The Trip:
The trip to Yellowstone would be an adventerous one, setting the stage for the rest of the trip. The trip took 16 hours from Alma, Kansas. It was just me and my friend Chris. We left Alma at 1AM Friday night, after Chris got off from work, arriving at our campsite just short of 5pm on Saturday. On our trip, we were nearly in a head on collision just south of Pinedale, WY. Somebody topped a hill in our lane!!!! Next, a deer ran out, just barely missing us. Finally,a rock hit our windshield north of Jackson, spidering our windshield. One big surprise: It was actually hotter in Yellowstone than in Topeka/Alma Kansas. This would be the trend for the entire trip...record heat in NW Wyoming. Our campsite was located at the Canyon Village campgrounds, a nice centralized location in the east central portion of the park, just miles from the base of Mt. Washburn.

Sunday, June 30.
We started off early Sunday so I could photograph 1, 2 the geysers in the rising sun. We arrived at the Upper Geyser Basin, containing Old Faithful. While walking the main geyser loop, we were lucky enough to see Castle Geyser 3 (erupting every 5 hours), 3b and Grand Geyser (every 15 hours) erupt. Grand Geyser is the largest predictable geyser in the world, making Old Faithful look small! After walking the geyser loop, Chris and I hiked northward, jumping onto a spur trail that took us out of the geyser loop, through forest, and up into Biscuit Basin, which is another smaller series of springs and 4 geysers. Thats water in picture #4 geyser pool! It was so clear. After this, we then walked farther north to the Mystic Falls trail head. Upon arrival to the trail head, we ran into a nice lady whom asked us if she could hike to the falls with us. She didn't want to hike alone as this was right in the middle of "bear country". The 3 of us decided to hike to Mystic Falls via an overlook trail that traversed up onto a mountain 5 close to the geyser basin. This trail was fairly well traveled, but quite steep and rocky, with an approximate 600-800 foot rise from geyser basin to summit, winding through the forest. Every time the 3 of us heard a noise in the woods, we looked at each other with a look of alarm with bear in the back of our minds. I figured I'd be fine as long as I'm not the slowest in the group. (Just kidding!). Once at the top we were treated with a spectacular view of the entire 6 geyser basin. Now its off to Mystic Falls. Another few miles of winding down the other side of the mountain saw us to the waterfalls. Mystic Falls was quite picturesque, 7 but the trail didn't allow us to get as close to the falls as I would have liked. After Mystic Falls, we spurred down to the trail head via a more direct route, saying good bye to our hiking friend, and trecked back to the upper geyser basin. Total hiking distance for the day: Approx. 14 miles. Keep in mind that we had full length backpacks carying water, food, extra clothing, and emergency survival gear. You just never know, being that isolated, and high in altitude. In addition to this, I was carrying all of my photo gear in my packs, adding a considerable amount of weight!! After getting back to camp, we started a bonfire in our firepit. I somehow managed to nearly singe my head off in a big fireball!!!!!!!!! DON'T ASK!! Well, ask me if you're curious. I finished the day up by eating a family pack of M&Ms. Yep, the ENTIRE bag. Theres nothing like a 1300 calorie snack to top off a strenuous 6 hour hike. Right at about dark, the mosquitoes came out. They were absolutely horrible, causing us to retreat into our tents. At first, I was really warm, thinking that I overpacked on the cloths, and overdressed. By morning, I was FREEZING, sliding clear into my sleeping bag, wearing my heaviest sweater and sweatpants. Morning temps were around 40-45 degrees. One morning, we even saw our breath.

Monday, July 2

Mt. Washburn Climb/Hike

The Mt. Washburn trail is a highly traveled trail, and in really good condition. The trail winds up the mountain through eight the forest. Usually, this is one of the best places in the entire park for wildflowers, but due to the drought and excessive temps, the flowers weren't as plentiful as usual. We didn't see as much wildlife today. Theres a Bighorn sheep herd that lives on Mt. Washburn in the summer, but they didn't come out on this day. We could see parts of 3 different mountain ranges after we made it above treeline. During our climb up it was quite warm, but upon reaching the top, the temps plummeted to the point of me having to put on my 9 jacket. After reaching the10 summit, we had a decision to make. Do we go back down the way we came up, or hike across Dunraven Pass down the other side of the mountain. We 11 decided not to hike the other side and Dunraven Pass as we were exhausted from the first 2 days of the trip. On the way back we stopped by the upper and lower falls 12 and walked the trails 13 to see them. Not very far from our campsite, the famous lower falls of Yellowstone is a 310 foot monster of a waterfall. The spray at the base created multiple rainbows. Total miles hiked for the day: Approx. 8.

Monday night scare:

At about 4 in the morning I was startled awake by a rather loud "snap" coming from the woods behind me. I became quite alarmed after hearing another large snap from behind my tent!!! Next, I heard a wierd "grunt". Now I could feel my pulse ringing through my ears. Many different thoughts went running through my head. Could it be a bear? I was laying right in the middle of bear territory, after all. Did I spill any food at my campsite and not know it? Could I make it to my car before a bear could catch me?? All of these thoughts ran through my head in a haze. Eventually, the snaps migrated down to the other side of the campsite before disappearing alltogether. The next day, a ranger came to the campsite warning everybody of a grizzly bear siting less than a mile from camp. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Next time, I think that I will have an emergency supply of raw meat ready to take out and throw on my neighbors tent! ha ha ha!

Tuesday, July 3

We started by driving up to Mammoth Hot springs. It was really hot out this day, and the springs were dried up for the summer, so it wasn't all that impressive, but given adequate moisture, I can see that they would look quite spectacular!. 14 15 We drove down to the trailhead that would link us up with the rather remote Osprey Falls. This would be, in my opinion, one of the neatest destinations I was to see. Getting to the falls is a 10 mile round trip hike. The last mile down, and back up was the steepest mile I had ever walked in MY WHOLE LIFE! To get to the falls, we had to take a steep trail down the walls of the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone, descending probably a thousand feet or more! There were even warning signs at the 16 beginning of the trail signaling out the dangers of this trail!! The trail descended the final 800 verticle feet in .6 of a mile. Thats right, 800 feet down in slightly more 17 than a half a mile! Pic 17 shows the trail at about 900 feet below the top, 100 feet above the water. See how narrow the trail becomes in spots, and one slipup will send you sliding all the way down!!!! Every step down this last mile was a slipping-sliding adventure. Once, I slipped, grabbing onto a tree to keep from tumbling down! Keep in mind that in all of the excitement of preparing for the trip, I had forgot to pack the most important part of my hiking wardrobe....my hiking shoes. I had to do the entire trip in my Nike flat soled tennis shoes. Real smart, Jason. I will give Nike a thumbs up on those shoes as they were quite comfortable for most of the trip. After reaching the bottom, still out of sunlight, we were greeted with the neatest sight so far...150 foot high Osprey Falls. 18 I tried to take another trail that snaked back up about 80 feet or so, hugging the cliff right next to the falls, wanting to get right up to the base of the 19 falls. I nearly crapped my pants after looking down and back. To get back down, I had to gingerly step, concentrating on EACH AND EVERY step as there was no room for error on this excuse of a sandy trail hugging the cliff. At one point, I even had to practically hug the rock just to get past a certain point. Slipping off the trail would have sent me plunging down the steep grade, right into the icy cold rapids right below the falls! I decided to be safer after this. 20...21...22....23
One occurrance to note: During our hike back, I noticed a medium sized bird flying low, hugging the path we were following carved through the forest. He came closer, closer, closer...until I had to throw my shoulder out of the way, or this bird would have flown right into me!! He never hesitated, and after passing within inches of my shoulder, he just kept going like I wasn't even there. Wierd! Total estimated hiking distance for the day: 12 miles.

Wednesday, July 4

A take it easy day. We hiked through the Middle Norris Geyser region, not a very long hike, but a neat hike seeing the different geothermal features. 26 steamboat geyser Next was the upper and lower falls again, close to our campsite. Also, we were fortunate enough to be able to photograph some storms 24 that 25 were in the area. After this, we drove out the Northeast entrance to the town of Silvergate, Montana to watch the 4th of July fireworks show. This really small town is stuck right in the base of the Beartooth Mountains, and put on one of the craziest fireworks demonstrations I've EVER seen! Maybe the altitude, combined with the cool weather affected the fireworks. A few of the fireworks barely fluttered into the air, exploding relatively close to the ground, rocketing the colorful outcome down into the crowd, trees, rooftops, sending many ducking their heads, running out of the way. 27 After a couple of these, a local family, 28 parked next to us, seeing the amazement on our faces, explained that this happens 29 every year, and that this is why they're so fun to watch. We saw people diving out of the way of these hot colored balls of fire! Amazingly, I saw no one get burned. That was just plain lucky. Also, unless you are a customer of one of the couple of places open in Silvergate, or neighboring Cooke City, there are NO public restrooms. waterfall rainbows 30...31.

Thursday, July 5

Our final hiking day of the trip saw us heading down to Jackson Hole. We walked the downtown stores, saw an old west shoot-em-up live re-enacentmt. It was unbelieveably hot on this day, as temps sored to a record high in the mid 90s. The downtown bank thermometer showed 101 degrees. On our way to J.H., we stopped off at a trail head near Jenny Lake, at the base of the Teton Mts. it is here that I made a critical mistake. I decided that since this hike would be only about 6 miles total, I didn't need to take any water nor my backpack. I only carried one camera with 2 lenses total. STUPID MOVE!! I was sooo thirsty by the end that it hurt. The mossy smelly water appeared quenching. I got a headache from being so thirsty, and the sound of 32 Hidden Falls didn't help matters. The hike up to the falls followed a mostly flat graded, but extremely rocky uneven trail. Once past the falls, I opted to hike a bit farther than anticipated (another dehydrated mistake), as I was intrigued by a narrow trail that went up a rock ledge to a lookout point high above the valley, falls, and lake. 33 Chris opted to stay behind and guard the falls. This trail was steep, and one slipup could send you tumbling down to the rocks below. The trail to the falls was extremely busy, and from the falls up to the lookout point had considerably less traffic, but was still well traveled. During the hike, the only thing I could think about were my wierd cravings for a coke, then juices, then Cappuccino...pretty much ANYTHING liquid I craved at some point. We spent about 5 hours on this trail. On our way back to the campsite, we watched a neat storm complex develop right above the Teton Mountain range. Next, we decided to stop off at the lower Old Faithful geyser basin again, and saw a spectacular sunset 34...35 with more storms off in the distance, along with Castle Geyser erupting. This marked the end of our trip. 36... 37

Facts and thoughts about our trip:

***Total hiking miles covered...Approximately 42 miles in 5 days.

***Total weight lost hiking...1 pound. Thats right one pound. How in the heck does one hike 42 miles in 5 days, mostly through mountainous terrain and only lose one single pound????

***The trip there took 16 hours, back took 18 hours

***I was AMAZED at the speed of traffic going through central into eastern Wyoming. I was routinely in the lower to mid 90s keeping up with the flow, and a few times punched it over 100mph!

***Also of surprise to me was the high number of minority (foreigh) tourists. In many places we went, English was the minority language around. I couldn't tell you how many languages were spoken just in our campsite. I think that maybe 3 of our 8 total neighbors at camp spoke English as their primary language.

***It got dark at about 10pm. By 10:30, you could hear a pindrop from across the campsite. NOBODY was up after dark. The nights were so quiet that it disturbed me. There was absolutely no sound, period!! Dead silence. At my house, I can hear my ceiling fan in my room, the refrigerator kick on, clock ticking, trains, crickets, wind, the voices in my head chatting, etc, etc. There was absolute stillness at night at our campsite!! No crickets, wind NOTHING!! Even the voices in my head were quiet. I think even they were afraid of the dead silence..ha ha ha.

***Total miles driven on the trip...3200 miles.

***Only 260 days to go until next years Yellowstone trip (as of Sept 1). I am taking 2 trips up there next year, one early in spring, and one in Sept 2008 to see the fall foliage of the mts.