Mount Washburn

From the tip top of Mount Washburn you can see the world in much of its glory. It is an entrancing view. You are in love with living. You want to do more of it. You plan to do big things when you get down into the work again.   - Elbert Hubbard, 1914

Some people ask where I get my sense of adventure, why I do things like this. I like to think this quote helps describe the way I feel. When I stand at the top and look at the world below, I get an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I forget about the rest of the world, and want to stay where I am and enjoy the moment. It is truly a moment of complete understanding between me and nature. Not everyone understands, nor do I expect them to unless they do it themselves. 

If I had to pick a single person to credit for breaking me out of my shell, and convincing me to experience all of this in person, it would be Sam Durbin. One of my best friends, he told me stories of traveling across the country and visiting Alaska, Yellowstone, and various other places. He convinced me to come out to Yellowstone in 2008, my first real adventure. It turned out to be an amazing journey, and kept me wanting more. Sam and I have had other adventures since then, and he has been an inspiration for me to get away from society and be "in love with living." Thank you, Sam, for making me realize all that is out here. 

Since my Yellowstone adventure is coming to an end, I decided to hike up to the peak of Mount Washburn with my friend Jason. It's a hike I had always wanted to do, and the weather was perfect. So, we got off to a 2pm start and could just barely make out the Ranger station from the car. You can see the station as a tiny speck on top of the mountain below:

We could tell we weren't alone out there. A mountain lion was close by.

Great views on the way to the peak.

Giant snow drifts in late June.

More great views on our way up.

So close to the peak, with storms coming in.

Making my mark. 

2 miles above sea level.

I could see across the whole park.

Taking it all in.

A great spot for a pose.

I really didn't want to come down.

Angels in the clouds look down on me.

Treacherous trail on the way back down.

The lifeless trees reached up towards the sky.

Trying not to get too close!

An elk posing before we get to the car. Another great day in Yellowstone.

Picture Update

This update is just to share some of the recent pictures I have taken over the last two weeks. Not much to say otherwise.

Solfatara Trail

On Memorial Day my friends Kurt, Maryann, and myself decided to do a small day hike. The weather was pretty nice, and we wanted to get out on the trail. The rangers told us that it wouldn't be too muddy, so we packed up our stuff and headed out. Here's a description of the trail: Difficulty: Easy to Moderate Elevation: 7,400 Feet Elevation Gain: 400 Feet Length: 13 Miles We decided to just hike about 6 miles of the trail, then trace our route back to the car. It wasn't the most exciting hike, but we wanted to take advantage of a rare day of nice weather. The lighting was really weird, so the pictures I got aren't the greatest but still are decent. Kurt Myself Maryann Doing a little trailblazing to find Lake of the Woods. Lake of the Woods Some flowers along the trail. Some weird fungus growing on a tree. More flowers along the trail. White Rock Springs. We could actually feel the water flowing beneath the ground under our feet. Lemonade Creek, named for the color of the water. Just don't drink it!

Jackson Hole

I apologize that it's been a while since I last updated. The weather has really restricted me to staying around the Old Faithful area. Two weeks of rain has made the trails unstable and muddy. The rain has also flooded all the rivers making fishing nearly impossible. However, I've been able to make the most of the situation. On one of my days off, I took a road trip to Jackson, Wyoming with some friends. Here are some pictures from the trip, which was actually back on May 26th.

My friend Susan and myself. It was a good chicken wrap..I couldn't put it down.

All real elk antlers in downtown Jackson.

The largest native North American bird, the trumpeter swan.

A female moose relaxing alongside the road.

Friends walking back to the car, with the Teton Range in full view.

Sepulcher Mountain Trail

Well, after conditioning and getting used to the altitude with my long hike almost a week ago, I decided I would try to tackle my first mountain. The Sepulcher Mountain Trail is in the northwest corner of the park. Here are some of the details that I gathered from various hiking websites...

Difficulty:  Difficult
Elevation Gain:  3,312 Feet
High Point:  9,652 Feet
Length:  12.1 Miles


Kurt, my assistant manager, and his friend Carolyn joined me on this hike. 

Kurt

Carolyn

As you can see, there was a lot of fresh powder on the ground. It snowed about 3-4 inches the previous night, and we were concerned about the conditions of the roads and the trail itself. After all, it was about a two hour drive from Old Faithful to the trail head. We contacted the park rangers prior to leaving in the morning and they informed us that the roads were fine. They also told us that the trail should still be marked and easily visible. So, we took off at about 7:30am with all our gear, trekking poles, ice axes, and snowshoes.

We finally got started at about 10:30. Here are some pictures that we took along the way. Remember, you can click on the picture and it will come up in a higher resolution.

Where are we again?

The trail went from fairly dry to muddy.

And as we got higher in elevation, the trail went from muddy to snow.

Not only was the trail covered in snow, but we started to get covered in snow ourselves.

Soon the snow became so deep that we were forced to use our snowshoes. The elevation was really starting to hit us here. It became harder to breath, and we had to slow down our pace.

But with all our hard work, we finally started to get some great views. We could tell we were getting close.

Success! It was time to relax, eat lunch, and enjoy the view.

I wish I could've stayed there longer. But the wind was picking up, and the temperature began to drop.

One quick pose and back down we went.

Since the wind moved most of the clouds away, we were able to get some great views going back down.

More great views until we got back to the car. Another successful hike!