Trout Lake

This day was our last to be able to get into the park this year. The work load our last week was pretty tough so no more time to drive around after this.

We still had not seen a bear or a wolf and inquired where the wolves were hanging around and decided to try Lamar Valley. On the drive in, these mule deer were grazing along the side of the road.





This looked like a mother-daughter pair. They usually aren't quite this tame, this close, but these two weren't worried about the cars and much more concerned about getting to the grass that was close to the street.






When you are driving down the road and see a crowd like this, you can be sure there is bear or wolves being watched...from very far away.

 It is common practice to just roll down the window and ask "what's out there?"

We lucked out! A wolf was trotting through the sage up and down the ravines up the hill.




A picture that show these guys are hard to come by but Bob was able to get these pictures of a black wolf. At one point he stopped and starting howling. He was obviously trying to locate his pack. I've blown them up so if you view it full screen you can see it is definitely a wolf.





 We couldn't find out his identity (they all have numbers and are identified to belong in a pack). He was down by Lamar Buffalo Ranch and was probably from the Soda Butte Pack.









Here is just a Fall shot of the Lamar River with Dog's Bane along the shore.

And this is the Gardiner River back toward Gardiner. I guess this should have been first, but I'm not going back now, ha!

This was just a cool shot Bob got of a guy in the Lamar River that apparently had a problem with his fly rod. Oh to be so immersed in your hobby that the world passes you by while you concentrate on fixing a problem!







We wound up driving almost to the back gate toward Cooke City and decided to do a small hike up to Trout Lake. Bob had gone with his photography course last year but we went together now.









As usual, it was a very windy day. September was windy most of the time! I loved this wind-swept cirrus cloud. To my it looks like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars :)










 Here we are at Trout Lake. It is one of those areas where the water collects from a stream in the mountains. You just don't expect to run into it up this high.








The hike around was only a little more than a mile, but so serene and scenic.











You can see the trail from this picture. This was where we started and Bob took this at the end.











So many trees throughout the park was killed in the 1988 fire. There were more in this area. This beautiful, old tree is still standing and completely dead. Look how large it is! It made us think of the Redwood Trees in CA.

Paul came to visit!

Paul Trombetta lives in Bozeman so is able to make the trip each year to come and visit when we come out here. Paul and Bob go back to age 5 growing up and he was the Best Man in our wedding 46 yrs ago. So we enjoy his visits and try to take him on a moderate hike that his knees can handle.





This year we took him on the Yellowstone Picnic hike that travels along the edge over the end of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. I posted pictures on this hike earlier when Bob and I did it but here are some more!

The scenery is so amazing when you are higher up.






Here we are with the other side of the canyon in the background.

This big guy was all alone and walking among the sage bushes parallel to our path. That can cause a little anxiety when he looks at you like he may just wander over. This time, however, he continued down the hill to a greener patch of grass to munch on.





The hill behind me is the start of Specimen Mountain. There are at least 3 trail heads to take one up to the top, this being one of them. The trail is about 10 miles long. Bob and I have decided to tackle this next year. :)








This is looking back into the canyon area from the end of the trail. This is the Yellowstone River which travels north to the Gardiner area and up to Livingston, MT before turning east to eventually run into the Missouri River. 








We had 3 days of rain right before Paul came. It dumped water below and snow above. The Mt. Washburn peak we had just hiked was now covered in snow!

The buffalo were on the move all throughout the park. This group was trailing down into this valley and the leader had already gone halfway up the next hill. I've heard you can tell the weather by the animals, but we are really stumped about whether it will be a tough winter here or not. The animals all were going places we've never seen then in before. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Washburn Mountain

Oh, come now, you knew we had to climb the mountain with our name on it didn't you?

This is our 3rd time up and the views never get old. Unfortunately, there was enough wind to bring smoke from the fire below Lake Yellowstone up into the park.

This is the 3rd year we've climbed and had smoky views. One day maybe we'll be able to see the Tetons like everyone says you can!

See the little point in the top middle of the first picture? That is our destination!


We've never encountered any animals other than ground squirrels and chipmunks so imagine our surprise to come upon this mother/daughter pair! We couldn't pass until they moved across the road and up the hill some.

These are Big Horn Sheep.






Oh but wait...here is another pair further up the path. Both babies tried to nurse and both mothers pushed them away. How cool to see 2 pair of sheep on one trip!








Here's some prospective on how high we had climbed by now. We've heard there were Big Horn Sheep on the mountain, but never saw them before, at least not this close up.








So, back to the climb. You can see the Ranger Tower at the top a little better now.

This fence was made using fallen Lodge Pole Pine trees and it was weighted in each section with large rocks from the area. Very creative. This fence was new since our last climb.






Ahh, we're getting closer still. The sky was blue to the north. It's a steady, uphill climb. We made it the fastest ever this year.










 And we made it. You knew we would, right? This picture is facing south and you can see the haze from the smoke behind Bob.

Here is the Ranger Station. The area on the ground level to the front in white is the visitor resting area. Above it is an outdoor viewing area with just a railing. The wind was howling and fierce on this day so we stayed inside and didn't spend much time walking around the grounds.





Oh look...a whole herd of Big Horn Sheep. We can definitely say we saw them on this hike! I believe we counted about 19 dotting the hillside.










This is our trail to go down, way below us. This was just short of an 8 mile hike, total.

Lo, here is another! Actually, there were 2 aged females along the trail on the way down. "The hills are alive with the sound of bleeting..." Not really, it just seemed like it should be :)

Isn't this picture fabulous though?

Just for posperity sake, here's a picture of me on the trail. Boy is it easier to go down then up!!








 And here's a picture of the fire in southwest Yellowstone. It started out small but was allowed to burn naturally. It had gotten up to over 1,000 acres. Since this time though, we've had 3 days of heavy rain and things are much clearer now. The park won't say it is out because they smoulder for a long time but no more has been said about it burning.

Yellowstone Canyon

Well, we've done this hike 3 times now. It is so pretty, we just can't resist. But we did something extra this time. I'll explain as the pictures come up.

First we drove to and walked out to Artist's Point. This is the most photographed area in the entire park. The falls in this picture is the lower falls.





And here is the upper falls. The lower falls is taller and the upper is wider. See the bridge in the trees above the falls? Where this picture was taken is where we started our hike from. We will cross that bridge to the other side and wind up at a look out area built on the opposite side of these falls. Then we retrace our steps. Winding up with a six mile hike.

What...He's cute! This is a grey squirrel, pretty typical around here. They tend to be smaller in size from the grey's we have in Florida.

This is the Canyon Bridge built by the Army when they were brought in to occupy Yellowstone to save it from poachers and land grabbers.










This is the other end of the bridge looking down from our perch where we ate lunch. You can see what a bright, sunny day it was. 

Here we are at the area above the upper falls. That didn't take too long now, did it? Bob and I feel that the rapids above the falls would be quite a challenge...especially if you don't exit the river prior to the falls!









 

And, just to confirm, this is what river again?!









So here we are looking back across the river at the Canyon Bridge. We couldn't get over what a gorgeous day it was.


 




And here's the new part. Uncle Tom's Trail consists of 328 steps (very steep steps) that take you down to the bottom of the lower falls. Bob did it the first year we came here. I had not attempted it. So what's a few steps after a 6 mile hike? We went for it.








Are you getting the feel for the dramatic drop? I could see the river way below, but couldn't look but for a passing glance every now and then. At one point I was holding on to the rail with both hands. Have I mention I'm not a fan of heights?

But we made it! Usually the spray from the falls is hitting this platform, but the wind this day was carrying it down the river. 

And we even ended the hike down and up with a rainbow. And that is Uncle Tom's Trail.

Sepulcher Mountain - 3rd (and I promise, last) Part

This is a good view of the two mountain ranges. I suppose they have different names because they are not joined. So again, the one on the far right of the valley is the Absaroka Range and the left one is the Gallatin Range.

 One more look at the view before getting below the ridge line.











The climb down the mountain was through some dense woods for a large amount of the time.













And as we approached this area, we heard a guy just shouting out loud, as he walked. Right as we got to the woods he and a girl appeared, very relieved to be free of the woods. They said there was a very fresh pile of bear scat right on the path, and another further down.

So while we were in the wooded areas, we carried our bear spray in our hands and shouted as we walked. Never saw a bear, thank you Lord!, but we came across the scat. He was right on...very fresh!













Part of the back trail looks just like the front however, this had a lot of steep descents and the paths were very rocky, so we had to step carefully and go slow.

 

Can you see how dark it is in the woods? We could too. We walked faster when possible. We were still 3 miles away from the end at this spot.

This was a surprise junction. We came across this bridge and there was a confusing sign. We interpreted it correctly though and were able to stay on the trail. We had 2.5 miles to go at this point.









And this was a surprise lake we had to hike around. The beauty was nice but we were much more focused on the time. We did stop long enough to look for critters, but saw none.







Finally, the sign we had been waiting to get to. Wait, what? It's still 1 mile to Snow Pass? After that it's 1 more mile back to the truck. Hmmm.

But we persisted and made it. This sign is the beginning of the Snow Pass trail on the back side of the Hoodoo's trail.



And at full dusk, we made it to the truck. Our main worry was not the dark, in and of itself, we carry head lamps with us for emergencies.



But dusk is when all the night animals really make themselves known. And running into bears, wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, even foxes is not something we are really looking to do!

 And to clarify about this mountain...Sepulcher is 9,646 feet high. Electric is 10,969 feet high and Washburn mountain is 10,243 feet high.

 We hiked 3,300' in elevation change of Sepulcher for this hike.

And here is what Sepulcher looks like from our cabin. The highest peak in the middle is where we were! Due to smoke from the fires the pictures are not as pretty and clear as what we thought we were looking at, but you get a feel for what we saw.

So there you have the full splendor of Sepulcher Mountain. We hope to do it again next year but go another way, leave much earlier and spend more time on the top.