Specimen Ridge

This past week I went on two big hikes. The first one being Specimen Ridge. I started at the Yellowstone River Picnic Area trailhead which is in the northeast section of the park. The first 2 miles of the trail was right along the Yellowstone River and the Calcite Springs.

After about 2 miles the trail took a sharp left to start the ascent up to specimen ridge. From the ridge, there were amazing views of Mt. Washburn to the South. The yellow wildflowers up on the ridge were amazing. I saw a few pronghorn and a few bison while hiking along the ridge. The trail was a bit hard to follow at times due to all of the other bison trails, but there seemed to be enough trail markers to stay on track.

Mt. Washburn:

The Ridge Line:

Just before coming up to the high part of the ridge line shown above, I had to hike through some meadows and in some forested areas. As I was hiking along in one of the meadows there were a lot of hills that took me up and down, up and down. Upon coming down one of the hills, all of a sudden I saw a Grizzly right off to my left! I quickly turned around and started walking back the direction I came. The bear didn't see me at first, but once I turned back around he was bolting across the meadow running away from me! I must have startled him. Since the meadows were so hilly, I wasn't sure if he ran up into the meadow further or into the forest off to my right. I noticed that the trail went into the forest. I wasn't sure what to do at that point. I didn't want to hike into the forest because my visibility would be much lower and the bear could be right behind any tree or stump! I pondered for awhile if I should just go back or if I should push forward hoping I didn't get eaten! Ultimately I decided to take it really slow and take the trail through the woods. I had my bear spray unclipped and ready to go, and I was yelling "HEY GRIZZ!" and clapping the whole time. About 5 minutes into the woods I heard some growling. I almost sh** my pants! I turned around and there was a....BISON! I picked up the pace and got the hell out of those woods as quickly as I could!! Luckily I never ran into the bear again, but that was another close call!!

About 13 miles into the hike I made it to the top of the ridge, Amethyst Mountain. There were beautiful purple flowers up the top and the views of the northeast mountains were absolutely beautiful. The sky was a little smoky from some fires going on in Idaho, but it was still breathtaking. From the top of Amethyst, you could see almost the entire Lamar valley and the junction of the Lamar River with the Soda Butte Creek. 

After soaking in the views from the top, I started the descent back down. A mile or so down I ran into a herd of bighorn sheep!

The trail down had amazing views the entire way and led me directly to the Lamar River. As I was heading down there were some dark storm clouds rolling in. The winds got really strong and thunder started crashing in the distance. The sun seemed to stay out for quite awhile on the trail though and I was able to make it all the way to the base of the river before it started to downpour on me!

Storm clouds rolling in:

Giant Dandelion!

Once I made it to the base of the river I had to ford the river. Since it was already thunder/lighting and down pouring, I wasn't too concerned about getting wet, so I just put on my sandals and waded across the river as quickly as I could. After crossing the river I had about 1.5 miles left until I got to the road. Luckily once I got to the road I was able to find a nice french family to give me a ride back to my car!