Travel With Me: Yellowstone National Park (Day Three)
If you missed part one of this series, where we explored Mud Volcano, Norris Geyser Basin, and Mammoth Hot Springs, check it out before you keep reading, and make sure you also didn't miss part two, where we explored the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and West Thumb Geyser Basin.
Two weeks ago, I was given the amazing opportunity to explore Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming as part of a research grant through Minnesota State University's English department, where I am currently pursuing my MFA in Creative Writing. To join me on the adventure, I brought along my forever-traveling-partner, Mary, and my brother, Alan. Let's jump right in with day three!
Sylvan Lake Turnout
We passed this turnout every day, as the route from Wapiti and the East Gate into the park took us through Sylvan Pass, which is in the Absaroka Range. This part of the park has one of the higher elevations that you drive through, at 8,524 feet above sea level, so it's naturally chillier, hence why these photos of the Sylvan Lake look like a winter wonderland even though it was in the sixties and seventies in the rest of the park. We saw a lot of cars from California stopped around here to get out and have snowball fights, but after six months of harsh Minnesota winter, I only stopped for the photo op.
Mountain View Turnout
As I said in my first post, when in Yellowstone, you just have to get used to swerving onto a turnout every time you see a spectacular view like this. I believe this is the Washburn Range (I'm directionally-challenged and there are a lot of mountains in Yellowstone, so sorry for my lack of surety). Our original plan for our third day in the park was to hike Mt. Washburn, a 10,223-foot peak in this range. However, a park ranger informed us that the mountain had received some late spring snowfall, and we would be wading through waist-deep drifts, if the trail was even open at all (and when we drove by it later, we discovered it was closed anyway).
Tower Fall
We then hiked down to Tower Fall, which plunges 132 feet past basalt columns formed by lava, cracked while cooling, to Tower Creek below. In 1870, Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition (charged with exploring northeast Wyoming) camped near the waterfall. A member of the expedition wrote back in his report, "Nothing can be more chastely beautiful than this lovely cascade, hidden away in the dim light of overshadowing rocks and woods, its very voice hushed to a low murmur, unheard at the distance of a few hundred yards. Thousands might pass by within a half mile and not dream of its existence; but once seen, it passes to the list of most pleasant memories."
Tower Fall was one of the features photographed by William Henry Jackson in 1871, which he shared with Congress to convince them of Yellowstone's beauty and need for preservation through becoming a national park (which occurred the very next year), and it has been one of the park's most treasured sights since then.
Due to severe erosion, you may no longer hike to the base of the falls and must view it from an observation deck. If you take the junction to the right of the overlook, however, you can hike down into the canyon to where Tower Creek flows into Yellowstone River. This is the deepest you can journey into the canyon and provided another perspective on the colorful, steep walls that we viewed from above the day before.
Lost Lake Loop
Since our plans to hike Mt. Washburn were dashed, we asked the park ranger for advice on what trails were passable, considering the snowfall accumulation in some areas and the flooded, muddy conditions due to snow-melt and rain in others. She suggested Lost Lake Loop, which is about 2.8 miles, starting from Roosevelt Lodge or Petrified Tree, snaking around Lost Lake. The hike was beautiful, traversing rugged hills covered in sagebrush and ground squirrels, areas shielded from the heat by the tree canopy above, and, of course, the picturesque lake, with its lily pads and wind-borne ripples.
We had two encounters with wildlife on this hike. The first was coming across the bones pictured above, picked clean and gnawed on. We surmised it was probably an elk or a bison, not yet fully grown, picked clean by some wolves. The second was our first beaver sighting in the park (pictured above). The little guy dashed across the path and hid underneath a bridge, giving us just a glimpse of his flat paddle tail. He played peek-a-boo with us for several minutes as we tried to get a good picture and coax his whole body into sight, to no avail. Though we were in wolf country, we didn't see any (which was probably for the best).
The only caveat I will give to the loveliness of this hike was a strange incident in the middle in which erroneous directions by an angry park employee almost prevented us from completing it. We started at the Petrified Tree trailhead, making our way to Roosevelt Lodge. The map pretty clearly shows the trail entering the Lodge area and crossing back over into the backcountry at another point further down the road; however, this is not the way you go (though we obviously didn't know that then). Upon getting to the fork in the trail where you could go straight into the Lodge area or go left to continue into the backcountry, we went straight.
Because the Lodge wasn't open for the season, there were workers bustling around, preparing the gift shop and kitchens and rooms. We ran into another family who were on the same trail as us and got lost after having entered the Lodge area, saying the other side was blocked. We were then approached by a very disgruntled park manager who told us we couldn't be there, and when we told him we were trying to complete the loop back to Petrified Tree, he told us the way wasn't clearly marked and the trail was in bad condition, that we should go back the way we came. Why would the park rangers tell us the trail was fine? we all asked in various ways.
"The rangers clearly haven't hiked it themselves," he huffed, clearly just trying to get us to leave (and growing visibly more and more annoyed at the other family, who didn't speak English well).
At that point, I'd had enough with his unhelpful attitude and had worked out that the family who was lost had probably tried to go on a little side trail across the river that ended in a waterfall instead of turning left at the fork, so we left the other family arguing with the employee to try the left fork. And lo and behold, the trail to the left was perfectly marked and well-maintained, allowing us to complete the loop.
Trout Lake
Our hike to Trout Lake (an easy .9-mile loop) started off strangely with a man stopping to tell us they heard growling and turned back halfway, while his wife tried to shush him. The lake is a popular destination for otter spotting, as they like the area for its large population of cutthroat and rainbow trout. Otters also happen to be my favorite animal, and we had yet to see one on this trip. So, despite the ominous start to the hike, we forged on.
Mary split off from us to avoid the mud on the right side of the lake, so Alan and I went on alone, giving an angry goose and swan (which can be seen devouring a dandelion above) a wide berth. When we reached Mary, I almost had a heart attack as she pointed to something large and brown on the other side of the lake, thinking it was a bear. However, it was a bison that had wandered right onto the path Alan and I had been on moments before (perhaps its grunting was the growling the man had heard earlier). We lingered, taking in the sight of Mount Hornaday towering above, but there were no otters out to play when we were there.
Lamar Valley
From Trout Lake, we drove to Slough Creek in the Lamar Valley. Earlier in the day, we had met two hikers who told us about a wolf den that had been located in that area, and we were hoping to catch sight of some wolf pups. The first time we stopped, a researcher was there observing the den through high-powered binoculars, but he said they were all in the den. The second time, we were told that just fifteen minutes before, the mother had left the den to hunt, along with several of her pups (yes, my heart broke a little to have missed that). Some of the pups were still hanging around the den, and I think I saw a moving black speck on the faraway hillside through the binoculars, but who knows. The only animal I can be certain that I saw was a curious antelope grazing by the lake (pictured above).
At that time of year (late May), the valley was also home to baby bison. These adorable fuzzy babies were precocious, prancing after each other, startled suddenly by the realization that they weren't at their mothers' sides. However, these herds were stressful to drive through, as normally a bison wouldn't decide, quick as lightning, to dart in front of your car, but these babies hadn't yet learned to be slow and methodical with their movements.
Our last encounter in the Lamar Valley was perhaps the most special because we were the only ones to see it (normally animal sightings amass a crowd in Yellowstone). As we were driving out of the valley at dusk, we caught a flash of movement off to the side of the road. We thought it was just an adult black bear at first, until we saw the teeny cub dawdling after it. As its mom moved across the clearing, the cub climbed halfway up a tree trunk before the mom stopped and turned to give it a look, as if to say, Come on, what the heck are you doing? Then, as quickly as we'd spotted them, they were gone. Even though the poor lighting and awkward configuration of Mary being between the camera and the bears didn't result in the best pictures, they will always remind me of that unique opportunity we had to see that bear family.
If you liked this post, don't forget to hit the heart button down below! And check back in next week for day four of our adventure!