A Yellowstone Summer : My legs are jelly! Rescue Creek & Lava Creek

Saturday I decided to go on my first long hike. I drove up to the Mammoth area and chose to do a loop around Mt. Everts. I started at the Rescue Creek Trailhead which brought me along the back side of the Mountain, and then took the Lava Creek trail back around to Mammoth.

One of my first sightings was of some Bighorn Sheep. They were pretty cool looking, and they let me get really close!

Beginning of Rescue Creek Trail, starting in Montana:

After seeing the sheep, the trail started to ascend pretty steeply for quite a while. I was pretty short of breath, but the views were awesome!

About halfway up the first hill:

I saw a few animal bones along the way, which made me start freaking out that I was going to run into a bear or a pack of wolves. Shortly after I made it into a forested area; every stump looked like a bear from far away! I saw a group of people in the wooded area and felt better after that. Again, the trail opened up into a wide open meadow. Here I saw pronghorn (?), but they were too quick for me to take a pic! I also saw some prairie dog looking animals.

After a long 8 miles I finally made it to the rescue creek trailhead. There was supposed to be another trail connecting rescue creek to lava creek, but I couldn't find it. I asked some backcountry rangers who were on the trail with me, and they weren't sure either, so they drove me the mile down the road to the lava creek trailhead. At the beginning of the lava creek trail, you got a pretty good view of Undine Falls.

The Lava Creek trail followed right along the river, which was much more enjoyable than the Rescue Creek trail. There were tons of butterflies (which were too quick for me to take photos of) and the wildflowers were starting to bloom. I didn't see any animals along this trail, but the scenery of the river and mountains was stunning. At one point, I even had a great view of the Mammoth Terraces from afar.