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☺.