Hike to the Summit

[July 12]
Today we left our Bridge Bay campground and traveled back up to Canyon Village Campground. (That’s were we stayed in the emergency spot the first night in YNP). We were relieved to find that we had our spot as expected! (A small victory!)

We showered up; this place does a flat rate of $3.25/person rather than $2.00/6 minutes. They have nice facilities but not quite as good as the showers in Grant Village, though at least these are actually at the campground we are staying at ;)

We setup camp in our new spot. It’s a beautiful site in the woods. Its snuggled within the tall and old trees. We’ve got lots of room too.

We headed out to see the North side of the park (upper loop). Our first stop was Mount Washburn. We packed some spare warm clothes and began our trek up the mountain. We started at about 8500ft and over the course of 3 miles climbed to 10,250ft. It was a fun hike up the mountain. The path used to be an old road from the 1920s to supply the fire lookout tower at the summit. It has clearly been in disrepair for many decades, perhaps since the 50’s. (There is another route for supplies now). During one part of the trail, it was completely covered with snow, many feet, perhaps upto 8. As funny as it sounds, we were quite scared to walk across the snow. Imagine a steep rocky drop-off to your right, snow crossing your path at about a 30 degree slant to that drop off. The snow is wet and slippery and you’re wearing running/tennis shoes… Well we made it past, whew! The view, particularly once we got past the tree line, was fantastic. We eventually made it to the top. At the top was an old fire tower. It’s still staffed by someone all summer. They have a really small apartment, all 4 walls are windows. They only have a radio, books, and the view to pass the time, no TV or anything else. That takes a special person to fill that position! Only two other towers are staffed in Yellowstone, and one of those only during heightened fire danger times.

After enjoying the 360 degree view of the valley and all of Yellowstone (and the Grand Tetons in the distance), we headed back down from the summit. Our hike lasted 4-5 hours. We were glad to get back and out of the sun (Anna has turned into a Lobster)

It was getting late in the day, we made two more scenic stops. We stopped at Tower falls first, it was a great falls but unfortunately the lower viewing platform was closed to due washouts. There was a bunch of hub-bub too because someone feel down one of the steep slopes and we watched them get rescued.

Our last stop was at the Petrified tree. It was cool to see a 50 million year old tree still standing! Too bad the others had been pillaged by souvenir takers earlier in the park’s history.

We headed back and decided to grab dinner at Theodore Roosevelt Lodge to celebrate our ONE-WEEK-AVERSARY! Terry had a big bacon cheeseburger and Anna had a taco salad. They were both great but Anna’s Taco Salad was amazing! Whatever they put in the salsa, just amazing!

After our dinner we were simply driving back when we came across a bear-jam. That’s a bunch of cars making a traffic jam because there’s a bear in sight. Anna got out to see the bear but it wasn’t visible. Anna went back to the car and Terry went to take a look. After a little while a Black Bear showed itself in the distance. Terry got to see it walk around for short time before running off. We didn’t get to see the 2 cubs that were with her. It’s just awesome to get to see a bear in the wild!

Back to the campsite and to bed.