leave, and took a million pictures on our way north.

Next: Yellowstone National Park!

Camping, Road Trip 2015, Travel

Camping isn’t so bad (Road Trip Part 3)

August 27, 2015 hannahviolin

Part 1: There and Back Again

Part 2: Bouldering in Boulder

My plan of dividing the blog posts into location rather than day has meant less posts, but so much more writing in between! I might have to reevaluate my plans for the next two parks.

We left off in Boulder. Louie and I wanted to take the scenic route to Rocky Mountain National Park, so we drove from Boulder to Nederland and then took the Peak-to-Peak highway from there. It was only about 1 1/2 to 2 hours drive so we just wanted to arrive in time to set up camp before dark.

Nederland was a cute but odd town. Evidently it was founded due to the mining boom, and at one time the hotels sold rooms in 8 hour intervals because they were so busy! You would sleep and THAT was it. It seemed (obviously) less busy now, and more of a weird tourist place where people would buy coffee and ride a merry-go-round. But we filled up on 85 octave gas (took us by surprise at first but then we realized it was due to the altitude…we think…) and continued on our way. We had a plane to catch! Oh wait, no, we had a tent to set up.

The Peak-to-Peak Highway was gorgeous and scenic. I am too chicken to drive on windy mountain roads (I can but I go really slow and hate it) but Louie loves it. So we both had a great time! Once we got close to the park we pulled over at a place called Lily Lake for some views and to stretch our legs. People told us (people, so friendly and helpful!) that there were moose off to the right, so we booked it. And saw two moose, just eating in the brush next to the Lake.

Also, there were ducks. And mountains and a large lake.

It didn’t take too long before we got to Estes Park and then Rocky Mountain National Park. We opted to purchase the annual America the Beautiful pass which gets you into all national parks and monuments and some more stuff for a year (and it seems, not only a year, but until the end of August next summer!) for $80. I’d added up our plans, and everything on it’s own would cost $90, so we were saving.

Our reservation was for three nights at Glacier Basin Campground. Check in was easy and low key, and we found our site right off the main road. All the pine trees in the area had been cut down due to the pine beetle problem, which left GREAT views, but you had to watch carefully for the stumps which had been left. We were pretty close to the bathroom, which was nice, even though you could hear the hand dryers (no hot water or showers, but yes, hand dryers—I suppose no paper towels and less mess that way!). The bathrooms were nice and clean, and we were warned about bear safety (nutshell, put all the food and cosmetics and toiletries in your car, don’t leave trash around). We set up the tent and got started on dinner…thinking back, we did that so many times it became no big deal, but this first time was really exciting PLUS I didn’t really have the hang of anything so I was pretty stressed about how to cook and get everything done.

My campsite outfit. I only brought one sweatshirt and one pair of sweatpants because I didn’t realize it would be absolutely freezing all the time.

Oh, right—the COLD. I knew it would be cold in Yellowstone but I wasn’t quite prepared right away, even though I should have been. We made a fire which was nice, and we had awesome cold weather sleeping bags—“mummy bags” because you look like a mummy in them, but they ended up being the greatest thing ever for me. Louie didn’t care for them as much, but I get much colder than he does anyway.

In a nutshell, I should have brought warmer slip-on shoes than flip flops but I did not.

We had two full days in Rocky Mountain National Park. Day 1 plan was: giant hike, of course! I found a hike people recommended online that left from Bear Lake and went to the Fern Lake Trailhead.

map

I probably should have considered this elevation profile a bit more. At one point, we did feel like we had been descending for most of the hike…looking at it now I see that was most definitely true.

So: Day 7: we got up early (around 6 am) in order to be ready to catch the shuttle to Bear Lake. Rocky Mountain National Park has an excellent free shuttle system within the park, but it only ran until 7 pm, and we needed to catch another shuttle at the end to get back to the campsite, and wanted to make sure we didn’t miss it! I wasn’t terribly worried as it was a 10 mile hike and that gave us nearly 12 hours—but I am a slow hiker and you just never know.

It looked like the shuttle came directly to our campground but I was mistaken and we had to walk about 1/4 mile down the road and across. Just as we reached the main road we saw our shuttle leaving…luckily they saw us too and stopped to pick us up, saving us 15 minutes plus a little more walking. We were thrilled.

They say Bear Lake Trailhead gets really crowded later in the day but at 7:30 or so we had it much to ourselves. We started out up the trail, loaded down with plenty of water, snacks, and peanut butter sandwiches. We both had walking sticks, backpacks, and of course, our cameras! From the beginning, I couldn’t get over how beautiful the hike was—points of it just didn’t even look real, as if the whole landscape were manufactured in some way.

Right off the bat we saw a deer (or two, I can’t recall) and of course we saw tons of chipmunks. The trail climbed a bit but wasn’t too bad, and it was just beautiful. We’d had a few layers on to begin with but I didn’t need those for long. A few hikers passed us but mostly it was pretty quiet.

As we got near the turnoff for Lake Helene we noticed another trail off to the side. We followed it up for some amazing views AND a marmot, who seemed to just be posing for pictures.

Overall the hike was AWESOME and we had a wonderful time. We saw a variety of lakes, enjoyed amazing scenery, and thoroughly enjoyed our time outdoors. Hiking makes me feel so strong, even when I’m slow! I figure that slow hiking just means a better chance of seeing wildlife.

I wanted to post our lunchtime selfie but it’s upside down…and when I turn it it just gets distorted and stretched. Sigh.

So the only real downside to the hike was that the last few miles were a little boring…though I’m hardly complaining since it’s really only IN comparison to how amazing the first 7-8 miles were…and then the actual downside was the nearly 1 mile walk from the trailhead to the shuttle stop, which we must have just missed, since we waited about 25 minutes. It was nice to sit down though, and we enjoyed riding around the park on the shuttle. This particular one dropped us off right at our campground so we had a very short walk!

Downside to not having showers—getting back and having no great way to clean up. Thank goodness for wet wipes and cold water? Then it was dinner and relaxing time.

Day 8:

Today was a day I was nervous but excited about. I’d booked us with New Venture Cycling for a downhill bike ride on the Trail Ridge Road. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we knew to dress warmly and meet in Estes Park at the shop at 7:30. Naturally I wanted to allow extra time (I’m nothing if not obscenely prompt/early sometimes) so we got up around 6 am. It was pretty cold at camp, but we had no idea how cold it would be up at 11,000 feet or so, where our trip would start.

The clouds were so gorgeous that morning. More clouds meant less sun and colder though…

We had a little trouble finding the shop because it was actually behind the address they gave us, but we were still plenty early. Kerry and Brandon got us fitted with bikes and helmets, and the other party arrived. Lucky for us was that we were only 5 people riding so lots of personal attention! The guides were very friendly and incredibly knowledgeable, as learned over the course of the morning.

We headed out in a large van up to Rock Cut, which is around 12,000 feet above sea level. It was VERY cold, windy, and cloudy, but amazing.

The bike riding ended up being REALLY fun! We stopped at several overlooks on the way down so we had plenty of breaks, and honestly, I could have gone much faster than we did (though we went at a fine speed, and it was probably safer!) so it wasn’t like I was struggling to keep up. I was less scared on the bike on the road than I was in the van—that is to say, there was only one time I was scared and that was one place where the road was open on both sides—I took a deep breath and held on tight for that segment! But the road was amazing—the Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuously paved road in the US, and we learned so much from Kerry and Brandon about the park, historically and today, and about trees and wildlife. They were wonderful guides and we couldn’t recommend the tour more highly!

We had a picnic lunch near the bottom, and then continued into Estes Park by bike, so by the end of the morning we felt that we had gotten a really good overview of the park! There was one uphill bit, which was incredibly difficult for me, probably because I was pretty out of bike riding shape plus the altitude, but I made it. We stayed bundled up all the way down the road as well—it did get a little warmer by the end, but never so hot that I even wanted to take to my jacket off!

After we got back to the car we decided to do a little sightseeing in Estes Park, but the traffic was so bad that we grew tired of it pretty quickly. We enjoyed a good cup of coffee at a place called Ink and Brew, and then decided to head back into the National park and do a shorter hike.

We lucked out and found the only space in the lot at the Glacier Gorge where we headed to “The Loch.” This hike also passed Alberta Falls and was about 6 miles round trip.

I won’t bore you with poorly written details about the hike, but instead will just share some pictures and tell you it was amazing! I will say this about most of the places we visited on our trip, but I can’t wait to return to Rocky Mountain National Park for a longer visit in the future, or at least for another visit and to do more hiking. There were so many options and so many trails and we just barely scratched the surface.

Every signpost is a decision. To continue or not to continue, to turn left or to turn right. (This could be a life lesson, but I’m really just talking about hiking.) On this day we had to turn back, but another time we might be able to continue to Sky Pond and Andrews Glacier, who knows! We got back around 6:30/6:45 pm and debated heading into Estes Park to find a shower, but decided we were just too lazy.

The Loch was gorgeous, possibly the most gorgeous lake we saw the whole time.

So we returned to the campsite for our last night in Glacier Basin Campground. The next morning we would have to leave RMNP and head to Grand Tetons, and we were sad.

In retrospect, my favorite thing about RMNP was the lack of commercialism in the park. No vendors, no lodging, just cheap camping, free shuttles, and nature. It was fantastic. Outside of the park, sure there was plenty of commercialism and lodging and food, but within the confines of the park it really felt like a getaway from all of that, and it was truly wonderful. After all, we all own the national parks, don’t we?

I hope we can get back in the next few years…we didn’t see the west side of the park at all and there are so many more hikes to do. But you’ll see, next is Wyoming, and Wyoming is pretty awesome.

HANNAHVIOLIN

Tag Archives: camping

Yellowstone Again, because one post was taking me entirely too long to write (Road Trip Part 6)

Yellowstone…everything here is more amazing than anywhere else (Road Trip Part 5)

There really is no place like Wyoming (Road Trip Part 4)

Camping isn’t so bad (Road Trip Part 3)

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.

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thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.