This past week I finally had some company! My friend Becky
came out to visit for a few days. We actually did quite a lot in the time she
was here. The first day we went over to old faithful and checked out all of the
thermal features in that area and then checked out the grand prismatic. The
next day we hiked up Mt. Washburn from Dunraven Pass. The hike was along an old
jeep road. The flowers were amazing up on the pass and the views of the
surrounding mountains were spectacular. I had hiked up Mt. Washburn previously,
but the views from this trail were particularly stunning. You could see the
entire Hayden valley on the hike up and Electric Peak, which I hiked a few
weeks ago, to the northwest.
Electric Peak in the backdrop:
Looking out on the Hayden Valley:
Almost to the Fire Tower at the top!
Once up the top we also had views of the Lamar
valley and the Beartooth range off to the northeast. We couldn't find the herd
of bighorn sheep that are usually up the top though!
View of the Lamar Valley and Beartooth Range:
Searching for the Bighorn sheep:
After hiking back down we
headed over to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and did a portion of the North
Rim Trail and then did Uncle Tom’s trail on South Rim Trail. The trail was 328
steps down, which is about ¾ of the way down the canyon. The view of the lower
falls from the bottom was awesome.
Uncle Tom's Trail:
The way up was strenuous! Right when we got
to the top it started down pouring, so we decided to head back home. We picked
up two very nice hitchhikers on the way back and got stuck in a 40 minute bison
jam, but we eventually made it back!
Bison Jam!
On the last day we decided to hike up Top Notch Mountain. We started out for Top Notch around 8am, figuring it would take us about 4 hours to summit and come back. There are no trails up to Top Notch, it’s completely backcountry hiking (aka path of least resistance). The hike started at a waterfall and was very steep to start.
In about 40 minutes we made it up to the first bowl which
had a nice snow melt lake.
From the bowl we ascended up the first ridge line.
Once at the top of the ridge line we had to drop down into another bowl. From
the top of the ridge it wasn’t very clear where we should ascend on the other
side of the bowl. There were a lot of cliffs and areas that looked pretty
sketchy. We decided to take the long route and go up the way that had no cliffs
that we could see.
View of the Ridge Line we had to ascend and then follow:
There were a lot of downed trees in the bowl and then the hike up the other side was super steep! It was very strenuous and took us about an hour to do get to the ridge line.
Becky crossing a stream:
View of Top Notch from the Ridge Line:
Views of Avalanche Peak (left) and Hoyt Peak (right):
Once on the ridge line the trail stayed
pretty flat for a while. Finally we made it to the final ascent portion of the
hike up to the summit. It was pretty steep, but not as steep as the hike up the
2nd bowl. The views from the top were amazing. You could see the
entire Yellowstone Lake, the Tetons, and all of the surrounding mountains. We
rested for a bit, got a bite to eat, and took in the views.
Made it to the summit!
STEEP!
The climb down was
a lot quicker, but we took a very STEEP route down. Again there were no trails, so it was more
difficult than a normal hike.
We tried to make our hike out easier by skipping
the up and down of the bowls and just hiking straight out through the woods,
but unfortunately with all of the downed trees and thick brush we made our hike
out even tougher! Overall it was a fantastic hike with great views though.
Becky would say it was a level 2.5, I’ll give it a 1.5!!
Also, the day before Becky came I went kayaking on Lake Yellowstone with one of my neighbors. It was beautiful!
Me in a small cave on the coastline:
Mt Sheridan in the background:
Kayaking by the thermal features:
Steamvent:
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