Yellowstone Interlude (2024)

 July 30 - 31, 2024

In between my Winds trip and my Hidden Creek trip, I spent a night in Yellowstone. I was able to get  one night in a cabin at Lake Lodge. So I drove up from Dubois through the south entrance of Yellowstone and headed to the Hayden Valley for a day hike on the Mary Mountain Trail. 

I knew that the Hayden Valley is closed to off-trail hiking in the summer (sign below), but my understanding is the Mary Mountain Trail should be fine (bottom of sign).

I got to the trailhead and this is what I found, argh!!

I would not have seen much, but I wanted to do a stretch of this trail. No what?

Driving towards the Falls, this guy was trotting along on the side of the road.

I decided to do a loop on the Wapiti Trail, in retrospect, I wish I had gone south on the Howard Eaton. 

When the animal notices you, you are too close. This is 200mm lens and heavily cropped and this guy was noticing me, actually seemed annoyed by my presence. I moved down the trail away from him ...

... and he decided to follow me. He actually come over to the trail and started coming in my direction. I stepped off into some trees and he stared a bit and then went off doing his thing. And I continued along the trail.

It started to sprinkle as I got to Clear Lake where I ran into these two on the far side of the lake.

Clear Lake is very pretty with a very blue/green color. 

This guy decided to pose for a minute. 

Almost back to the trailhead, looking south.

And then I decided to be a tourist and check out the Lower Falls. 

I was hoping for a nice sunset as I drove through Hayden Valley, but there were too many clouds.

Found these guys in either Elk Antler or Trout Creek. I thought they were beavers at first and then saw the tails, never seen a muskrat before. 

I did not need to be in Cody until dinner time and had not really planned this part of the trip, so I wasn't sure what to do to kill time. When I woke up early, I decided to head back to the Falls to enjoy with fewer crowds. This time, I went to the North Rim.

Yellowstone River through Hayden Valley

Then over to Storm Point for a short hike. I did not know there were marmots in Yellowstone, actually, I had never thought about it before. 

There were tons of them out near the point. 

Hard to argue with this view

Looking towards Fishing Bridge

And east towards the Absorkas and the East Entrance

As I got close to the entrance, I decided to pull over and enjoy one more look at the lake, pulled out my chair and a book and just enjoyed for an hour or so. Then off to Cody and the next adventure.

Wind River Range 2024

7/22 - 7/28/24

FitzPatrick Wilderness

Trail Lake Trailhead

Photos: Most are with Sony A7CR and Tamron 28-200, a couple are cell phone pics

After two days of driving (24 hours total) and one speeding ticket, I made to to the trailhead. It was late enough that I did not feel like hiking in a couple of miles, so I set up camp over looking Trail Lake.

I set up my chair with a nice view of the lake, a little breeze to keep the bugs away. It started to get dark, I got tired and I crawled in the back of the car for the night. 

My plan is to take the Glacier Trail to the end and then loop back across Grasshopper Glacier to Downs Lake to Goat Flat and then the trailhead. This is all conditional of the weather cooperating since I don't want to take stupid risks on a glacier by myself. I have some other ideas if things don't work out. 

Pretty view in the morning, hopefully a good sign

Trail Lake Trailhead

Off we go

Bomber Basin

The Glacier Trail goes that way

I got to Double Lake and set up camp and then enjoyed the view

I watched the sunset and the mosquitos. I had recently seen reference to a group of mosquitos being called a tornado and this seemed like a good description and the swarms seemed to swirl like a tornado. Thankfully, they mostly ignored me, so I could enjoy the view.

1st camp (2 nights) - Double Lake

Second Day - I decided that I would stay at Double Lake for another night and do a little wandering without a pack.

Golden Lake was a fun off trail hike with a nice payoff at the end, great spot for lunch

Third Day - time to move down the trail

Fancy bridge over Downs Fork

I think this is Dinwoody Creek just north of the Downs Fork Meadow. 

Big Meadows is impressive

Quite the view from near camp

2nd camp (3rd night) - overlooking Dinwoody Creek

Glacier fed Dinwoody Creek on the left and Klondike Creek on the right

The next day, the weather forecast doesn't look good for the next couple of days, not going to try to get up on the glacier. Time for Plan B. I'm going to head back on the Glacier Trail and then go check out the Downs Fork area. But first I want to check out a little more of the Glacier Trail so I head towards Gannet Creek which would have been my potential access point to Dinwoody and Grasshopper Glaciers. It was an easy hike without a pack but when I got to Gannet Creek, I wished I had hiking poles since the water was moving pretty fast. Time to head back and get my pack.

I got to the turnoff for Downs Fork and the first bit was an easy to follow trail and then this, I climbed over and under for a bit, but looks like the trail was obliterated, time for Plan C. Let's head towards Honeymoon Lake instead.

Very glad to not be on Horse Ridge, storm is coming, no pic of 4th night campsite. I ended up setting up camp about a mile short of Honeymoon Lake, had just enough time to filter water and cook dinner and a solid storm blew through. Glad not to be up high and exposed.

Next day, decision time. I decided that a short day to Upper Phillips Lake and a campsite I had seen the second day on the way to Golden Lake would be good. 

Last night's camp - Upper Philips Lake

Camp visitor

Upper Phillips Lake

It's time to head for the car, easy hike out, car started and I headed into Dubois to get a hotel and a shower and dinner. So, this ended up being out and back on the Glacier Trail instead of the much more ambitious trip I had planned. I'll be back with hopefully better weather.

Pretty rocks outside of Dubois

I had a little bit of time to kill so I headed to Brooks Lake for a dayhike to the Jade Lakes

Upper Jade Lake

Brooks Lake

then back to Dubois for one more night.