Monday night at the campground was interesting. I knew from checking the weather that there were potentially going to be some storms coming through, but the weather throughout the Tetons and Yellowstone was hit or miss, so I set up my tent and then went about cleaning up and reorganizing all of my gear. Living out of a car / tent / backpack for two weeks can create a bit of chaos when trying to figure out how to make it all fit back into a suitcase and checked bag. I started a fire, made some dinner and went about burning my extra cardboard and gathering all of my garbage from the car, but before too long, it started to rain big drops and as I heard the thunder getting closer, I put out my fire and climbed into my tent. The rain let up around 8:00pm, so I ran out to brush my teeth and then headed back into the tent for the night. It was a downpour for a lot of the night, complete with thunder and lightning. In hindsight, I should have just slept in the back of the SUV, but by the time I thought about that, I was already barricaded in my tent and everything was getting wet, so there was no point in trying to pack it all back up again. Instead, I listened to the sound of the rain and had another early night.

The great news about having the SUV was that I was able to lay out my tent (and anything else that got wet) over the passenger’s seat, back seats and even into the back to let it dry out before I had to pack it back up for the airport. That definitely proved to be very helpful on this trip! Starting out early, along with all of the rain the night before meant another morning full of fog and extra steam as I made my way through the park one last time.

In addition to less traffic, it was another great morning for bison sighting, with herds lined up along the road.

One stop I made was at Fountain Paint Pots in the Lower Geyser Basin. There were huge signs everywhere about how dangerous the area was. 

The fog stuck around for this first stop and made for some great pictures.

Each of the thermal areas had their own names – first up, Celestine Pool. 

Next up, Red Spouter

followed by Leather Pool,

Fountain Paint Pots

and Silex Spring, which you can actually see a little of the blue color from the road,

and finally, there is Bacteria Mat.

My last stop in Yellowstone was the Fairy Falls trailhead. I didn’t go too far, just far enough to check out the handiwork of a local spider,

and the beautiful bridge.

There are also a few thermal features that feed into Firehole River. 

I couldn’t resist one last view of the mountains as I made my way back through Grand Teton National Park. I absolutely fell in love with the Tetons – you really can’t beat the views in that park and I can’t wait until I can go back again!

Since my flight wasn’t until midnight Tuesday night, I took my time wandering through Wyoming (and a little bit of Idaho) before going back to Utah. Having travelled mostly through Idaho on my way to Jackson Hole, I decided to go the other route this time, but I would definitely recommend the Idaho route – you get much better initial views in the mountains, literally an up-and-over-type drive – whereas heading mostly through Wyoming takes you through very remote areas and small towns.

As I was crossing from Idaho back into Utah, I got to drive around Bear Lake and outside of Garden City, the road climbs to a great overview of the lake.

The rest of the trip back into Utah was uneventful and even though my flight was delayed by about 20 minutes, it was a much easier ride out of Salt Lake City than heading in and I quickly fell asleep. I did wake up in time to see the sunrise in the air as I made my way back to Charlotte.

It’s been about 1.5 months since I started on this trip and I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything that I got to experience. When I first started planning this trip, after everyone got over the fact that I was going to be running two half marathons and hiking in between, their first question was always, ‘who are you going with?’ and I never had a good answer for that. I saw the half marathons and immediately signed up – 2 states in a week is too good to pass up! After that, I just started reading about what I could do while I was out there – I never put much thought into the fact that I would be hiking by myself. I read up on the dangers of wildlife (bison and moose and bears, oh my!) and put in several months of hiking as training. This was not my first time backpacking alone (though last time I did have my dogs with me) and I felt confident in my abilities, including how much hiking I would do, how heavy my pack was and the terrain I would be traveling in. I also did a lot of research on food to eat, what equipment I needed and even bought a gps phone to have in case of emergencies. I loved every minute of this trip and I can’t wait to take another one!

After getting to bed early Sunday night (around 9:30), I got up early on Monday morning to make the trek to Old Faithful. My goal was to get there early enough to beat some of the crowd that I had seen on my first drive through Yellowstone. Part of the road from Mammoth to Old Faithful was under construction, so there were some short delays, but nothing too terrible. Since I left so early in the morning, it made the steam and fog rising from the thermal areas much more dramatic than you would see in the middle of the day.

When I got to Old Faithful, the parking lot was already pretty crowded, but I found a spot and then headed to the main attraction. There were already a lot of people sitting in the benches near Old Faithful, so I figured I would stick around there until it erupted and then wander around the rest of the shops after. I only had to wait for about 10-15 minutes before it started to erupt.

This ended up being a fun place for people watching because there were a lot of selfies being taken during the eruption and huge groups trying to coordinate their own pictures. I really couldn’t have timed my arrival any better because I beat a lot of the crowd and didn’t have to wait too long and then I was able to continue on my journey through Yellowstone.

Next up was the natural bridge which is exactly what it sounds like – a bridge made out of stone. Water washed out the rock from below and left a bridge with even a tree growing on top!

From this picture, you can see how small people on the main trail are. I didn’t actually come up that direction, so I made a loop out of the trail and got an even better picture from the bottom of the trail.

From the natural bridge, I headed to the South Rim trail which includes the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Artists Point. While it was a little bit more crowded here, the views were absolutely amazing. The pictures that I took don’t even look real!

Part of the South Rim trail leads you to Uncle Tom’s Trail which is very, very steep, but leads to a great waterfall view. I even got to see a few rainbows the day I was there.

There are 328 steps to get to the bottom platform of Uncle Tom’s Trail, which means another 328 steps to climb back up to the top!

From the South Rim, I headed to the North Rim trail which was much more crowded, at least at first. Everyone wanted to parked in the first parking lot which caused a lot of backup, but the second parking lot had a ton of open spots, so it was easy to grab a spot there and check out the views from that side.

After the North Rim trail, I headed back to the Madison campground for the night… only one more day until I head home.

Sunday was a very busy day. Since I was starting out in Jackson Hole, I had a really early start (6:30 am) and was planning to stay in either Tower Falls or Mammoth. I made it up to Tower Falls around 10:30, but it was full (or possibly still full from the night before), so I drove up to Mammoth and secured my campsite for the night. When I checked in, they warned me to be aware of the elk in the area because there were a ton of calves around and the mothers would charge if they felt threatened. They weren’t kidding about all the elk – they were everywhere! They didn’t seem to care that there were cars and people everywhere and just kept eating grass and wandering around. I got an early lunch at the cafe and then walked to the Lower Terraces.

As you approach the terraces, the first thing you see is the Liberty Cap which was created after a hot spring plume stayed open and the mineral deposits just kept building into what you can see today.

After the terraces, I headed to Hellroaring Creek. This was a 4 mile out-and-back hike where you actually start out at the top and head down toward the creek. There were warnings all over Yellowstone about bears, but there were extra signs in this parking lot.

After making sure I had my bear spray handy, I started hiking down towards the creek, with great views of the surrounding mountains.

The suspension bridge is only about a mile from the trailhead, so even though it’s over 500′ down (and then back up again), it’s worth the trip.

From the bridge, you can see down to the creek, and at the crossing, it’s swift whitewater rapids.

I ended up walking the whole way to the creek. Theoretically you can cross it to combine this hike with another trail for a much longer hike, but while the current is not as deep or swift, it is still at least several feet deep and there are warnings about safe water crossing. Overall, there wasn’t too much to see at the creek, but there were a lot of birds nesting in that area.

After heading back from the creek, it was up, up, up to get back to the trailhead.

From Hellroaring Creek, I headed to Mount Washburn to attempt my first 10,000′ summit. As part of the Vacation Races series, they have different “clubs” you can join if you do certain things after the race and get a discount on future races. For Yellowstone, one option was the Washburn Club – hiking Mount Washburn within 72 hours of the race and posting a picture with your bib and medal. Challenge accepted!

Throughout Yellowstone, you’ll see hundreds of downed trees and Mount Washburn was no exception.

The good and bad part of this hike is that you can see how much farther you have to go to get to the top. If you squint really hard at the highest peak in the picture below, you can just make out the outline of the observation tower.

The trail is a very wide fire road, which is not accessible to cars, but makes for an easier path to get to the top.

There wasn’t too much snow on the actual road, but as I climbed higher, there were definitely huge snowdrifts.

At the top, you could see almost a full 360 of the mountains and inside the observation tower, there were directional signs to show which mountains you were looking at in the distance.

As I hiked up, I could see some bighorn sheep on the next hillside over and once I was up in the observation deck, I took advantage of the telescope to see them up close.

Despite being a little overexposed, the picture turned out pretty good. I just held my iPhone up to the eyepiece and tried to center it as best I could. Even though I started out in the afternoon, the weather cooperated for me and I got a great view at the top.

There were about 20 or so people at the top of the mountain when I got there, but they quickly dispersed and there was a couple who had also run the race who offered to take my picture at the top, and soon enough, I was the only one left up there. It was pretty cold at the top, so once the sun started to go behind the mountains, I quickly headed back down. As I was coming around a bend, I could see two bighorn sheep near the trail, so I slowly made my way towards them. One of the sheep kept an eye on me and headed into the middle of the trail after I walked down.

This was my first 10,000′ hike and it was definitely tough! The whole hike ended up being a little over 8.5 miles because the fire road was closed down at the base of the hill instead of at the main parking lot, which added an extra 2 miles to the hike. I didn’t get my Garmin started right away, but it was about a 2,000′ elevation gain and loss.

It took me almost 4 hours to do the hike, including a little time spent hanging out at the top. Since I started later in the afternoon, I knew I would be pushing myself to get to the top and chasing the sunset on my way down, but I’m really glad I did it. 

After leaving Mount Washburn, I headed to Roosevelt Lodge for dinner and on my way, I was able to see Rosie and her three cubs – my first bear sighting!

That ended up being my only bear sighting of the trip, so I’m glad I got to see them when (and where) I did.

After a quick shower back at my hotel, I headed back into Yellowstone Park. I had reserved a room back at the Hostel in Jackson since I had to return the rental car, so I just wanted to do a few quick stops as I headed back through Yellowstone.

My first stop was Monument Geyser which was a lot harder of a hike than I expected. It was only a 2.4 mile hike total, but half of that was straight uphill and I picked the middle of the day to do the hike, so it was very hot. After the other hikes I did in the park, I think this one can be skipped – there are much better options to see geysers. 

This was also my first real exposure to the sulfur smell of the geysers. You can smell it a little bit as you’re driving through the park, but it’s much stronger as you get close!

This geyser didn’t have much of a “restricted zone” so you could pretty much wander around where you wanted, but it was definitely a good idea to keep an eye on where you stepped.

You can see the steepness of the trail in this picture, as well as some mountains in the background.

My next spot was one I was looking forward to – Artists Paint Pots. There were large boardwalks over the thermal areas, so it was a very easy walk. There were some sections with stairs (very painful after the half!) but it was amazing! 

 

 

 

 

 

There were so many different colors, some areas letting out steam or bubbling up – it’s definitely a can’t miss spot on your trip through Yellowstone. It’s only a 1.2 mile lollipop loop and if you can skip the sections with stairs if you want (though you definitely lose the great overarching views from the top).