Today we decided to take an all day horseback ride into the Lee Metcalf Wilderness in Montana.

On Sunday when we were out shopping I saw a sign in a store we had just left advertising an outfitting business that offered various hunting and fishing trips as well as plain horseback rides. On Monday we went back and booked an all day ride for Friday. We told her that we were experienced riders who were looking for a long ride into the backcountry, not just a simple dude ride.

This morning at 9am we met our guide and the one other rider at a turnout north of West Yellowstone. After some paperwork and last minute planning, we headed west into the wilderness area to the trailhead. Once there they unloaded our horses and we hit the trail.

We knew right away that this was a different type of ride than we had ever been on before. We immediately started up a narrow trail, climbing through steep switchbacks up a mountainside. Stacie was immediately comfortable on her horse, but I was still struggling to find my seat and get comfortable with my horse as we rode through forests and meadows, continually climbing up into the high country.

Our first stop was after a two hours of serious riding. A female black bear and her cubs were up ahead of us on the trail. Luckily they were out in the meadow a little way from the tree line so we were able to see them ahead of time and wait for them to move on. After a couple minutes she took he cubs back into the woods and disappeared, and we moved up into the meadow and stopped for lunch.

We got food out of our saddle bags and enjoyed a fantastic mountain view while having a leisurely lunch. After about 45 minutes we got back in the saddle and continued on down the trail.

By this time I was settling in and had mostly worked things out with my horse, Tonto. We descended down a steep slope into a valley with a stream running through it. After watering the horses in the stream we continued upstream for a while until the trail disappeared. Our guide got out the map and figured out that we needed to climb back out of the valley and take a different fork in the trail.

We continued to work our way deeper into the foothills through numerous steep, technical climbs and descents. We took another break after a couple hours in the saddle, which I was thankful for as my bad knee was starting to hurt. At this point we had to turn back, because the trail was too long to make it a loop in a single day.

The long ride back was just as challenging and technical as the ride out, plus we were now tired from half a day of almost nonstop riding. During one narrow stretch of trail above a steep rocky drop-off the ground collapsed under my horse’s right front hoof, causing him to drop almost to his knees and balance on three feet while trying not to slide down the slope. Luckily I was able to stay balanced and let him recover and get back onto the trail without any serious issues.

Stacie and I knew that we were going to be sore and painful from a ride this long, given our current amount of riding, but we were not prepared for how challenging this trail was and for the different types of aches and pains we would be experiencing. During the ride back, the pain increased until we were riding more on willpower and determination than strength and skill. Instead of the typical riding aches, we were having most of the pain in our knees, and ankles. Is this another sign that we are getting old, when our joints get tired faster than our muscles? My bad knee was tightening up until I could only move it a couple degrees in each direction, making it impossible to use my right heel on my horse. Luckily our guide was also feeling the ride, though not as bad, so she had no problem taking a couple short breaks on the way back.

We got back to the trailhead at 4:30pm, gave the horses back to the outfitter and headed back to camp. We spent the rest of the evening taking pain relievers and trying to relax. Between the standard muscle pains, the joint pain, minor dehydration and sunburn it is taking us all evening to recover. However, it was a once in a lifetime ride and we are gladly paying the price. This was the perfect way to finish out our vacation.

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We finally made it down to Old Faithful and the surrounding area, along with a quick but fun trip down to Grand Teton National Park.

Today we were trying to finish up the main attractions that we wanted to see in the parks. After leaving camp we headed south in Yellowstone, stopping first at Firehole Canyon Drive. Right as we turned onto the road we saw a snowshoe hare off on the side grazing. Continuing on, our first stop was Firehole Falls, an picturesque little waterfall.

Next was a swimming area where you could park and walk down to a calm spot in the river for a dip. Since it was still in the 50s at the time we decided to pass. The final point along this road was Firehole Cascade, a section of white water. When we stopped here, there was a small herd of elk blocking the access. When Stacie got out to take a few pictures, the elk decided to move on – right toward and around Stacie.

Back on the main road again, we spotted a coyote hunting in the field next to the road. After some pictures we continued on to the Fountain Paint Pot area. This is a half mile trail that you can view all four types of hydrothermal features in Yellowstone: geysers, hot springs, mudpots, and fumaroles. We also saw some fascinating bacterial growth in the streams of runoff.

After seeing all of that area, we headed on down to Old Faithful itself. We were early enough in the day that there was plenty of parking, and we arrived just a few minutes before an eruption.

After watching the eruption we walked two miles around the upper geyser basin and were lucky enough to see a few more geysers erupt as well as some of the interesting hot springs. By the time we got back to Old Faithful, it was just in time to watch it erupt again. This time we were standing on the windward side and got sprayed with the geyser water. By the time it hit us it was already cool, so it was a refreshing experience.

We left Old Faithful and turned in to the next picnic area we found, which turned out to be a ways down the road. After lunch, we continued south to Grand Teton National Park.

GTNP has some of the most awe inspiring scenery I have seen in any park. The glacier carved mountains and lakes are just incredible. Unfortunately we did not have much time to spend in the park, so we only got to do a couple of things.

The first thing we did was drive to the top of Signal Mountain. This was another one of the twisty, narrow roads throughout the parks that lead to interesting places. From the top of Signal Mountain we had a tremendous view of the Teton range as well as the eastward view of the basin.

We then drive down to Jenny Lake. We originally had the plan of taking the shuttle boat to the far side and hiking to Hidden Falls, but it was late enough in the day that we were afraid of missing the last shuttle back so we took the scenic boat cruise instead. This ended up being an excellent choice. We cruised around the lake for an hour with a guide who lives in the area and has hiked, climbed, and skied just about every trail, rock face, and colier in the Tetons. He told us about the history of the area, identified the various peaks we could see, taught us how they were made, and told us mountaineering stories. He was incredibly knowable about the region and just plain fun to listen to. It was one of the best “scenic tours” we have ever taken.

After Jenny Lake, we had to head back to camp. It was disappointing to miss out on so much in Grand Teton, but the drive back took three hours and we didn’t get back to camp until 10:30pm.

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We set off today to the northeast part of Yellowstone in search of bighorn sheep.

We drove straight through Madison junction, Norris junction, and Canyon junction on our way north toward Tower. We were on a mission to find bighorn sheep, so we skipped out on all of the other attractions along the way and drove on to the Mt Washburn trailhead. We had been told the day before by one of the cashiers at a gift shop we stopped at by Lake Yellowstone that this was the best bet to find the rare bighorns.

The road up to the trail head was a fun dirt road with plenty of bumps and twists. The trailhead was a simple dirt parking lot but was still full of cars, trucks and RVs. The vast majority of the other visitors either took one look at the first hill and gave up, or made it to the top of the first hill and got no further. The trail started out at an incredibly steep grade for a quarter of a mile before easing up a bit. The breaks we got on this trail were all relative, however, because it was a long, relentless climb all the way to the summit with no level or downhill spots the entire way. The majority of the trail was actually a forest service road used to get supplies up to a watch tower on the summit, so at least it was wide enough to pass other hikers or for hikers going opposite directions to not interfere with each other.

We were well rewarded at the two mile point on the trail when we came across a pair of bighorn sheep lying right on the trail itself. As we got closer we could see that they were watching over a larger herd of sheep just below them on the hillside, including many kids. The sheep in the trail were not terribly concerned with hikers, and let many pass by within ten feet of them without even getting up.

We stayed and watched the sheep for several minutes until a forest service truck came driving up the road. That was enough to make the sheep move off the trail and farther down the hillside, so we decided to move on and continue to the summit.

On the summit was the watchtower, including a residence for the ranger currently assigned there. The lower part of the tower was open to hikers to come inside out of the wind and relax and enjoy the view. During the last quarter mile of the hike the wind had been increasing until just before we got in the tower we were in a 35mph wind with 40mph gusts. It was a huge relief to get into the watch tower and be able to relax and eat lunch. Several other groups of hikers were doing the same thing.

Before we left, I walked out onto the outdoor observation deck on the second level of the tower. By then the wind had increased, and I had to hold on to the railing to keep my balance. The winds were gusting over 50mph at that point, so we decided to head back down before it got even worse. The first 20 minutes of the hike down we were fighting the wind from multiple directions as the trail wound around and down the mountain. When we were walking into the wind, it was very difficult to even breath, and we had to struggle to make forward progress. When the wind was coming from the side, we were constantly working to keep our balance and not get blown to the side. Finally we got down low enough that the wind wasn’t as strong and we were able to walk and talk normally.

After an hour of hiking down we made it back to the parking lot, tired but exhilarated at both summiting the second highest peak in Yellowstone and seeing a herd of rare bighorn sheep. Since we accomplished our main goal of the day, we decided to head back to camp early to let Stacie get in a few extra hours of studying.

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We got going quite a bit later today, but still managed to see Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, a large herd of bison, and a bunch more geothermal features.

From camp in the morning we headed straight to Canyon Village in Yellowstone. At least, we tried to head straight here; we had to make it through the construction again, and we ran into another bison in the road.

After browsing the shops in Canyon Village, we drove to the north rim drive, with our first stop at the brink of north fall. This is a short, steep trail that goes down to the bottom of the canyon at that point and stops at the very top of north fall, a large waterfall in the canyon. The views from here were fantastic, looking down the canyon and over the edge of the waterfall. The hike back up to the parking lot was brutal, with a dozen switchbacks and about 800 feet of elevation gain in 3/8 of a mile.

Continuing on the north rim drive, we stopped again at . This is another great overlook of the canyon. From here we took our packs and walked to Grand View, yet another beautiful scenic point along the canyon. After walking back to the Hummer, we drove to Inspiration Point (another overlook farther up the canyon) and found a spot to sit and eat lunch.

After lunch we headed south through the park again, where we ran into a large gathering of bison. We first pulled over for a herd of about 50 bison a ways off the road. We walked a short way down a game trail to get close enough to take pictures and then stayed and watched them for a while. We left feeling pleased that we had really seen some bison, more than just the individual we had seen a couple times before. We were ready to move on to our next Yellowstone adventure and were already putting the bison behind us when we came around another corner into the midst of a huge herd with hundreds of bison, on both sides and even on the road. Traffic was stop and go for a mile while we crept through the bison, sometimes waiting for a group to cross in front of us or right along side of us on the road. We saw all age ranges, from young calves to adolescents to adults. We got to see them doing everything from just grazing quietly to swimming across the river. Eventually we were able to make it through their territory and move on down the road.

The next attraction we came to was Mud Volcano. This sounded interesting and different enough that we decided to pull in. It turned out to be an entire geothermal area, with vents, geysers and springs all in a different type of soil than what we had seen before. Instead of clear pools, they ranged from cloudy water all the way to thick mud.

The first thing we saw on the trail through the area was a male mule deer, with a complete rack covered in velvet. He was completely unconcerned with the people on the trail and seemed more interested with finding just the right grass to graze on. Eventually he moved on so that we could get by him.

We walked the short loop through a series of pools and geysers primarily characterized by the way the sulfuric acid had eaten away the rock. One of the most fascinating was called Dragon’s Mouth Spring. The actual geyser is back in the hillside where it can be heard but not seen. The gas and steam along with rushes of water come out through a cave in the side of the hill, accompanied by hissing and rumbling sounds.

Eventually we moved on and drive south to Lake Yellowstone. Other than browsing the store in Lake Village we didn’t stop, because it was already late in the evening and we still had over two hours of driving to get back to camp. The views across the lake were worth it, though.

The drive back seemed to take forever, between the tourist traffic around Old Faithful and the traffic jams caused by animal sightings, but we did get a couple rewards (and started one traffic jam). Just after we passed Firehole Lake Drive I saw a black bear a ways off the side of the road, just on the edge of treeline. We pulled over for a few pictures, but it was out beyond the range of our zoom. We also saw a deer crossing Yellowstone River and got a beautiful picture

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Today we went into Yellowstone for the first time. We traveled from the west entrance all the way up to Mammoth Hot Springs and saw the major sites as well as quite a few smaller, hidden trails and attractions.

We got to the park entrance about 9:30am and waited in line to get our weekly pass. After finally getting into the park, we only drove for a few miles before getting to our first stop: Two Ribbons trail. This was a short, easy trail that took us through one of the areas burned by the 1988 fire. It was fascinating to see the old burned trees, some on the ground and some still standing, right along side the massive amount of new growth. We had the trail entirely to ourselves; the rest of the traffic either didn’t notice it or had other plans.

Our next detour was a barely marked side road (appropriately names Riverside Drive) that ran parallel to the main entrance road but was right along the bank of the river. Again, we barely had to leave the beaten path to find some solitude and beautiful scenery.

After a few more minutes we arrived at our next stop: Harlequin Lake trail. This hike took us through thick, young lodgepole pines up to the shore of Harlequin Lake. It was another short, pleasant hike where we were virtually alone. The trees were shoulder to head high and so thick the trail almost felt claustrophobic at times.

A short way down the road again we were stopped by a massive traffic jam. After finally making it to the front we could see why: there was a small herd of elk in a meadow off to the side. Being Colorado natives and having seen more elk than we can count, both in RMNP as well as in our front yard, we decided not to stop.

As we were driving, I saw what appeared to be a small pond with boiling water at one end of it. We took the next turnout to an unnamed collection of hot springs. There were two pools uphill from the larger pond with hot water welling up out of the ground. Near one of the pools we saw a number of large, colored dragonflies, ranging from the normal black to bright red and blue.

Back on the road again, we drive for a while longer before we started to see steam coming from somewhere up ahead and started smelling sulfur. We had found Beryl Spring, named for its blue-green coloring. The water from the spring ran right under the road and joined the Gibbon River on the opposite side.

Right after this we ran into the road construction along this stretch of the loop road. There is a several mile section that is being rerouted and id restricted to one lane only during the day and closed completely from 10pm to 8am. We were lucky this time, though, and only had to wait for about ten minutes before it was our turn to go. At the end of the construction zone, I used my odometer to measure the line of cars waiting to go the other way. There was an even mile of cars built up waiting for their turn to pass. Most of them had their engines turned off any many people were out of there cars standing or walking on the side of the road.

Once we cleared the construction, it was clear sailing on to Norris Junction and one of the most amazing geothermal areas of Yellowstone, the Norris Geyser Basin. This area is a collection of geysers, vents, fumaroles, hot springs, and other geothermal features. The accessible area is divided into the Back Basin and the Porcelain Basin, and there is a system of trails looping through each to showcase dozens of named features. We spent several hours here walking all of the trails and being amazed. Not only was it a visual experience, but completely multisensory. You could hear the steam rumbling and hissing, listen to the water bubbling, walk through the hot, damp clouds of steam, and constantly smell the sulfur in the air.

After the Norris Geyser Basin, we were getting deep into the afternoon so we headed straight up to Mammoth Hot Springs. We parked at the top of the terraces and walked to the bottom on foot. The terraces are yet another amazing geothermal feature of Yellowstone.  Calcium carbonate is carried up by the water and deposited out on the ground, Over many years huge formations have been build up, and they are in the shape of huge terraces stepping down the mountainside.

Leaving Mammoth, we continued north on an old stagecoach route that used to be the north entrance to the park and the route from Gardiner, MT to Mammoth. The entrance to the road was hidden back behind the hotel. It was a narrow, rough, winding dirt road with absolutely no other cars on it. It is much higher up on the mountainside than the modern road below it, so we enjoyed a much better view of the scenery. Once we got to the end of the road, just inside the north boundary of the park, we turned back and started the long drive back to West Yellowstone and our camper.

Along the way back, we ran into Yellowstone traffic: a bison strolling down the road with no fear of the cars. After a few minutes he wandered by us and we were finally able to get back to camp.

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