07/09/08 Hiking Lone Star Gyser Trail (Yellowstone): (5 miles round trip)
Overnighted in Grand Tetons last night and drove up to Yellowstone this morning.
Lone Star Gyser is 4 miles or so south of Old Faithful with the trailhead right next to Kleper Cascades.
The entire trail is an old paved road, most of it along a pretty little creek. Lone Star is sure lonely sitting in an open area all by itself.
It is a cone gyser and pretty predictably errupts every 3 hours. I got there about 9:45 with just a little steam coming out. Then I could hear a rumbling for a while and then small amounts of water bubbling out of the top and down the sides.
This was followed by small spouts for a few minutes and then an actual erruption at 10:45. This one was a minor erruption shooting in the air 10 feet and lasting 5 minutes.
15 minutes later was the major erruption also shooting in the air only 10 feet but much more powerful and lasting 30 minutes or so.
07/10/08 Hiking Medicine Wheel Trail: (3 miles round trip)
Overnighted in Cody at 5000+ feet. Hot! Hot! Hot!
Followed US14A east about 60 miles or so and 4000+ feet into the Big Horn Mountains National Forest. Went all the way to Visitor Center on US14 and then backtracked 20 miles to Medicine Wheel. This is a National Historic Landmark.
1.5 miled to a tiny ranger station and a larger parking lot. The ranger wants to know how many in your party and where they're from for demographics. He also warned there were many Native Americans up there performing some kind of ceremony. He wanted me to be respectful, not take pictures of them, etc.
It's 1.5 miles up a dirt road to Medicine Wheel. Turns out they were Cherokees from Oklahoma and came down as I was going up. Medicine Wheel is sacred to many, many tribes.
Medicine Wheel is fenced in with brightly colorded strips of cloth tied to the fence ropes, probably of religious signifigance and left by the Cherokees.
Medicinw Wheel dates between 1200 and 1700. It's 80 feet across and consist of circles made of rocks. No one knows the actual meaning of the rocks. Some believe the circles have to do with the circle of life. Others think the larger circles where used to hold teepees down and the smaller ones were for campfires. The latter theory seems more reasonable to me.
07/11/08 Hiking Porcupine Falls Trail: (.8 miles round trip)
Startled a moose on the way in. He/she/it took off at a gallop.
Yeah, .8 miles round trip. But the trail drops 400 feet in .4 miles. 25 minutes down and 40 minutes up. Slow going down because of all loose gravel, etc. Slower coming up beacuse I rested about 20 minutes or so.
Tough trail for me but it was well worth. Nothing much the 1st 1/4 mile except trees, steep trail and lots of gravel. After that are pretty impressive views of the downstream canyon. Then you see the falls... actually 2 falls.
One drops 100 feet from a widening crack in a tall granite cliff. Your view is partially obstructed by another wall but that just adds to the allure.
There's a small cascade off to the right of the falls coming directly out of the wall. Looks like it's cut a path through 50-100 feet of solid rock.
Drove around and did some exploring later in the day. In the past I have seen lifelike statues of big horn sheep and moose. When I saw this larger than life moose with a larger than life rack I thought it was a statue... and then it moved. Wow! It was out in a field of flowers just looking in my direction.
It was across a stream from me and when it lowered its head to feed I'd sneak up a few feet and stop when he raised his head again. I was working my way down to the stream for a better photo and was soon out of his sight. As I was working my way forward he decided it was time for a drink. When I peeked through the bushes there he was, not more than 15 feet away. I clicked away with the camera and then backed away and he never even saw me.
Then the Dimwit family from Yahoo City came by and started yelling and screaming. Naturally the moose took off. When the Dimwit family went away I followed in the direction the bull had run. Sure enough, he stopped not too far away upstream and I watched him feed for another 15 minutes.
07/12/08 Hiking Bucking Mule Falls Trail: (5.2 miles round trip)
30's when I got up this morning. No wonder I had the blankets wrapped all around me like a cocoon. What'da'ya expect at 9500 feet?
The trail slopes downward 1.6 miles, dropping 300+ feet or so. Nothing exciting, just a walk in the woods. I crossed a bridge and went back up the other side. Still just a walk in the woods with just a few ups.
Got to the overlook which looks down at Bucking Mule Falls and I looked down on Bucking Mule Falls... duh!
It drops 500 feet (looked more like 200 feet to me) from between two towering walls. Reminded me of Yosemite Falls in California.
People starting to pour onto the trail at 10am on this Saturday morning. Temperature all the way up in the 50's by this time but a strong wind kept it cool.
07/15/08 Hiking Long Lake Trail: (6 miles round trip)
The Long Lake Trail starts at 1.7 miles off the Sherd Lake Loop. I misjudged the hike up to the junction. I thought it was a mile or so and a 300 foot climb. It was actually 1.7 miles and about a 600 foot climb. That's what I get for just glancing at the trail description before the hike.
At this point of my recovery, I have to know what I'm dealing with. Since the trail was almost twice what I thought to the junction I was mentally unprepared to go on... so I didn't.The access trail was mostly a walk in the woods. I did see a female moose feeding on the far side of a pond just before the lake. Sherd Lake was OK, not much more than an acre with peaks barely visible over the tree tops.