Sepulcher Mountain - Part 2

We are officially on the top. This is the view to the west. It is Electric Peak. We can see it from our cabins, but not this close up!

We had a few people in the Yellowstone store tell us we had to hike that next. Are you kidding me? It's almost another 1,000' taller than Sepulcher. Not happening!






This view is to the northeast. This is the Gallatin Mountain range. It travels north toward Livingston, MT.

See this little outcropping of rock? It is why this mountain is called Sepulcher. According to Google a sepulcher is: "a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried." This mountain is full of these stones.

We were delighted by the sighting of a white butt in the bushes along the trail. As we got closer we saw what we thought was and Elk but turned out to be a Mountain Goat. They are rare to see up here and rarer to see this close. She was on the path so we had to make noise to encourage her to go up the hill so we could pass. 

And so, here she is about to leave, but wait...

Nope, the grass is a little tastier over on the other side. Ha!

She did finally meander up the hill and lo! there was another one, watching the whole time. Bob got about 50 shots of these two. 










Here they are together. Two females getting fat on grass and seeds for the winter.

Aren't they gorgeous??









And look, she stopped to say hi to us. Or, maybe she was chewing and responding to my noises to get her to raise her head??

I was surprised at how white their fur was.

Here's Bob standing at the top of a large crevice like it's no big deal. One slip and he's gone down the hill. That kind of stuff freaks me out!










This picture is looking down the crevice into the valley where the road goes north out of Gardiner, Montana. The mountain ranges are the Gallatin on the left and the Absaroka on the right.

This is looking more due east. Gardiner is in the foreground and the Absaroka range is behind and beyond.

I wish I knew how to draw a circle or insert an arrow in the pics. If you look at the trees on the left forefront and see the plateau immediately to the left, there are 4 little dots on the plateau. Those are our cabins we live in and take care of!

Here's another good and larger example of the rock out-croppings that Sepulcher Mountain is named for.

By now the sun is starting to get closer to the mountains on the west where it will disappear for the night.

Did I mention we are still on top of the mountain and it took us 5 hours to get up here and we started at 11:20am? So to make a faster descent, I'm just going to drop off the side of the cliff and slide back down.

Oorrr, maybe I'm starting to walk a lot faster along the ridge line path to work our way down before it's dark!!

This view is still northeast. The mountains just seem to go on and on!

We are a little below the back ridge line here. The rock you see is volcanic rock and it forms the ridge line for Sepulcher to the north.

More to come on the next blog. Be sure and check to see if we made it off the mountain before dark :)