Petrified Trees, Hayden Valley and lots of other fun!

 

Jeremy arrived on Sunday, and after a long, but pretty drive up to Bozeman, MT, we decided to take our first hike that afternoon. We stopped in the Lamar Valley and went up Specimen Ridge to the Petrified Forest. The hike was really steep, but the views of the Lamar Valley were spectacular. We saw a bunch of bighorn sheep up on the hillside and I saw a really pretty yellow bird. On the way down we got stuck in a Bison jam. There were dozens of Bison right on the trail, so we had to walk all the way around them and hope they didn't charge!

A petrified tree (below) & Jeremy "petrified" (above):

A really cool dead tree!

Lamar Valley, Bighorn Sheep Grazing:

Yellow Birdie!

  

 Wolf Prints!

The next day we woke up pretty early and set out to hike the Hayden Valley. The trail was about 15 miles long. The start of the trail took us along a forested area, then through a burned forest, and finally out into the wide open Hayden Valley. The trail went along the upper part of the Yellowstone River and ended in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone near the Upper Falls. The weather was beautiful. We saw some really cool birds, and some elk and bison. The trail was really hard to follow in the wide open valley and we lost it several times due to the similar bison trails along the way.

Bison Remains!

The Yellowstone River:

At the very end of the trail, we came to Sour Creek. It was more of a river than a creek! The water was really swift, and very deep. Jeremy tried crossing in a few places, but the water was just too swift. We spent an hour walking up and down the shores trying to find a safe place to cross. At about 6pm, I started to get really nervous; it was getting late and we still had several miles to go. Finally, we decided to just throw our bags across the river and swim. The water was over my head and freezing, but we both made it! We finished up the last few miles of the trail, and I even saw a grizzly at the very end! These may or may not have been his tracks:

Tuesday we set out to the Old Faithful area. Jeremy watched the geyser go off as I was doing some training in the clinic. Afterwards we walked around the upper geyser basin and then hiked out to Mystic Falls which was a short, but nice hike.

Grand Prismatic Spring:

The weather started changing and looked like it might rain, but we were able to make it to the Grand Prismatic Overlook before it started downpouring! We had hoped the rain would stop, but by the time we got back over to the Lake area it was snowing!

 By early evening the sun had come back out though, and we were able to take another short hike out to Storm point and then along the Pelican Creek Trail.   

  

Wednesday we went over to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We started out on the South Rim trail, and just as we were about to start out we saw a bear coming down the path! It turned out to be a pretty small black bear. After the bear passed, we made it out to Artist Point and then over to the North Rim trail. Again, the sky started to get dark and it started to rain. We were able to make it to the Brink of the Upper and Lower falls, and down the Red Rock Trail to get some great views of the Canyon before we had to retreat out of the rain.

Brink of the Lower Falls:

Red Rock Trail: