Days 83 and 84 - Glacier Two Medicine

After a full day spent taking care of chores back home, writing my Yellowstone posts and dividing out my food supply into 500 calorie packs, I drove north to Glacier's Two Medicine area. I arrived around dinner time to light crowds, ideal sunny weather and awesome mountain peaks set around long and slender lakes.

The next morning, the ranger told me the path to Cobalt Lake and Two Medicine Pass were mostly clear, so I set out, first around the south side of the lake to a peaceful lakeside clearing, then through an ancient-feeling forest, to two tumbling waterfalls, through a meadow, then up a steep trail along a stream to Cobalt Lake.

I ran into a nice guy named Matt, originally from Boston but on a grad-school rotation in nearby Bozeman. Matt had set up his tent on the side of a snow bank overlooking the lake- a lovey camp. After chatting for a bit, I continued up the snowy but easily passable trail to the ridge of Two Medicine Pass. The wind picked up dramatically once I crested the ridge, keeping a steady 40 mph pace and gusting up to 60 mph. My heart rate picked up as well: it felt like hiking in a hurricane, along a ridgeline with huge mountain views in all directions, it was awesome and scary! The ridge was very wide so I was never at risk of being blown off, but still I took a few photos and came back down.

I ran into Matt on the return trip home and learned that his tent poles had snapped during a gust of wind-- powerful winds today. I planned to attempt a harder and snowier Dawson Pass route tomorrow and hoped the wind would settle down.

Comments

Day 43 - Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef, a national park centered around a 90 mile ancient seabed reef was next on my list. A sensationally scenic three hour drive from Bryce, back through Escalante, and then through a national forest led me to the park. A stop by the visitor center to get the lay of the land and insider info on local free BLM campsites complete, I set out on Chimney Rock trail up the the top of the first reef to get a view. Yes sir!! The weather was ideal for hiking and the views completely blissful, but I was frankly tired today. I set out along the scenic road down the west side of the reef and remember wanting to take a nap-- but still having a sense of urgency to complete the desert portion of my trip-- I pushed on and set out to hike down the Capitol Gorge and Grand Wash canyons. The Capitol Gorge had a "Pioneer Wall" with inscriptions from the early 1900s and the Grand Wash had a nice narrow section with towering canyon cliffs all around. I took a photo of the surrounding reef...

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site. Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint. And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...

Day 67 - Badlands

Badlands means very difficult and dangerous to travel through-- Badlands lived up to this name. I began my eight mile loop hike by climbing up a steep canyon side to the mesa wall on top. From here I travelled east towards the popular window, door and notch trails via a wet, muddy and slippery Medicine Root trail that left me covered in mud up to my knees. Of the popular trails the notch was my favorite because it involved a wooden ladder climb and then a hill scramble past crumbling rock up to a six foot "notch" step that required a almost-rock climbing move to ascend. The views up at the top cliff were sensational. Even more fun, two girls from New York-driving to Portland and a young couple saw me up there and followed the path up-- with a bit of my help at the notch. I love helping people get a bit beyond their comfort zone. We all enjoyed the view then descended safely to find that this notch was not actually the trail but a side canyon-- haha. I then hiked ...

Road Trip Daily

Search This Blog