Fawn Pass and The Yellowstone Hoodoos

This hike is across the road from Bunsen Peak. It makes an 8+ mile loop through meadows, easy woodlands, rock outcroppings (Hoodoos) and dense woods.

Here is the start. An easy walk along this rolling meadow.







After about 1 mile we turned the corner and started an upward climb. You can see the trail behind me. This grassy area was more like a bog. It had been raining the previous 2-3 days, off and on.






An educated guess tells me this is a moth. We learned recently that the moths like the higher elevations and when it turns cold they hide under dead trees and in rocks. The grizzly and black bear will eat 40,000 Army Cutworm moths a day for protein before hibernating. Check out this article done in 2011. Too bad there's not a black bear in Florida in the summer that can do this!



Here we start on a down slope. The rain had turned the path into a mud pit, going down about 1/4 of a mile. It was the newest 'slip and slide!' But not a bad view.









Oh look, now we're in the woods. A nice level walk until we came to this crevice running perpendicular to the path. It was really alarming to think the earth just opened up there and what was there just fell in.







The shot below was as close as we dared to get and look down. We couldn't see the bottom. Kept walking.












And here's Bunsen Peak across the road. We were back on higher ground at the Hoodoos. The Pica love this area and it's a favorite area for those watching the Pica.

Pica are hard to catch standing still. We've seen 2 or 3 on different hikes, but no pictures so far. Naturalists are watching them because of the heating of the environment in YS. They aren't on the endangered list but are apparently a good indicator on how different animals are surviving (or not) in this warmer weather. For the record though, this has been a much cooler year with a lot of rain. 

Above Bob is at the top of the Yellowstone Hoodoos. To the side a good sampling of what it all looks like. What you can't see is this stuff covers a few acres of land, all primarily concentrated in this area.







We are leaving the Hoodoos behind and headed back into dense forest to traverse the last mountain pass before getting back to our starting point.

Below is an awesome shot of several areas. The little dots along the  road is where we parked. Our CRV is parked closest to the road in the foreground, ha! Only about 3 more miles to actually get to it.


The road does disappear into the trees but if you look closely, you'll see a waterfall that carries the water downstream for the Gardiner River.

I wore out after 6 miles on this hike but we may do part of it again to see a new area where the trail splits off to go toward Gardiner rather than doing the loop. It was all very scenic.

Total Miles Hiked: 74