Welp, we are officially done with Montana and Idaho. No longer are we straddling the border as we follow the divide. Instead we spent the last while going through Yellowstone National Park and then into the Bridger-Teton Wilderness.
The first day of this section I actually didn’t end up hiking. I needed to get into Old Faithful Village to pick up a package to get in early. I ended up getting picked up by a former PCT thru hiker who was spending the day in the park as a tourist. So I joined her figuring that it would be fun to see other parts of the park that the trail would not pass. Then, a few minutes later we ended up passing another thru hiker — Beefcake – on the side of the road hitching. So we ended up having a great day together 🙂
Now, into the park. Truthfully it took two days to actually get into the park. The second of which was a 26 mile water carry 😦 Loved having an extra 11 pounds in my pack in the morning.
Now because Yellowstone has permits for back country camping we actually had a few nice easy days through the park. The first full day in the park went into old faithful and we hit Wyoming! Also saw our first geothermal features in the form of boiling mud pots.
The next day Old Faithful! That day was exceedingly gorgeous, full of geothermal features and we even stopped for the lunch buffet.
We also saw some wonderful wildlife. Buffalo that were way chiller than any cows we’ve experienced on trail and I even saw a few bears. Two separate instances of seeing bear cubs without seeing mom which was rather frightening and then one grizzly that was meandering along in a meadow turning rocks looking for a nice meal.
Did you know that it is illegal to swim in hot springs in Yellowstone? But it is legal to swim in a stream. Now normally that means a cold time, at best luke warm. Well Witch Creek had something to say about that. This creek fed by hot springs is hot. Hot enough that after going downstream so that it could cool off the water was exactly the temperature of a hot tub. We stayed in this ‘hot tub’ for hours and even hitched into town to get a few beverages to enjoy while we soaked.
Finally we had a few easy days back to civilisation. Featuring a slot canyon and beautiful views. Also a special features of a thru hiker I haven’t seen in months, 511.
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