Union Falls Backpacking Trip

August 11-13, Trever and I backpacked to Union Falls in Yellowstone National Park.  I have been wanting to go to Union Falls since March and have talked with quite a few people who have backpacked in that region to know what is there.  I realized that it was too soggy to go in May with Kevin, so I had to postpone it until later.  The area dries up and is better to hike in August or September.  Although Janet (from Livingston) wanted to go, her schedule was too busy to come with Trever and me this year.  I made last-minute reservations at 9U5 for a couple nights, and then we changed it to 9U4 for the first night and 9U5 for the second since 9U4 was already booked for the second night.  (Anyone who knows back country trails in Yellowstone Park will know where these campsites are.)

Trever didn't have most of the supplies that he needed for this trip, and I wanted to supplement what I already had, so we both ended up spending some money preparing for this trip.  Trever hadn't done a lot of camping and backpacking, so this was going to be a learning experience for him.  I made sure that he had the bare necessities by giving him a list.  One of the things we kind of overdid it on was the food.  We both bought food for about five days and had to take about half of it back with us.

The drive from Gardiner to Grassy Lake Reservoir (map courtesy of Google)

 We started August 11 early in the morning.  As a matter of fact, anything before noon is early in the morning for me because of my work schedule, which has me up until after 6:00 a.m. on weekends.  Trever and I got together about 7:45 a.m. and got to Mammoth a little after 8:00 a.m.

We received our backpacking permit and I made sure Trever saw the bear safety video that they present.  Only at the end of the trip did I realize that we had nothing to fear from bears.

From there we drove to Old Faithful through the construction zone between Norris and Madison.  They weren't kidding when they said that there would be half-hour delays!  On the other hand, I'm very glad that the Park is finally getting a better road for that area because it had previously been in terrible, horrible shape.

We ate lunch at Old Faithful and saw it go off.  It was our last real meal before we would go into the middle of nowhere.  I had seen Old Faithful go off on many occasions, so to me it isn't anything terribly special.  We continued to Flagg Ranch and then went to Grassy Lake Reservoir by way of a gravel road that was somewhat maintained.  From start to finish, it took us about five and a half hours to get to the reservoir with all the interruptions.

Grassy Lake Reservoir

From Grassy Lake Reservoir we had to hike to our first campsite.  Going in seemed a lot longer than getting out.  Part of the reason was because our bags were a bit heavier than they were coming out.  But as well, by the time we were ready to come back home, we were a little more fit for the job.

We had to ford Falls River, and that was pretty easy.  The water was only about knee-deep and the current wasn't very swift.  The river wasn't very wide--maybe only fifty feet.  Once we got to the other side, our feet felt really good.

Trever hikes across Falls River.

Wayne on the Falls River

During our 4 1/2 hour hike to our campsite approximately 6 1/2 miles from Grassy Lake Reservoir, we saw many Boy Scouts.  They were all coming back from swimming in Scout Pool, which is only about 4/5 mile from Union Falls.  We also had to cross one more creek before we got to our campsite: Proposition Creek.  That creek was much easier since it was shallower and also had logs that went across it.  We truly were in the middle of nowhere.  There wasn't a sound anywhere around us with the exception of an occasional group of Boy Scouts or other hikers and squirrels.

We got to 9U4 at about 6:00 p.m. and immediately set up our campsite.  We were pretty tired from the long day, so we stayed there.  We did build a fire, which was a saving grace because of the number of mosquitoes.  The smoke from the fire kept them at bay.  We did have mosquito repellent, but they still bothered us by flying around us all the time without the campfire.  We made dinner for ourselves and then went to bed around 10:00 p.m. after talking for a few hours.

 

After breakfast Trever and I cleaned up camp a bit.  In case the people who had reservations for 9U4 showed up that night we wanted to be able to quickly pick up camp and move it.  Reserving a campsite in Yellowstone in the back country only costs $20 up front, but if someone wants to cancel it, they don't get their money back.  Since there is no incentive for people to actually cancel, we figured we'd wait and see if the people who reserved actually came before moving our stuff to 9U5.

Trever and I then hiked to Union Falls, a 250-foot fan plunge waterfall.  The hike was uphill, but was fairly easy and only about 1 1/2 miles from 9U4.  It's a pretty impressive site and the main trail ends at a great vantage point.

Wayne at Union Falls

Trever at Union Falls

We decided that we wanted to go down a steep trail that went to the base of Union Falls.  Although Trever had a little bit of difficult, he was able to conquer his fear.  The base was just as beautiful as the vantage point, though significantly wetter.

From there we hiked off-trail up one of the tributaries of Mountain Ash Creek.  We started on the west side of the creek but discovered that it was very marshy.  We saw Early Morning Falls and an unnamed falls.

Early Morning Falls

Unnamed waterfall on Mountain Ash Creek tributary

Since it was so marshy on the west side of the creek, we opted to cross the tributary at the unnamed falls to the east side, where it appeared to be dryer.  We were correct and found hiking on that side of the creek much easier.

Eventually we saw Morning Falls, an impressive 60-foot waterfall with a width of 100 feet.  To the east of Morning Falls we could see Riverwalk Falls on yet another tributary of the creek.

Morning Falls

We opted not to get closer to Riverwalk Falls, though.  Instead we wanted to see the Dawn Cascades.  We rested at the base of the first of the four cascades for about an hour and then walked back to camp.  On the way back, we hiked on the east side of the creek way above it so that we stayed out of anything marshy.  From up there, we had a great view of the mountain on the other side of the creek.  The area was well forested.

Once we got back to camp, we saw that the people who originally made reservations for 9U4 were already there, so we quickly packed up camp and moved to 9U5.  The other campers didn't seem to know what to make of us and didn't say a lot.  Their leader seemed to know the area though and may have been local.  Everyone was understanding and agreeable, so there weren't any misunderstandings.

We did make some discoveries, as you will realize in this next video:

The hike back was easier than the hike in.  The toughest spot was between Proposition Creek and a resting area about half a mile above the crossing.  It was a steep incline up some sort of terrace.  I wish I knew more about geology to describe it better!  We took our time a little more than we did on the way in as well.  We starting hiking about 11:00 a.m. and got back to the Gardiner about 7:30 p.m.  In all, we hiked about 20-25 miles.  For 13 of those miles, we wore heavy backpacks.  We avoided the construction between Norris and Madison by driving on the east side of the Park.

When we got back, Trever had to go to work for a couple hours, but I had to go to work at 10:00 p.m. for eight hours.  When I got off work, I had been awake for about 22 hours.  I had a pretty long day.  Saturday, I did absolutely nothing.

Anyway, Trever and I had a great time and we both considered this a trip of a lifetime.  Trever did well as a greenhorn and he came back from it a better man.  Trever's excited and wants to go on more difficult hiking trips.