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.
