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.