Sepulcher Mountain - Part 1

This hike was our biggest of the season. From the tracking we use through Runtastic on our iPhones, we hiked right at 12 miles with an elevation of 3,300'.

As the title indicates, Bob took over 200 pictures and he got some awesome shots. I'm going to make this at least a 2 part blog in order to share as many pics as possible.



The start of this hike is across from the Bunsen Mountain Trailhead. We hiked in on a little used trail and hiked the back of the Hoodoos (pics in a previous blog) to get to the start of the trail for Sepulcher. We wanted to hike the whole loop and knew that parking close to the end was going to be key. So it took us 2 miles to get to the Sepulcher trail head.

At this point we were bundled up due to cooler weather that came through but we still had extra clothes in our backpacks.

By the way, we don't start these hikes without food, extra clothes for warmth, a full backpack containing about 2 liters of water and a bear spray for each of us.

And so we began the ascent up the mountain. This is our first look back after about 30 minutes of a good uphill climb. This is looking due south into Wyoming and Yellowstone Park toward the Tetons.

This is the mountain we are climbing. We will eventually be on the top ridge in this picture. We felt like we were moving at a good rate but still took about 5 hours to make it to the top.





There was a lot of beautiful, open meadow here to walk through. The tree line below on this view took about 20 minutes to get through. After another 20 minutes we were already above the top of the trees. It doesn't seem like a steep climb overall but when you look behind you it's evident that you are gaining elevation!

This is when we began to see the top of Bunsen Mountain appear. First is the tree line, then the plateau area of the Hoodoos and then Bunsen.

Soo, we were told there is a wolf pack den in the woods along the top of the path. We found some fresh scat in 2 to 3 places that indicated someone knew what they were talking about.

Note: Dogs and other animals (other than horses from trail rides) are not allowed on the trails in Yellowstone. The risk of drawing an attack is too high!


We are still climbing. Here you can see I've put a red, double lined cloth hat on. I never took it back off! The temps were dropping and the wind was very fierce at times. Being in this open expanse meant we received every wintry feeling blast full force!

But look at those blue skies! Montana has nothing on Wyoming for clear, blue skies. But, to clarify, we are looking due north here and into Montana, technically, ha!






I had some fun here with leveling out the landscape so you can see the degree of our climb.

Are those trees leaning with me? I do see some straight ones on the right of me. Hmmm...It was sure difficult walking like that!





This is the true angle of things :)







We have climbed high enough to see most of Bunsen Mountain and in the far middle is Swan Lake. Somewhere in front of Bunsen is the road with cars but we can't see them or hear them. Only the sound of nature.

Well, it looks like we have crested the mountain. The trail actually takes us up and down several times along the ridge but this was our first ridge stop.

And look, Bob was with me all along! I took a picture of the picture taker. And just so you don't think I'm a wimp with all the layers on, he has on a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, our heavy-windbreaker Yellowstone jacket and a heavy t-shirt on top, complete with a hat with a string holding it on his head. It was a blustery day as Pooh would say!

And lastly, this is the approximate area for the wolf den. We are almost to the top here and the woods to both sides are very dense. It is the home of an active pack of about 15-17 wolves. Their numbers increased by about 7 this year with new pups. We didn't see them...yea! That large expanse of meadow you saw above is just a small part of their 'play ground.'

I'll continue tomorrow with more pics and fabulous views.