A week of backpacking, day-hiking, and good old-fashioned sightseeing in America's first national park.
Day 0: Fly to Salt Lake City, drive to West Yellowstone, with an all-too brief detour through Grand Teton National Park. Today I witnessed my new favorite quote in airline history. Very strange guy in the row in front of us returns to his area after a trip to the bathroom. The women in his row start to get up so he can get to his seat. He stands in the aisle and waves them off, saying, "No not yet, I'm still a little bit gassy."
Umm, waiter, check please.
Day 1: Staying in West Yellowstone, we decide to hit as much of the western part of the park as possible. In short, today we would be "Geyser Gazers". Also stopped by Mammoth backcountry office to pick up our backpacking permits for Shelf Lake and Heart Lake.
Day 1 photos
Days 2-3: Two-day backpack to Shelf Lake in the northwestern corner of YNP. We saw one hiker on the trail in two days. Yellowstone might be crowded, but the Gallatin mountain range didn't get the memo. Perfect weather, amazing scenery. Couldn't have gone any better.
Days 2-3 photos
Days 4-5: While picking up our backcountry permits, the ranger told us Heart Lake was closed about three weeks ago due to a grizzly bear entering campsites, in one instance pawing and ripping a tent. He said they re-opened it about a week ago, and there had been no incidents since then. He told us if we didn't feel comfortable heading in there he could give us a permit for some other place in the park. We decided we'd keep our Heart Lake permit. I could see the ranger mentally pump his fist. "Good call, I'd do the same thing", he said. John's reasoning was that the grizzly obviously found that it wasn't productive (food-wise) to enter these campsites. My theory was that there are grizzlies EVERYWHERE in YNP, so let's go to Heart Lake. And so we went. We got hit with some wild weather on the hike in; the hike out was much more casual. One thing on this backpack trip pissed me off to the point where if I ever meet the people who camped in campsite 8J1 the night before we did, I'm going to re-enact the Robert DeNiro baseball bat scene from "The Untouchables". These slobs left the cooking area littered with spent tea-bags, and the fire-ring contained partially burned ziplock bags and aluminum foil. This is reckless even in the best of times in YNP, but given the recent grizzly incidents at Heart Lake, this was beyond my comprehension. We returned to the Grant Village backcountry office the next day, with the evidence in a plastic bag, and completely ratted them out in writing. The ranger dug our enthusiasm. Heart Lake was awesome. Site 8J1 is right on the lake, far far away from any other sites. After the backpack trip, we're driving through Hayden Valley and we see a coyote get his butt whipped by three other coyotes. I'm able to catch the tail end of the fight on video. Good stuff.
Days 4-5 photos
Day 6: We move our basecamp to Canyon Village in the eastern part of YNP. Today is rainy, so we car-hike all the spots along the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone". We also return to Hayden Valley at feeding/fighting time.
Day 6 photos
Day 7: Day hike to Mt Washburn. Picture Mt Willard in Crawford Notch in the Whites. Well, Mt Washburn is Mt Willard on steroids. A very easy hike to amazing views. On this day the summit wind chill temp was about 15 degrees F, and we got pelted with horizontal hail most of way up. It was gooooood. There's a fire tower on top with a glassed in room, so you can get out of the weather for a while. We finish the day with a drive through Lamar Valley in northeastern YNP...beautiful beyond description.
Day 7 photos
Day 8: go home....
p.s. If you ever go to YNP: don't be in a rush, drive nice, and ALWAYS have your camera/camcorder/binoculars around your neck or on your lap or in your hands...stuff happens fast.
Day 0: Fly to Salt Lake City, drive to West Yellowstone, with an all-too brief detour through Grand Teton National Park. Today I witnessed my new favorite quote in airline history. Very strange guy in the row in front of us returns to his area after a trip to the bathroom. The women in his row start to get up so he can get to his seat. He stands in the aisle and waves them off, saying, "No not yet, I'm still a little bit gassy."
Umm, waiter, check please.
Day 1: Staying in West Yellowstone, we decide to hit as much of the western part of the park as possible. In short, today we would be "Geyser Gazers". Also stopped by Mammoth backcountry office to pick up our backpacking permits for Shelf Lake and Heart Lake.
Day 1 photos
Days 2-3: Two-day backpack to Shelf Lake in the northwestern corner of YNP. We saw one hiker on the trail in two days. Yellowstone might be crowded, but the Gallatin mountain range didn't get the memo. Perfect weather, amazing scenery. Couldn't have gone any better.
Days 2-3 photos
Days 4-5: While picking up our backcountry permits, the ranger told us Heart Lake was closed about three weeks ago due to a grizzly bear entering campsites, in one instance pawing and ripping a tent. He said they re-opened it about a week ago, and there had been no incidents since then. He told us if we didn't feel comfortable heading in there he could give us a permit for some other place in the park. We decided we'd keep our Heart Lake permit. I could see the ranger mentally pump his fist. "Good call, I'd do the same thing", he said. John's reasoning was that the grizzly obviously found that it wasn't productive (food-wise) to enter these campsites. My theory was that there are grizzlies EVERYWHERE in YNP, so let's go to Heart Lake. And so we went. We got hit with some wild weather on the hike in; the hike out was much more casual. One thing on this backpack trip pissed me off to the point where if I ever meet the people who camped in campsite 8J1 the night before we did, I'm going to re-enact the Robert DeNiro baseball bat scene from "The Untouchables". These slobs left the cooking area littered with spent tea-bags, and the fire-ring contained partially burned ziplock bags and aluminum foil. This is reckless even in the best of times in YNP, but given the recent grizzly incidents at Heart Lake, this was beyond my comprehension. We returned to the Grant Village backcountry office the next day, with the evidence in a plastic bag, and completely ratted them out in writing. The ranger dug our enthusiasm. Heart Lake was awesome. Site 8J1 is right on the lake, far far away from any other sites. After the backpack trip, we're driving through Hayden Valley and we see a coyote get his butt whipped by three other coyotes. I'm able to catch the tail end of the fight on video. Good stuff.
Days 4-5 photos
Day 6: We move our basecamp to Canyon Village in the eastern part of YNP. Today is rainy, so we car-hike all the spots along the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone". We also return to Hayden Valley at feeding/fighting time.
Day 6 photos
Day 7: Day hike to Mt Washburn. Picture Mt Willard in Crawford Notch in the Whites. Well, Mt Washburn is Mt Willard on steroids. A very easy hike to amazing views. On this day the summit wind chill temp was about 15 degrees F, and we got pelted with horizontal hail most of way up. It was gooooood. There's a fire tower on top with a glassed in room, so you can get out of the weather for a while. We finish the day with a drive through Lamar Valley in northeastern YNP...beautiful beyond description.
Day 7 photos
Day 8: go home....
p.s. If you ever go to YNP: don't be in a rush, drive nice, and ALWAYS have your camera/camcorder/binoculars around your neck or on your lap or in your hands...stuff happens fast.
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