It's About the (RV) Journey....: The Northern area of Yellowstone......

First off, Tom had his heart set on hiking Mount Washburn, a very popular and rewarding hike. It starts at about 8700 feet in elevation, and climbs 1400 feet during the hike. That's over 10,000 feet! The views from the top are supposed to be spectacular. This was going to be a solo hike for Tom (leaving the ball and chain behind-hahah!), mainly as a warm up for his Lake Solitude hike in the Tetons later in the month. I think that is the top of his a bucket list right now:)

Mount Washburn

trailhead

Being that Tom would be hiking solo, I begged him to start a little later than we usually do things, so I knew he would have plenty of company. Its really not a good idea to hike solo. We were all set to stay in communication with the radios and cell phone, if the radios didn't work. We also had another plan for pick up in case none of our communications worked. I dropped him off at the trailhead, took a million pics of him and then drove to a nearby pullout to take some more pictures of him starting his hike up the mountain.

Since parking is a problem, I proceeded to Canyon Village to do a little shopping and looking around. I wasn't worried at all, so I was prepared to enjoy about 4 hours there, shopping, eating, knitting, reading....Okay, so I'm not even through eating my bag of chips and finishing a chapter when the radio goes off and Tom tells me he's at the top! WHAT?! He is amazing...really. Especially for an old guy-hahah. I admire him so much. It was only 2 hours into his hike. So, he estimated about another hour or so to come back down the mountain, since he would be stopping to take pics, etc.

view from a scenic turnout down the road

tiny black spec in the middle of the pic is Tom! Enlarge to see him

I've already scanned the landscape for grizzlies....he's ok on this side of the trail

there he goes

again, in the center

coming back down the trail!

view to let me know when to leave to pick him up at the parking lot!

I estimated when he would be coming down the hill, so that I could see him in the binoculars and meet him at the parking lot as he was coming down the hill. Did I mention how bad the parking is at that trailhead? Anyway, once I spotted him on the hillside, we made radio contact and I was able to pick him up no problem. He had a great hike....saw some bighorn sheep on the trail too! And a fox! Wow! He said the scenery was spectacular up there!

here he is now

looking good

the hiker!!

Not even sweating!

For anyone interested, here is a link to his photos.

Afterwards, we decided to explore the northern section of Yellowstone including Mammoth Hot Springs lower area that we did not explore the last time we were there. This is the Mammoth Hot Springs we remembered! It was the lower area that stuck in our minds...with the flowing water over the terraces. The upper area, which we visited about a month ago, were mostly white and hardly flowing at all.

changing landscape

Wraith Falls (again)

Mammoth Hot Springs from a distance

elk all over the little resort area

just hanging out under the trees

and in front of the hotel

let's go check out the hot springs!

glad we got a parking spot!

walking over to the hot springs

huge

and still the flowers grow

even in this environment

dormant

this is what we remembered from long ago

water flowing over the top

beautiful

amazing actually

lots of mineral deposits

but spring still flowing

another look

pretty neat

this is what I remembered from 20 years ago

yes...me too

close up

even closer

nice colors

great photo

close up

even closer

still see the hot spring water

We also went out to the northern entrance of the park and the town of Gardiner, which is the northern gateway town. We were surprised at how small it was! The area around Mammoth at this time of year seemed quite dry in comparison to the rest of the park. We were surprised by the difference in flora/fauna!

dry and rocky around this area

a river runs along the side of the road

but still not lush looking like most of the rest of the park

lots of people swimming in this river downstream a bit

still arid looking

going through the gateway

Gardiner-the gateway city to North Entrance of Yellowstone

a very small town

here's the rest of it (no, actually there is another block too!)

nice

yes!!

dorky picture

oh, here's the other dork

the land is so dr

On the way back, we were talking about the big horn sheep (that Tom saw on his hike....and should I attempt the hike too?) I really wanted to see bighorn sheep and guess what? I thought it was a mirage! There were a few right in front of us! A mom and baby on the cliff, and another by the road. Some lady (not me!) got our of the car right in front of the sheep and went right up to it to take a photo. People do the darndest things here! Anyway, that poor sheep got spooked and jumped down to the river for a well-needed drink!

hello up there

mom and baby

thank you! Now I don't have to hike a mountain to see you!

another on the side of the road

Hey-what'cha doin' down there? You okay?

We drove a bit more and stopped to admire the stream running alongside the road. I turned to look at Tom, and spotted another mom and baby sheep. They really are hard to see because they blend right in

with the landscape.

this guy got spooked and headed for the water

check out that huge bolder in the river!

must be glacial?

what a surprise!

on the other side of the street

hey little guy!

just walking along eating

family portrait

bye bye

After driving about 5 more minutes, and we spotted a large elk in the water. Very picturesque. A little farther down the road, close to Mammoth Hot Springs, many people were swimming in the river to cool off. Looked like fun!

Wow! Impressive!

Cooling off a bit?

We drove through the Mammoth Hot Springs area again as we headed back "home". Lots of elk that seemed to be naturalized with humans at the resort. After watching so much wildlife in the "wild", it was a little disturbing to see.