Rainy Days on the Bechler

This past Sunday I took a short hike out to Turbid Lake here in the Lake area. The trail starts in the Pelican Valley and follows the valley straight north, then takes a sharp turn east before coming up onto the lake. 

Pelican Valley:

The lake's name suits it well, as it looks turbid and has a funky smell to it. It was really beautiful out at the lake though; there was a storm rolling in from the north west and there were pink clouds in the distance. 

I sat for a while on the shore of the lake and took in the views. After about 10 minutes I thought I saw something moving on the other side of the lake. I took out my binoculars and it was a black wolf! I watched him for a while until he disappeared into the forest on the other side of the lake. I then hiked the trail along the lake and back into the woods. There was bear scat everywhere along this trail, and it was kind of scary at times! I also was worried about where the wolf had gone! About 2-3 weeks ago one of the nurses came out to the same lake and saw 3 bears and the same black wolf eating an elk carcass. Luckily the carcass was long gone by the time I went out there, but was still a bit eery being back there alone. 

Trail out to the road from Turbid Lake:

This past week I went on a 3 day backpacking trip along the Bechler River Trail with one of the other PA’s here in the park. We started out early Monday morning to set up our shuttle, which ended up taking several hours due to rain and bumpy, dirt roads. 

Beautiful Sunrise on the drive out to Bechler:

The dirt road was so muddy and filled with puddles that at one point I thought, “this is it, the green neon isn't going to make it beyond this trip!”. But luckily after the engine steamed for a while, it kept on trucking along and got us there safely. Once we got back to the trail head, it was still raining pretty hard out, so we had to immediately put all of our rain gear on. My rain gear at this point consists of ripped up, duct taped nylon pants and a jacket and a trash bag for a backpack cover. All John had was a poncho. We were a sorry sight! The beginning of the hike was pretty flat out to the Lone star geyser and then rose gradually to the junction with the Shoshone Lake trail. We decided to drop our packs and take the 5 mile side-trip to the Shoshone geyser basin. The geyser basin is right along the lake and a small river runs through the area. 

The steam coming from the thermal features was indistinguishable from the low cloud cover at some points, which made it look eerily cool. The stark contrast of colors in the area was amazing. There was fluorescent green moss around the thermal features which were all different shades of blue, pink, and orange. 

Shoshone Lake:

After visiting the thermal basin, we returned to our packs and continued on to our first campsite. The site was really nice; right next to a stream and right at the edge of a large open meadow. It continued to rain most of that day, so we pretty much ate some food and then hunkered down. The next morning it was still raining, but the low storm clouds out in the open meadow looked pretty amazing. 

Our hike started out across the open meadow, through a marshy area and ascended up a pretty big hill. After this hill the rest of the hike was downhill though. After a few miles we came to the junction with another thermal area called “Mr. Bubbles”. This thermal area was one of the most stunning areas I have been to in the park. The rain seemed to stop for a few hours at this point which was nice for walking around the thermal area. There were still low clouds and the temperature was just cool enough to really make the steam coming from the thermal pools stand out against the bright green of the surrounding forest area. 

The Mr. Bubbles area sits right along a small river and there are several thermal pools which people can soak in. The most impressive feature in the area was a thermal pool that had several areas of run off from the pool at the top running down into the river and it had a terrace like structure on one side of it. This feature had blues, greens, oranges, and pinks. The colors were amazing. 

After visiting this area we made our way to several small waterfalls and had to cross several streams and ford 2 rivers. We entered a very forested area with lots of tall grass and brush that completely soaked our pants. The greenery was just beautiful though. 

Twister Falls:

After a few more miles we dropped down into the Bechler Canyon. The Bechler River ran right through the middle and the canyon was lined with limestone on either side. 

The trail went right past Iris Falls, which is a beautiful ~150 foot waterfall. It was stunning. 

Then about 1 mile down the river we came to Collonade Falls. This waterfall was even more spectacular with 2 fall features. It was probably the most beautiful waterfall I’ve ever seen! 

After hiking for a few more miles out into a meadow it started to rain again, but we were luckily very close to our next campsite. This campsite was right next to the Bechler River and was surrounded by the Bechler meadows. 

Unfortunately, again it was raining, so we just ate and hunkered down, but we were glad we at least had a few hours without rain that day. The next morning it was raining AGAIN. At this point everything was basically wet or damp. We only had 9 miles to hike out, so we just put our heads down and hiked the heck out of there. We were soaked. The rain was worse this day than it had been the whole trip. We were sloshing through puddles and fording rivers with our boots and pants on. It was quite a scene. We made record time though and hiked out in just over 3 hours. It felt amazing to put dry clothes on after 3 days of being wet, but the amazing thermal features and waterfalls were well worth it!