July 9-10

I woke up on Saturday morning and headed out of Cody. I was really just ready to be home. I passed through Rapid City without stopping at either Devil's Tower or Mt. Rushmore...I thought, next time. I drove for 1000 miles, stopping only to gas up and eat quickly in Gillette and Sioux Falls. I got into Minnie at 6am Sunday morning and promptly collapsed into bed. Early afternoon I unloaded the rental and returned it. Not a blink at either the rock chipping or the 2500 miles:)

I caught up on TV and spent the rest of the day on the couch with Dottie, before going to bed at 8:).

It was an excellent trip. I'm so grateful to have seen more beautiful parts of our country, and I KNOW I'll be going back to Yellowstone. Now for work... I have to strap myself in tight for the next two months:)

July 8

Today was a good day. After breakfast, I went on a wild mustang tour. It was great. The Bureau of Land Management owns 100k acres of land near Cody that is a preserve. About 150 mustangs live on it, along with pronghorn antelopes (the fastest land mammal in NA, second only to the cheetah in the world), golden eagles, prairies dogs, and prairie chickens.

We found the herd after 15 minutes of looking, with about 20 individuals. The guide told us that actually it’s 4 separate groups, each with its own dominant stallion, mares and babies. Then there are some bachelor groups, where the males live until they defeat a dominant male. The bachelors also try to snake mares and babies away while the stallions are fighting off other bachelors. The mares chase off their female babies after about a year, which is a guard against inbreeding. She’s almost immediately adopted by a bachelor or another group. The male babies get to stay for 2-3 years before they get kicked out, at sexual maturity. Absolutely fascinating.

The mustangs are fat and happy right now, because they’ve had so much rain on the high desert. Grass and water are plentiful. But I heard a lot about the roundups. Apparently BLM tries to keep the numbers down by doing annual round ups with helicopters and 4-wheelers. Those mustangs are either adopted out or just removed to somewhere else—a pasture or feedlot. Apparently the cattle farmers want the land for themselves, so they lobby to get rid of them. The roundup sounded pretty cruel. And apparently even if you adopt one, the older it is, the more difficult to “tame.” Many are unbreakable.

The horses descend from those that the Spanish brought when they were conquering the Native Indians in Mexico. This was their home, far before it was ours.

After that trip, I was all pumped to do some riding. I went to the Bill Cody Dude ranch and signed up for a two hour trail ride. Fortunately I only had one other rider on my trip, so it was nice to be able to talk to the guide. He was a very nice guy from Texas, and who attends Liberty University in Virginia.

My horse was named Gunsmoke. He was a “Dottie” horse…white with brown ticking. I was able to mount without a block, which I’m proud of. The last time, I was too heavy to get myself up.

We wended our way through several canyons, through several creeks and up to the top of the nearest peak. I was feeling so good at dealing with Gunsmoke. He balked a few times but nothing serious. It was wonderful to hear nature, and see the beautiful scenery at a nice slow pace. We were getting towards the end of the ride and all of a sudden, Gunsmoke stumbles and goes down to his knees. I was thrown forward, but hung onto his mane to keep from falling off. Then he got back up and everything was ok. I just had my heart in my throat to see if he was going to roll. Exciting nonetheless.

After the ride, I went to eat a late lunch and began looking for hotel. Apparently nothing is open and if it was, it would cost an arm and a leg. Finally I found a basic hotel good enough for one night. It’s manageable.

Then I went off to the Cody rodeo, which was pretty fun. They had riders of all ages and types—barrel-racing, trick riding, bronc busters, and bull riding. They had a junior division, which was cool. One of the youngest girls was doing the trick pony type stuff. She’s only 7!! They also had rodeo clowns, one in particular doing all of the sight gags. Also notable: we prayed before it started, the 10 sec later, the guy’s telling a joke about a nudie bar

More pix

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July 7

I woke up at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep for a little while, so my first news of the morning was my dad texting me about the hiker who got killed by a grizzly in Yellowstone on the 5^th. I read the news later, and it was just a really unfortunate accident—the man and his wife accidentally surprised a grizzly sow with her cubs. I can’t imagine a more dangerous wildlife situation. They tried to back away but she charged the man and killed him, then “threw” the lady, but she played dead and the bear moved off. Such a tragedy…there hasn’t been a bear-caused death in the park since the ‘80s. I was glad to read that they were not planning on doing anything to the bear—from the DNA/fur, they knew she hadn’t ever caused trouble before and after all, she was just defending her cubs.

But the absolute craziest thing is that I was on parts of the same trail the day before. It’s pretty close to the South Rim…I didn’t see anything but a lone bison, but there were bear warnings on all of the trailhead boards. I just can’t even imagine. I definitely don’t feel like a wussy for carrying bear spray and using a bear bell now.

I got up for good around 800 and went to McDonald’s for breakfast. Ugh…I’d forgotten how greasy it was, but I needed to pick up something quick to get to the trailhead. I decided to hike Lake Goodwin/Jackson Peak, which is supposed to be a local easy-moderate favorite. I drove 13 miles out into the National Elk Refuge, but never saw any elk—only elk poop. The road made any put-in/take-out road that I ever shuttled from look smooth. It seemed to take forever to get to the trailhead.

When I got there, only one car was in the pull-in. Awesome. Another quiet, peaceful hike. Then I started climbing up through a field of wildflowers. I climbed and climbed…and the scenery changed to forest but still I climbed. Easy-moderate my ass. The whole 3 mile ascent, was just that—uphill, and not a gentle grade. I got in a rhythm and kept going, mostly because I wanted to see the Lake, but knowing that the grade would only get more intense, I more or less knew I wasn’t going the extra- 1000ft-gain-in-1-mile Jackson Peak. There were some gorgeous overlooks, and the sound of rushing water down the side of the mountain, though I never saw the river.

As I was nearing the lake, all of a sudden there was snow on the ground. First, small piles that I hiked over. Then longer stretches…thankfully whoever was in the one car at the bottom had already climbed and I just stayed in their footsteps. Finally, I came across a snow field that stretched as far as I could see up the mountain, and it was at least knee-deep. Trust me, I know. I tried to stay in the person’s tracks, but then I fell through and as I was catching myself with my arms, I stuck my left hand right into some sort of cactus-like thistley plant. So I spend the next 30 minutes picking spines out of my palm. First aid tweezers for the win! I got most of them out—the rest are deep. Finally I got up to reassess and started to get nauseous and dizzy (I think I overworked myself on the climb), so I uncovered some clean snow and ate that for a while until I felt better. I felt all “always prepared”. See, I think I could survive a zombie apocalypse!

I decided to call it a day and headed back down to the bottom. Not a bad 6 mile hike, and it was a gorgeous day. I drove back into Jackson to grab a huge iced tea, then, after spending a little more time with the tweezers, got on the road to Cody. The shortest route was back up through the Tetons and Yellowstone—soon after I went through the Yellowstone gate, I saw a mass of people and cars, which generally means an animal sighting. It was a moose! I didn’t stop, but I got to watch him for a few seconds as I waiting for the traffic to clear.

Leaving Yellowstone by the east entrance was awesome. You descend through some HUGE mountain passes, along winding roads. Exciting, but a little scary—you know I have the heights thingJ. I kept on the lookout for bears, since the signs kept warning, but I never saw any. After you get out of the mountains, you hit red rock country. It reminded me of Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Also, the Shoshone River is by your side the whole 50 miles into Cody. It’s amazing how it goes from a rushing snowmelt river to a wide lake at the dam. And as I was driving past the reservoir, it started to rain—and I saw a double rainbow. It was pretty cool—the trip has definitely been double-rainbow great so far.

I just drove through Cody quickly so I could settle down for the evening—and eat—but tomorrow, I’m planning to do an 830 tour to see the wild mustangs on Wyoming’s preserve. Then I think I’ll do some horseback riding of my own before going to see the “Nite Rodeo”.

July 6

Today, I got up, ate breakfast and headed south to the Tetons. My first stop, besides a few photo ops, was the Jackson Lake Lodge, which is a historic landmark. It also has beautiful views of the Tetons from its big upper lobby—as well as wifi. I hung around long enough to do my electronic business and got back on the road.

I took the roads that stuck close to the mountains, which took me to Jenny Lake and Jackson Lake. Lots and lots of stops and photography. Then I followed a back road to Teton Village/Jackson Hole Resort. These people aren’t like us. Full makeup and western-chic clothing. Porsches, Ferraris, Audis. I haven’t worn makeup for daysJ. I was hoping to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain for the views, but it closed about half an hour before I got there. Seems like the “residents” would want to see sunset from up there. So I just gawked at the plush restaurants and chalets and left.

I drove into Jackson just as the sun was setting, and I had a nice walk around the square area. Lots of touristy restaurants and shops. LOTS of higher-end art galleries. But overall a cute town—I read somewhere that the average age of the actual residents is in the 30s. I ate at the Merry Piglets, then went to get ice cream at Moo. A pretty nice evening, all in all.

PIX

This is only about a sixth of my pix:)

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July 5

Today has been a day of excess. I got up around 700 and went into the OFI for breakfast, while deciding what order to do my hikes in. I decided to do the Lower Geyser Basin first, while it wasn’t very crowded, then do the other later in the day, because I knew it wouldn’t be crowded.

What they say in the guidebooks is true; Yellowstone may have a lot of people around, but they disappear within a mile of leaving the road. When I was hiking around LGB this morning, I took the longest route, which is about 2.8 miles. I was constantly asked how far things were, or hearing complaints while people were looking at the maps. Really? You can’t walk a mile or two down a paved path to see some of the most spectacular natural beauty in the world? OK, your loss. Even at my heaviest, I’m not sure I would have allowed myself to miss out, even if it felt like hell. On another note, it’s really rude when you say Hi or Good Morning to someone, and they look straight at you and don’t respond. Or let a door slam right in your face. Eff discourtesy, and there are a lot of discourteous people in this world.

Enough of my ranting. So the geysers are pretty spectacular, though I didn’t get to see many of them go off. The prismatic pools are really cool, because they don’t rely on eruptions for their beauty. They are all colors of the rainbow, but I learned that the bluer they are, the hotter they are. It’s amazing how many of them there are and how varied they are. But after a couple of miles, they do become bubbly holes in the ground☺. I saw several chipmunks along the path. They’re so cute and I love the way they run with their tails straight up in the air. It gives them attitude.

I did hear a funny thing from a little boy walking with his mom. She was sort of dragging him along on admittedly long trail for a little guy, and he looked up at her and said, “Mom, this is not right. I’m not going to be able to walk tomorrow.” It had all the exaggeration and melodrama that kids can evoke. It was so funny…clearly it was a short trail and she was probably not overdoing it with him, but I had to sort of agree with him. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to walk tomorrow. But I wasn’t sore after the stairs yesterday, so maybe I’ll be OK.

I came back to the car and rested for a little while (and offloaded the morning’s pictures from my camera—I’m averaging 200 a day), then drove over to the Fairy Falls Trailhead. My intention was to do the 3 miles to FF, then the 3 miles over to the Sentinel Meadows/Queens Laundry loop, then back down the Forest Service road to the FF trailhead. I also had an important epiphany while walking to the trailhead—my Camelback’s sternum straps adjust!! It had been getting my right at my lower back the previous days, but I’d been cushioning with my shirt to prevent chafing. I dealt with it, becauswe it helps keep the shoulder straps from chafing my shoulder joint. Hallelujah. I felt like the dumbest person, but I was glad to be more comfortable.

The hike out to Fairy Falls was a pretty boring 3 miles, which is a little hard to admit. It was a gravelly path hemmed in by trees for a lot of the way, which made me feel a little claustrophobic. But Fairy Falls was pretty worth it. It’s the 7th highest in the park, though it’s a trickle compared to the falls on the Yellowstone River. But it was gorgeous, and I enjoyed cooling my feel in the pond below. A couple came along while I was resting and told me I had to go see Imperial Geyser, and it was just a 1/3rd of a mile past where I had intended to turn off, so I went. It was a really nice blue pool, with the geyser constantly erupting a few feet into the air. I was glad I went, but again, I got eaten alive by mosquitoes in that last little stretch.

So the next leg of the journey was 3 miles across this huge grassy plain, but it got pretty muddy at first. I’ve never been so glad to be wearing my waterproof boots! There was also a cool “bridge” across one part of the meadow—basically railroad ties with overlapping ends, mounted on top of short logs. I loved the wide-openness of it, and I even saw two bison lounging in the shade (which is what I should have been doing). I only saw two other people on that entire stretch. It felt pretty nice.

After the green faded, and I was walking on a more thermal part (which basically turns everything white and with a coarse white gravel to walk on), I started to flag. Although the breeze was pretty nice, and it was only in the low 70s, the sun just started to beat on me. So I took a shortcut back to the FS road, instead of doing SM/QL. But a shortcut is really just saying it was shorter than continuing on my plan. The shortcut was 2-3 miles long back to the trailhead—I could have done without those last miles, thank you very much. Especially on open ground on a gravel road. Singing to myself helped take my mind off of it—and I’m sure it scared off the wildlife too. Finally, I was back in the last mile of the trail, which passes by the Grand Prismatic Pool, one of the most famous features of the park. I knew my feet were not up to doing that trail, so I climbed up on a ridge to see it better and snapped of a few pictures. It is really beautiful, but I think my capacity for appreciating anything was too low to care☺. I mentally “raced” a couple back to the trailhead just to trick myself into going faster☺.

My little red HHR looked like an oasis to me when I finally stumbled back to the parking lot. And of course I had to do blister inventory. I got off light with two.

I drove back to OFI to use it as home base again tonight before I leave for the Tetons. Sorry Yellowstone, but I can’t leave Wyoming without seeing the Boobs. SO to repay myself for the brutality I self-inflicted today, I treated myself to an expensive steak dinner. And another lovely shower, which I’m sure my fellow diners appreciated. And I think I’ll take tomorrow off the hiking. I’ll drive down to Jackson/Tetons and explore...find place to camp, since I hear the good locations fill pretty quickly. I also regret to report that my flameout with 2 miles to go today leads me to believe that the 14-miler I had planned in the Tetons is probably biting off a little bit too much. I think my 11-12 miles today were more than enough.

I’m going to sign off and bed down in my car. Something tells me I’ll sleep good tonight☺.