Backpacking Trip Report
The third (and final) installment of our Yellowstone trip was the backpacking trip. What an amazing trip it was… We went to a pretty remote part of the park which actually crossed out of the national park and into the national forest twice during the trip. We saw some wildlife, some of it got a little two close, and we saw some amazing scenery, flowers, animal sign, and most importantly - we found the remoteness that recharges me. Sara was with her grandparents for this one, so it was just Angela and I.
|
|
Our trip had an interesting start - we couldn’t find the trail head. We realized later that the trailhead had moved up the canyon a bit from where it was shown on the map, but at the time it looked like we had found the trailhead. Until we found a sign that said private property no trespassing.
Ended up adding like a mile and a half onto our trip, but we eventually found the real trailhead and got started.
The rest of day one went much better. We hiked down a steep canyon to the Yellowstone river and hiked along the river for 9 miles.
|
|
|
The first half of the day was very dry/dusty with small shrubs but it got progressively more forested as we went along.
The 9 miles along the river was cooler and ended up being a very comfortable hike. We experienced a highly varied climate even within one day - I really enjoy the feeling of adventure you get when traveling through wild places like this.
Our campsite that night was by a river bed in a fairly thick forest, beautiful to look at but we quickly realized that mosquitoes were going to be a problem on this trip. We cooked dinner quickly, cleaned up in the river, and headed into the bug free zone in the tent.
Day 2 started early, but not super early. We got up just as the sun was coming up and knew we were on borrowed time before the bugs came in. We packed quickly, had breakfast, and loaded up for the day. We had a little over 10 miles to go today, but it followed the river and then the creek so it wasn’t very steep or challenging terrain. About 2 hours into the hike we came to a big open meadow at the top of a draw and we found the worst mosquitoes of the trip. They bit me straight through my shirt and I realized that my sunshirt wasn’t going to cut it - I didn’t figure it out until the next day but my rain jacked ended up being the most effective way of keeping them out (although it was hot!).
|
|
|
Day Two
We turned up hellroaring canyon that afternoon and camped at the last campsite inside the national park before the national forest boundary. Our camp was fun and we could have a fire which allowed us to burn some of our food trash and keep the mosquitoes at bay (at least for a little while). We went on an expedition to find new flowers for Angela and we ended up finding some wild onion which we picked to spice up our backpacker meal. A yellow bellied marmot also wondered into camp and scurried about around our tent for a couple of hours before bed.
We saw this very cool golden bird in a big meadow near a small lake. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but it was a very cool looking bird. We looked it up in our guide and we think it was an American goldfinch. They only have this bright plumage for a couple of months in the summer, so it was a treat to see him.
Some pictures from our flower finding expedition. These weren’t just from day 2, but a lot were. There were a ton of new flowers and variety near the camp on day 2.
Some wild onion spicing up our backpacker meal - very proud of this one. I have alwasy aspired to forage for food on these trips and suplementing the meals we carry was very exciting for me. I choopped the little onions up and dropped them into the chicken and noodles meal before we rehydrated it. Definitely helped the meal and the onions were very tasty.
This little guy came into our camp just before sunset (while we were sheltering from the bugs). He came pretty close, but we had already hung our smellables for the night so he stayed away from our gear. We watching him for a while before he scurried off.
Grabbed a couple of pictures of Angela in her full bug attire. A couple of these were from the days before in addtion to at camp on day 2.
Day 3 ended up being our most intersting day. We left early (before sunrise) because we knew it was going to be our hardest day at 13 miles with a bunch of elevation gain - but the route we were on would have ended up being closer to 16 had we followed it. Instead, we decided to camp in the national forest just outside the park and skip the poachers trail to the buffalo plateau. This meant we were going to come back along the coyote creek trail instead of the buffalo plateau trail. In retrospect, I did my distance calculations based on laying waypoints along the trail which meant it didn’t include all of the switchbacks, etc. Over the course of the entire route, this ended up cuting around 3 miles off of the trail. Next time, Looking up the trail names online can get you the exact distance of the trail and I should have done that. Hiking Project (amongst other sites) has trail details that allow you to see how long the trail is which could have helped us avoid that. Angela left the planning up to me for this trip as well and she committed to being more involved in the next one as a second set of eyes. This was, however, the most beautiful camp we stayed at. It was pearched up on a hill a little ways from the creek and the view into the valley (especially during the sunset) was amazing. Because we were a little ways from the creek the mosquitoes weren’t as bad at first so we had a couple of hours of reprive before the sun set and they made it up the hill.
|
|
|
Day Three
This was also the day with the most wildlife. We saw a mule deer right as we were leaving camp and got some great pictures.
About an hour into the hike, we saw a black bear on the trail. Certainly startled Angela, but we remembered the training they give you before you head off into the back country and stood our ground and made a bunch of noise. The bear saw us and, unlike any other bear encouters I have had, just meandered towards us down the trail. Usually bears either run off when they hear you or they just stay put and ignore you. I got a couple of pictures before I decided it was time to get out the bear spray. He approach to about 20 feet and I fired the bear spray once - turns out the range on bear spray isn’t great and the instructions you get (start spraying at about 30 feet) are a bit missleading. So I waited until he was about 15 feet (right at the edge of the range) and sprayed again. I didn’t ‘hit’ him necessarily, but he could start to smell it and he stopped. He was close enough at this point that I could see a scar on his face and his shoulder. He hung out for 30 secs or so and then decided to head up the hill of the trail. He went up about 30 feet and then went around us and back down onto the trail. We hurried forward and left him behind. Despite the fact that the bear seemed relatively uneffected by the bear spray, walking back through the area I sprayed and getting some of it blown back at my from the slight breeze was potent and we were tearing up/coughing for the next 15 min or so - really cleared out the sinuses!
Day 4 was much less eventful. We got up a bit later because we knew the hike was all downhill (until the very end) and we wanted to have some time in the morning to hydrate before we started the day. It was a beatiful hike down Coyote creek and back into Hellroaring canyon. From there, we hiked down the long wide valley to the suspension bridge over the yellowston river. From there it as a steep, short hike up to the Hellroaring trailhead where our van was waiting for us (we pre-positioned it there before we started the hike.
|
|
|
Day Four
We saw a bunch of bones throughout the hike, here is a quick assortment of mostly elk but probably some deer bones as well.
We saw a mule train coming down the hill on the last half mile of the trail. The ranger told us they were bringing supplies down the hill to fix some of the fence around the bridge which was starting to fall apart.
All and all, it was an amazing trip. Some lessons learned were to always bring my zip off pants instead of just shorts (for bug protection) and some camp shoes that cover your feet (instead of Sandals) would have been nice. Also room for improvement on the route planning front on day 3. We also had really bad headaches on day 3 - I think both of us were un-used to how much water you need to drink in this dry climate and were a bit dehydrated. We drank a lot in the evening and felt better on day 4.
