Glacier National Park Vacation
Sunday, August 24, 2008We are concluding our first two week vacation. Wow, and what a vacation! We visited three national parks and drove approximately 2600 miles. The weather was perfect (for us) the entire way. It was restful, physically exhausting and fantastic! We’re glad our vacation ended with a couple days at home so we can recuperate from our travels.
Saturday, August 9
I planned to continue training for the Victoria BC marathon during our vacation but I doubted that I would run enough. So, Saturday morning I went for a long run while Mike packed for our trip. When I returned home, we finished the last-minute packing and took off. We did not want to be tied to any specific schedule so we only planned to stay with Mom and Dad Saturday night and then to stay with our friends, Fred and Amy, the next Saturday. The rest was up to our whim. We arrived in Spokane that late afternoon. After talking with Mom and Dad and watching a little Olympics, we went to bed early.
Sunday, August 10
We left early Sunday morning to drive to Glacier National Park. In fact, we left so early that none of the coffee shops were open yet. After multiple failed attempts, and after approximately 45 minutes, we found coffee at Miller’s One Stop (a small store in Elk, WA). On the road to the park, we saw three wild turkeys – the start to our wildlife adventure.
We arrived at West Glacier in early afternoon and immediately looked for a campsite. It was a good thing that we didn’t dawdle because the campgrounds were already filling. We stayed at the Sprague Campground on the west side of the park. Our campsite was close to the road and small, so we decided to use Mike’s small 2-person tent instead of our large tent. The small tent was easy to put up but we couldn’t sit up straight inside of it. It was quite cozy.
After setting up camp, we made PB&Js for lunch – something we would eat frequently during the trip. We were too tired to do much exploring of the park so we visited McDonald Lodge. The lodge did not impress us. It appeared old and in need of a good paint job. We returned to the campground and walked along the lake shore and took photographs. For dinner, we had a pizza dinner at the lodge while laughing at fat ground squirrels run around outside the window.
Back at the campsite, Mike showed his remarkable patience and perseverance by starting a fire using one or two remaining embers from the previous campers. I was impressed. We had a difficult time staying awake until 8:00 p.m., the time we decided it was acceptable to go to sleep.
Monday, August 11
As would occur during most of the trip, we woke up early – about 6:00 a.m. MST. From previous camping trips, we learned that one of our biggest camping challenges is coffee. For this trip, we had solved the problem: we bought a cigarette adapter to AC power and brought our old coffee pot with us. Our car battery would power our coffee pot. Of course we didn’t test this theory at home and, on Monday morning after getting little sleep in our tent, we learned the theory didn’t work. It was a good thing that Mike had packed a back-up – the old, reliable percolator. After fighting with the cigarette adapter system for a while and failing, we were getting a little desperate. We didn’t want to wait for the percolator to create its magic, which takes some time and produces somewhat chunky coffee, so we drove to the lodge. Unfortunately, nothing at the lodge opened until 7:00 a.m. We waited.
While the coffee theory was a bust, we did learn that our other theory was a success. Instead of sleeping in our 2-person sleeping bag on an air mattress, we brought our old, individual sleeping bags and had bought individual sleeping pads. Fortunately for Mike, we couldn’t cuddle but we did sleep better.
After resolving the coffee problem, we headed across the Going-To-The-Sun road. I preferred the east side of the park and was excited to show it to Mike. We left early so there was little traffic on the road. We stopped at some road construction, which was actually nice because I was driving and the road construction allowed me to look around too. We stopped at Logan’s Pass and decided to hike the Hidden Lake trail. The wind was blowing like crazy at the pass. We watched a girl chase after a piece of paper that literally flew across the parking lot. She didn’t have a chance. The paper flew over the parking lot and off the edge. We continued to see the paper for several moments as the wind gusts carried it into the park.
We bundled up and started the hike. It is difficult to describe how hard the wind was blowing. The wind would occasionally blow us off course as we were hiking. We saw birds fly sideways. The sky was dark and cloudy and we couldn’t see the top of the surrounding mountains, even though we were already near the top of most. We were laughing the entire way. It was great! Besides sideways-flying birds, we also saw a hoary marmot who took an interest in us too. We were a little anxious about getting a good camping site so we didn’t hike to Hidden Lake but stopped at the overlook, which meant the hike was only about 3 miles.
We drove down to the Rising Sun Campground, where we found the perfect campsite. It was at the edge of the campground and backed to a large mountain and the woods. I ignored my initial thoughts that if a bear decided to enter the campground, it would be through our site. There was also a store and a restaurant within walking distance.
We decided to hike to Virginia Falls, in which we would pass by two other waterfalls. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay close enough attention to the map in our hiking book to see that there were three, short access points to the trail from the main road. There were people everywhere on the trail and we got a little frustrated with them blocking the trail and the views. No more popular trails for us! We ended the 6-mile hike on Sun Point, which overlooked St. Mary Lake. It was beautiful, but also very windy. I had to hold onto my hat to keep it from blowing away.
After the hike, we visited St. Mary’s. The grocery store where I worked the summer of ’94 or ’95 looked exactly the same. In fact, not much in the park had changed at all in the last 13 or 14 years. We had a beer in the lounge and overheard the bartender talking about watching a meteor shower. We thought we would try to stay awake to see the meteors. Yah, right. We returned to our campsite and rested. Then, we had chili fries for dinner at the nearby restaurant and started a fire at our campsite. I fell asleep before it even got dark. Mike had a hard time sleeping. We didn’t connect the rain cover to the head of our tent, so Mike could see through the tent mesh. He saw a couple meteors that night.
Tuesday, August 12
Our adventures on Monday took a toll on us and we had a lazy Tuesday morning. Mike made coffee and breakfast burritos while I reviewed “the book” for hiking options and planning our day. (“The book” refers to our hiking book for whatever park we are in. We relied on our books heavily for campground, hiking and food information.) While hanging out in our campsite, to our chagrin and humor, we noticed that our neighbor had a gas problem and farted quite frequently and loudly.
Our City of Rocks, Idaho vacation taught us the lesson that sunburns and dehydration causes us to be lazy and unmotivated. We vowed not to repeat that mistake and, throughout our time in Glacier National Park, we were vigilant with applying sunscreen and drinking water (that vigilance got a little worse in Yellowstone.) While preparing for the trip, we bought a hydration pack for me to carry intending that I would carry all the water and food for both of us because Mike carried his cameras and lenses in a backpack while hiking. The hydration pack worked great and we used it constantly.
Later that morning, we decided to hike the Otakami Lake trail. It was a beautiful hike and the temperature was great! We passed through woods and fields of wild flowers, as well as crossing several mountains slopes of scree. We did not see too many people on the trail on our way to Otakami Lake. The lake was gorgeous. I was surprised to see small fish in the lake. Where do the fish come from when we watched the lake being fed directly by glaciers? We had lunch (PB&Js again) at the lakeside. Unbeknown to us, the mosquitoes were having lunch on us. We had brought mosquito repellent but applied it a little too late.
As we were hiking back down, we noticed more people on the trail and were glad that we had started the hike in the morning. We also noticed that we hiked slower than we thought. The book provided a time estimate for the hike, which we initially thought was rather slow. Apparently, it wasn’t that slow because our entire hike including lunch fell within the range provided by the book. I had started getting blisters on my feels from the previous hikes and the hike to Otakami Lake made them worse. Managing my open blisters would be a problem throughout the entire trip.
We had not showered since Saturday morning and were feeling gross. After the hike, we went to the public showers behind the Rising Sun. There was a line for the girls’ shower but not the men’s shower. We didn’t want to wait so we decided to shower together in the men’s. Mike made sure the coast was clear and I snuck in. We showered very quickly in the tiny shower area. We didn’t say a word the entire time, we just motioned. We both thought it was hilarious – we felt like we were getting away with something. The shower felt soooo good!
We returned to the campsite to relax. A ranger came by our site and warned us that bears did enter the campground and provided us instructions to keep a clean campsite. The ranger also told us that a cougar had been seen on the Otakami Lake trail within the last week. I was glad to have not known that before the hike. We relaxed with our books and beer. Throughout the trip, we bought local beer whenever we found something new. Some we liked, some we didn’t. We didn’t feel like cooking dinner so we split a cheeseburger at the Rising Sun restaurant. We both slept well that night.
Wednesday, August 13
The alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. so we could photograph the sunrise. I was in charge of carrying the coffee pot while Mike took photographs of the mountains at sunrise. Beautiful!! We had decided it would be a rest day and that we would move on to Many Glacier. Since we were not in a hurry to leave, I ran 4½-5 miles along the Going-To-The-Sun road towards St. Mary’s. Mike drove ahead of me and stopped at the various pull-outs. While I ran, he took photographs. It was one of the most peaceful runs I’ve ever had.
I took a shower and Mike made breakfast. Food, especially eggs and PB&Js, taste so much better while camping. We discovered that we both had mosquito bites everywhere, but Mike had far more. Mosquito bites also affect him quite a bit more than they do me. It was a good thing we had brought the Calamine lotion. It was common to see us with pink lotion spots our legs as we hiked around the park.
We drove to the Many Glacier campground and instantly decided it was too big and busy and we preferred Rising Sun. We got to the campground at 10:00 a.m. and it was nearly full. We ended up with a site near the bathrooms, which was not to be as bad as we thought it would be. According to one sign near the campground, many of the good hikes were closed due to bear or mountain lion sitings.
We were tired but also a little antsy so we decided to go to Glacier’s Canadian counterpart – Waterton National Park. On our way out of Many Glacier, I saw the backside of a sheep as it entered the woods. I was excited because we had not seen much wild life yet. It was a long trip to Canada. At the border, the Canadian border patrolman reminded us that we still needed to sign our new passports. Oops. We explored the Prince of Whales hotel and walked around Waterton town. It is a cute, touristy town. We also walked around Lintel Lake (approximately 1 mile). The Canadian Rockies were beautiful but we didn’t spend much time in Canada. Just before the U.S. border, we realized that we had still not signed our passports. Feet before we reached the checkpoint, we quickly signed them. That was not our only issue in crossing the border. One of the border patrol people opened the hatch of our car and our plastic lantern fell out, spilling the batteries all over the ground. The border patrol did not know how to put it back together and gave it to us in pieces. Mike fixed it on the way back to the campground.
We had dinner at the nearby restaurant and ate way too much. Mike suggested we take a walk, which I reluctantly agreed to. We started walking on the trail that we intended to hike the next morning. Approximately .7 miles into the trail was a lake, where we saw a female moose eating in the lake and a baby moose laying on the side of the lake. We also saw a doe and her fawn on the side of the lake. We were both incredibly excited and yet frustrated that we didn’t bring our binoculars or camera. We watched for a while and then decided to risk going back to camp for the binoculars and camera. We returned to the lake 20-25 minutes later and saw that a male moose had joined the group. He was eating in the lake along with the female moose. There was a small crowd of people lined up on the shore of the lake. The crowd was respectful and just watched the scene and whispered. It was cool to be a part of it.
Shortly after we arrived, the fawn pranced around playing. It inched its way toward the baby moose and appeared to try to play with the moose. Baby Moose got onto its feet and the fawn skitted away. It was adorable. Meanwhile, the moose parents worked their way to the opposite side of the lake. (Baby Moose was to our left and the parents were to our right.) Mom Moose looked toward her baby and walked onto the shore. Suddenly, the small crowd of people were between Mom Moose and her baby. Not good. Everyone stood up and moved back, as Mom Moose walked along the shore. Mom Moose entered the water again, but continued to walk towards Baby Moose. She walked directly in front of Mike, who was taking photographs of the entire encounter. Mom Moose was within 10-15′ of Mike. Suddenly, Dad Moose realized what was happening. He started loping toward Mom Moose and Baby Moose. He too came within 10′ of Mike. Dad Moose looked at the people and was grunting the entire way across the lake, with Mom Moose was grunting in response. It was a little freaky the way Dad Moose turned and looked toward the crowd of people, and Mike who was crouched in front. I stood near the back of the crowd (6′ or so behind Mike) closest to Mike’s camera bag and, coincidentally, the trail away from the lake. I had already planned to grab Mike’s camera bag as we both ran from the lake, just in case. Dad Moose continued to run to Mom Moose and Baby Moose. The three touched noses and seemed to make sure each other were okay. Then, Mom Moose lead Baby Moose into tall grasses and out of the public view, with Dad Moose following. It was so cute.
The crowd left except Mike and I and another couple of people. Soon, Dad Moose returned to the lake and continued eating. Mom Moose peaked her head out of the grasses that they hid behind but she didn’t fully leave her hiding spot. Mike got a couple more photographs before we left. It was a very cool experience. We later learned that moose are volatile animals – glad we didn’t know that earlier.
Thursday, August 14
After making coffee, we took some photographs of the mountains at sunrise. Then, we started hiking to Red Rock Falls. As we passed the lake, we checked to see whether any moose were having breakfast. We saw Mom Moose and Dad Moose. Mike took a few more photographs of them and we continued the hike. Along the way, we saw the sign indicating that a mountain lion had been seen on the trail. We figured it was a fairly popular trail and the mountain lion was probably seen father along the trail past Red Rock Falls. We decided to take the chance. The hike was short but beautiful. I particularly appreciated the red rock that surrounded the waterfalls. After a lunch at the falls, we hiked back to camp and packed our gear. We decided to move south and visit Two Medicine.
On our way out of the Many Glacier area, we saw some vehicles pulled to the side of the road with a ranger. At first, we thought it was an accident, then we saw the telescopes. On a whim, we pulled over and asked a couple what they saw. Apparently, a mother grizzly bear had swam across the lake with her cubs. The other side of the lake was quite far away but we could see the bear through our binoculars. I was so excited to finally see a bear – and a grizzly at that! We watched for a little bit but did not see the cubs. The mother bear was sniffing or eating along the bank of the lake.
The road to Two Medicine was curvy and slow-going. There was a stretch that was similar to driving on the Going-To-The-Sun road – big drop offs with little protection. The trip was definitely worth the effort because we really liked with the Two Medicine area. The campground is near the lake, had many open campsites and is treed and secluded. There is a store within walking distance but no restaurant or other place to eat, unless you travel into East Glacier. We chose a campsite near the lake. We debated whether to rent a canoe or kayak to paddle around the lake, so we walked to the store and boat rental area. Ultimately, we decided to hike instead. The blisters on my heels were particularly nasty so I wore my old Merill slip-ons. Not a good choice – they didn’t have much support and I could feel my feet quickly getting sore. We had planned a long hike the next day, so we cut the hike short and stopped at Paradise Point. After waiting a long time for someone to figure out Mike’s camera and take our picture at Paradise Point (which didn’t turn out), we returned to the campsite via the store where I bought a huckleberry ice-cream treat.
We decided to visit East Glacier, which was a complete waste of time. The town is small and crappy, except for the newer lodge. We quickly returned to our campsite, where we relaxed with books and beer again and tried to decide our schedule for Friday. We were staying with Fred and Amy in Joliet, MT Saturday night. It was a long drive so we decided to split it up into two days, which meant we had to leave on Friday. Yet, we were both having a great time in Glacier National Park and weren’t ready to leave. We decided we had time to do one more hike Friday morning before we started driving south. We debated over hiking the 11+ mile Highline Trail which is the trail to hike in Glacier. I hiked it when I worked at the park and it was my favorite trail. Unfortunately, it’s a lot of people’s favorite trail and tends to be a little crowded. It also required several hours of travel out of our way. After much debate and a stinky trip to the ranger’s information station (someone there needed a shower badly), we decided to hike the local Scenic Point Trail (8 miles), which Mike had previously selected as a possibility.
After returning to the store to buy a large coffee mug that Mike liked, we prepared chili dogs for dinner. Mike felt grubby so he took a dip in the lake – brrr! I would only wash my feet, on Mike’s encouragement. Mike was able to get some great photographs of a chipmunk who was gorging himself on berries in our campsite. We also took a walk along a trail that circled the river and took photographs. During that walk, I wore my old Nike sandals that I’ve had for years and years. I had been wearing them quite a bit because I could slip the heal strap under my foot and nothing would rub against the blisters. Of course, the bottom of my feet were getting sore from walking on the strap. During the walk, we decided to create a new pair of shoes for me. Mike pulled out his trusty “Bear Knife” and sliced off the heal strap. Eureka! What an idea – the “new” sandals worked perfectly and I still love them. They should last another 10 years at least.
Friday, August 15
We started off Friday with mixed emotions. We were excited to hike and then later see Fred and Amy but we were more sad to be leaving Glacier National Park. I had loved the park since I worked there. It was fantastic that Mike felt the same way about it. Mike promised that we would return to the park sometime within the next ten years and I’m already looking forward to it.
We woke before sunrise again and took photographs of the lake. Then, we packed and drove to the Scenic Point trailhead. Not too far into the hike, we saw the strangest bird that we’ve ever seen. Since I knew there were ptarmigan in the park but had never seen one, I guessed that’s what it was. He poofed his feathers and strutted around. It was hilarious when he walked away from us because his tail feathers rocked back and forth opposite to the way his body rocked.
During the hike, we decided that the book’s description of it being a “moderate” hike was not quite accurate. The hike was all up. Otakami Lake was also listed as “moderate” and rightly so. Scenic Point should have been labeled “strenuous.” The trail lead up the hill on one side of a ravine, traversed across a ridge and ended on a point with a beautiful view of multiple areas of the park. Part way up the hill, we met a park surveyor, who pointed out a handful of big horn sheep on the hill on the opposite side of the ravine. They were a ways away and we could barely make them out using the binoculars. Still, it was our first big horn sheep siting so we were excited. We continued to the top of the hike and didn’t see any other people. We enjoyed the solitude. We ate lunch at what seemed to be the top of the world. I was sitting a little further away from the edge than Mike.
On the hike down, lower on the slope than when we first saw them, we noticed that the big horn sheep had started running down their hill. They were quite a bit closer and Mike was able to take some photographs. There were five sheep and the lead sheep was definitely the alpha. The other four waited to see what he would do before they followed. As we slowly worked our way down our slope, we watched the sheep also slowly eat their way to the bottom of their slope. We were excited until the lead sheep crossed the creek at the bottom of the ravine and started up the slope toward us. No biggie – we started hiking down our trail. The sheep also followed his trail, which ran nearly parallel to ours but angled up so it eventually connected to our trail. The sheep stared (or was it a glare) at Mike. He had horns. We didn’t. We started walking a little faster. The sheep walked faster too. We passed the point where the trails connected and the sheep was still following (chasing) us. At this point, Mike quit taking photographs and we both started hiking quickly. Mike looked over his shoulder and saw that the sheep followed at an even faster pace. A photograph later showed that a second sheep was not too far behind. Luckily, the trail leveled off and started winding. We were out of view of the sheep and we think it lost interest. We still crack up about being chased off the mountain by a sheep.
The drive to Great Falls was boring. We stopped for gas in Browning, MT, outside of East Glacier, and were not impressed. The rest of the drive was uneventful. I got sleepy while I drove so Mike pulled out the Atlas and started playing Guess the State Nickname with me. It entertained us and kept me awake until we reached Great Falls, MT. We also realized that Mike had almost filled his 8 gig memory card. Wow! We were on a mission to find a new card. We were both dirty, grubby and very stinky. I’m sure we made a poor impression as we searched the businesses of Great Falls trying to find a Compact Flash memory card. Our mission ended in failure. No where in Great Falls, MT was there one Compact Flash card. Mike ended up getting a Secure Flash card and he had to buy two 2 gig cards. It was truly small town and I loved it!
Our next mission was to find a place to sleep. Neither of us wanted to camp. Oddly, we had a tough time finding a hotel that satisfied both of us – I think we were tired. We ended up at the Holiday Inn, where a shower and fresh pair of clothes revived us. Unfortunately, the hotel didn’t live up to our expectations because children were running throughout the hotel (and right by our door) until late that night and the front desk wasn’t able to help us resolve the jammed laundry detergent machine problem. Guess we’d have to wash our clothes at Fred and Amy’s afterall.
Saturday, August 16
I went for a two hour run along the Missouri River. There was a nice view and I saw odd birds, a cute bunny and a marmot crossed my path. Mike re-organized and packed the car. After breakfast, we returned to the road. It was again a fairly flat drive filled with wheat fields and cows. The only excitement was seeing a car completely engulfed in flames along the highway and the fire department working on putting out the fire on the car and the nearby ground.
We reached Joliet, MT a little after 3:00 p.m. and Fred met us at a corner on his 4-wheeler. We followed him to their house, which was a cute two bedroom, country house with amazing views. Amy’s parents had built it. It was fantastic to see Fred and Amy again. I had forgotten how similar we are. We reacquainted ourselves with Juniper and met Crenshaw, their golden labs, and toured their 7 acre lot. Amy’s dad had dinner with us and provided tips on where to hike in the Beartooth Mountains and loaned us his topo map of the region. After dinner, the four of us went on 4-wheeler rides at sunset. Then, we sat around a campfire in the front of their house. It was a great evening.
Sunday, August 17
We woke early on Sunday and Mike took some sunrise photographs of the area. We left Fred and Amy after a lazy breakfast of sausage and eggs – Yum! Fred also made some wickedly strong Swedish coffee that certainly got us going. In Red Lodge, we bought groceries. We both liked Red Lodge and thought that living in Montana would be great. We drove through the Beartooth Pass, which was another windy and unprotected road. At the top, we stopped for photographs. Wow – the wind was blowing and it was cold.
The Beartooth Mountains were beautiful! We had planned to do a hike in the Beartooths but we were also concerned about getting a campsite. We looked at one campground in the Beartooth area but were uncomfortable with it. It was a large campground but there was not a single tent set up – everyone had RVs. Also, we saw multiple campsites with large buffets of food set on the picnic tables. We were a little anxious about bears coming into the campground at night to investigate the smells. We decided to continue into Yellowstone, where we thought the camping regulations would be a little more strict and enforced by rangers. (There were a lot of rangers in Glacier and we anticipated the same with Yellowstone.) We were a little bummed not to spend more time in the Beartooths, but we will come back with an RV or a truck that we can sleep in. In hindsight, we may have enjoyed hiking the Beartooth Mountains more than Yellowstone.
We stopped in Cooke City, which was a cute town. We had to decide the question “To bear spray or not to bear spray?” Amy and her dad recommended the bear spray. Amy also told us about an incident that happened within the last couple weeks where a bear slashed into a camper’s tent looking for food. The camper had done everything right and the speculation was that the previous campers had left food on the campsite ground. We ultimately decided not to get bear spray. It cost over $50, we didn’t need it in Glacier and we would continue to be careful and talk on the hiking trails. I was hungry so we also stopped at a coffee shop for coffee and a veggie bagel.
Not long after we entered Yellowstone, we saw our first buffalo. They were on a hill in the distance. A little while later, we saw a number of cars pulled over. We asked what people were looking at and were told there was a buffalo carcass in the stream. That didn’t excite us too much until a bear ambled out of the brush towards the carcass Cool! We’re not sure whether it was a black bear or a grizzly but it was closer than the last bear that we saw. Mike was able to take photographs of it.
We didn’t agree on the first campground that we came across. The best site had an animal trail leading from the brush directly into the site and I was not comfortable with that. We missed the second campground and continued until Roosevelt Lodge. On a whim, we stopped at the lodge to see if they had any vacancy. The kid behind the counter almost laughed at us. OK – we were camping again, but it was getting to be early afternoon and we were a little concerned about finding a site. We drove south to Towers Falls and found a great site. We had let ourselves get too dehydrated and turned lazy. We sat around the campsite reading for some time. Eventually, we set up camp and tried to do a short hike. The hike ended up leading us to the way-too-popular hike to Tower Falls, right behind the general store. There were a million people on the trail (of course, I exaggerate but it felt like that many people). We were a little disgusted with the people and returned to our campsite quickly. We noticed that Yellowstone had many more people than Glacier National Park.
We made hotdogs and mac and cheese for dinner, chased the little shade and drank a Teton Ale Pale Beer that we found at the general store. Yuck – it tasted like Budweiser. It was an early night.
Monday, August 18
We were more energized the next morning. After breaking camp, we returned to the Lamar Valley (where we entered the park) to look for animals. We saw some wolves in the distance. That was exciting because Mike had overheard a ranger the previous night tell campers that seeing wolves was difficult. We also saw some buffalo with birds hitching a ride on their backs. It cracked us up. Driving further east, we came across a roadblock. Buffalo were meandering along the road and stopping traffic. Mike took photographs of the traffic jam through the sunroof. One buffalo ran along side our car and grunted at us as Mike took his picture.
On the way back west through the Lamar Valley, we saw some antelope and a coyote ran across the road in front of us. We stopped at Mammoth because we needed gas and thought we’d stay there. The first thing we noticed were all the bright red Do Not Approach the Elk signs. Then, we saw the elk lazing around on the grass in the middle of town. They were big. The campsite at Mammoth was terrible – it was barren with little shrubs, along a hillside with roads encircling the campground. We were not staying there. We checked with the lodge for availability and were told the only thing left was a budget cabin for $80. Perfect!
We decided to hike the Bunsen Peak trail, which connected to Osprey Falls. Bunsen Peak was rated “moderate” and the falls was rated “strenuous.” Adding Osprey Falls made the total hike about 11 miles. It was a decent hike. We hiked up to Bunsen Peak which had a decent view of the valley. On the top, Mike made friends with an inquisitive chipmunk. There was quite a bit of gradual downhill through several valleys of burned trees that had been blown over. The view was interesting, if not slightly freaky, at first but got repetitive quickly. Eventually, we got to the base of the hill where the trail met with the Osprey Falls trail. The trail into the falls was thin and descended a steep 800′ into a canyon. The falls were lovely. After lunch, we took the trek back out. It was a really hard hike out of the canyon but we stopped only once. I was so proud of us. The trail ended with 3¼ miles on a flat dirt road. The ending was terrible. It was boring and in the direct sun with little shade. We ran out of water and still had to hike most of the road back. It was hot. We were so glad to finish that hike.
That night, we had a fairly cheap dinner at the Grille, which was like fast food. We ate dinner really early but we ate a lot! We retired to our cabin with more local beer, read, watched the birds outside our cabin windows, and planned for the next day. My heels were trashed. I had used climbing tape to secure the blister protection, but it didn’t work. At 6:30 p.m., we were ready to sleep but knew that we shouldn’t. Mike encouraged us to walk the boardwalks around the hotsprings near the lodge that evening instead of the next morning. Since we had time to kill, I agreed. It was a slow couple miles along the boardwalks, but it was really pretty. The sun was starting to set and there weren’t many people on the boardwalks. Mike got some really great pictures and we saw a cute, young bunny.
Tuesday, August 19
Another slow morning for us. We had breakfast at the restaurant, where I had huckleberry sweetbread – Yum! We drove south to Norris Geyser and walked another series of boardwalks around geysers. It was stinky but neat. We couldn’t help but feel like the entire ground was boiling beneath us. It felt like we were walking in the middle of a volcano, which we were. Interesting, the fact that Yellowstone is located in a super volcano was absent from all the literature and signs we read.
Mike and I were individually starting to think that maybe we should speed through the rest of Yellowstone and head south to the Tetons. Mike was the first to mention the idea and we both quickly agreed. We were a little tired of the crowds and just plain tired. As we drove south, we saw a group of cars to the side of the road. As we crossed a bridge to pull over and see what the commotion was about, I saw a bear swimming in the river below us. I was so excited that Mike had to say “Ok, just pull the car over.” As he got his camera, I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I said “Go. Go. Go.” The bear had exited the river and was walking up the bank towards the crowd. It crossed the road and escaped into the brush. Mike got a really good photograph of it on the road. Unlike some of the others, Mike kept a respectable distance from the bear. Each bear siting found us closer and closer to the bears. We decided that this was close enough.
We had a nasty hamburger lunch at another grill and were involved in another buffalo-caused road jam. By the time we exited the park and entered Grand Teton, traffic had thinned and we could see the beautiful, jagged peaks of the Grand Tetons. We were stopped for 20 minutes or so at road construction and then drove to Colter Bay where we hoped to stay. There was just one cabin left and it was a little pricey. We debated for a bit and decided we were far too tired to try to find a campsite. Stick a fork in us – we were done.
After dinner at another grill, we took a walk where we saw a lot of squirrels. On our way back, we saw a large bird on the top of a dead tree. We sat and waited for it to fly but the bird didn’t leave. We went back to our cabin that was over 100 years old and quickly fell asleep.
Wednesday, August 20
We woke again before sunrise and hiked out to a connected island to take sunrise photographs. It was a nice, peaceful morning. We had decided that we didn’t have the energy to explore the Grand Tetons, so we’d save them for another trip. We packed our gear and started heading home. Our plan was to drive to Boise, ID and stay the night there. On our way out of the park, we stopped at the visitor’s center, which was surprisingly interesting. It renewed our commitment to return to the Grand Tetons where we could explore the beautiful mountains. We also drove through Jackson Hole and were impressed by the town.
Not much else happened until we reached Boise. At Boise, we decided to keep going because it was the middle of the day (around 2:00 p.m.) and we had nothing better to do. We reached the Oregon border and still felt fine. We kept telling ourselves that we could stop and find a hotel at the next town along the way. At LaGrande, Mike said what we were both thinking – we were going to spend the night in our own bed. After 14½ hours of driving, we made it home. And it felt so good to sleep in our bed. Based on our last experience of driving 13 hours from Bakersfield, CA, we were surprised at how much easier this long trip was.
Thursday through Sunday, August 21-24
You’d think our vacation was over, but we decided to enjoy the rest of the weekend. No surprise but we have been pretty much lazy-butts since arriving home. I ran 19 miles on Saturday and felt terrible. I guess we’re still not recovered from our trip. We have both been working on our blog and sorting through the 700+ photographs that we took of the trip.
It was perhaps the best vacation that either of us have ever taken.
