Days 1 & 2: Getting there via Billings and the Beartooth Highway
Day 3: visiting the Norris Basin and the Artist Paintpots; hiking the Beaver Ponds Trail
Day 4: Exploring Mammoth Hot Springs; visiting Lamar Valley and hiking to Slough Creek
Day 5: Conquering Mount Washburn; visiting the Mud Volcano; leaving Mammoth for Yellowstone Lake
Day 6: hiking the lower rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Day 7: visiting Old Faithful and the other geysers; leaving Yellowstone Lake for the Grand Tetons
Day 8: hiking to Two Ocean Lake; visiting Signal Mountain
Day 9: hiking to Taggart and Bradley Lake; leaving Colter Bay Village for Grand Targhee
Day 10: running the Grand Tetons trail marathon
Day 11: Leaving Grand Targhee for Bozeman, MT
Day 12: returning to Boston
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I chickened out of the previous day’s run (tight muscles! and bears!) so I was compelled to rouse at 6am to go running with Mr. P. It was slightly dark, and a bit cold. Mr. P and I carried bear spray, and I made sooo much noise as to alert impending animals of our presence on the trail. Mr. P was sooo annoyed. He had never heard, nor aspired to hear, my screaming rendition of the Brady Bunch Theme Song. We did 4 miles on a trail to the park border in Gardiner, MT, and after a brief tour of the town, we ran back.
We started our day of sightseeing by walking over to the Mammoth Hot Springs terraces that overlooked the hotel & cabins.
Mammoth Hot Springs, terraces of travertine
On the boardwalks
On the itinerary today: the Lamar Valley, an area of Yellowstone famed for its wildlife. Mr. P and his parents fully expected to see wolves, bears, bison, elk, and fox. Some of these things I didn’t particularly want to see, but I was reassured by the fact it was 11am. We drove to the Slough Creek trail and saw the requisite bison along the road.
Bison herd
We hiked about 2 miles to the creek, which is famed among fisherman for its trout. We had a picnic.
Picnic at Slough Creek
We used our monocular to search the surrounding hills for wildlife. I swear I saw a bear moving in the grass. Upon further examination, it was probably a rock.
Slough Creek
On the hike back to the car, we finally had a wildlife encounter outside of the protective metal of our car. A lone bison was wandering down the trail in the opposite direction. He stopped and looked at us. After a moment, we hustled out of the trail. I grabbed Little Boy’s hand and got behind a cluster of rocks and trees. I was thinking about those warnings I read after buffalo: More people are killed by buffalo than bears, they can charge at 30 mph, don’t look it in the eye! When the bison failed to move, we moved further off of the trail. Finally he began to casually stroll down the trail, having lost interest in us. Mr. P whipped out his camera and snapped a picture. Whew!
Our buffalo
That was our excitement for the day. Thank goodness it was buffalo and not a bear. We headed back to Mammoth Hot Springs to prepare for the next day: our big Mount Washburn hike and the move to Yellowstone Lake…
