Day 80 - Yellowstone Canyon and Tower

Our day began with a long easterly drive through Yellowstone park, past a herd of Bison in the river, past the geyser basins and to Canyon. We had an evening reservation for a stagecoach ride through the sagebrush and a cowboy cookout with all the fixins but no camping reservations, so we drove to a first come first serve campsite in Tower, near the stagecoach ride, while calling for a reservation at a campsite south near Yellowstone lake. Yellowstone has 2000 campsites but we ended up with one of only three left, calming our homeless fears.

We then toured the Canyon area, site of the immensely colorful Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and her two waterfalls. The view from Artist Point was almost spiritual-- your soul was lifted by the calm coloring and elegant 300 foot waterfall beyond. Just lovely. Lanny, Landon and I then hiked down Uncle Toms trail to a powerful view of the large falls, then the full group hiked to the rainbow-filled brink at the top of the smaller falls. A final stop at Inspiration point ended our fun tour of this small but great canyon, a bonus to any Yellowstone trip.

Steve had talked about the stagecoach ride through the sagebrush and cowboy cookout with all the fixins so much that my expectations were frankly low, since I'm not one for touristy things. But the ride and cookout were fantastic. The setting of the Lamar Valley, the powerful horses charging through Bison herds on the wagon trail, the great western singer setting the cowboy mood and the juicy steaks made for the most enjoyable evening. Afterwards, as the sun was setting, we drove south to our campsite, set up our tents and went to sleep, satisfied.

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Day 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward. On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 48 - Canyonlands Island in the Sky Pt 2

Mountain biking the 100-mile 4x4 White Rim Road is said to be a great American adventure. But without any water, you need a follow truck to carry your water and gear, and reservations must be made three months in advance. So I just decided to hike down 1500 feet to the white rim and hike the road a bit. Steep, steep, steep was the descent down the Goosberry trail, but I reached the rim level in only 45 minutes! I hiked further down to the white rim road and then past to the very edge. Looking around for a possible path down to the river bottom 1000 feet below was a fun task, but a hard one as the "white rim rock" has a solid sheer 50-150 feet dropoff. I found one possible path down but a lone Nalgene bottle left down below the white rocks indicated an aborted attempt down. I continued to walk the rim for a few hours, finally climbing a small Mesa edge to enjoy the high view of the other side. After a brief respite, I walked back an hour along the Jeep 4x4 road to the G...

Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills. Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising. I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch). After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch. The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead. The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics. By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

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