More Hiking and a Little Excitement

Over the past two weeks, I've hiked to several places I hadn't been to before in Yellowstone.  On June 23, I hiked to Lost Lake and Lost Creek Falls.  Next, on June 29, Greg and I hiked to Petrified Forest and Cascade Lake.  Then yesterday, Greg and I hiked to Monument Geyser Basin and Harlequin Lake.

Lost Lake and Lost Creek Falls

I had to do some work on Sunday, so after I was finished, I wanted to get out and do something.  Even though there was no one else to go with me, I decided to hike to the Lost Lake area.  It's not too far from Petrified Tree, so that's where I decided to start, though there are a couple other starting locations since the trails in that area go all over.

When I got to Petrified Tree, there were many people there viewing four black bears that were wandering around.  There was a sow with two cubs, and then another adult.  Even though I thought I could safely walk the main trail to the lake and avoid the bears, I decided for the people's sakes not to do it.  Considering that these particular bears are habituated to people, I didn't think that they'd bother me so long as I didn't bother them.  I figured the people would be upset or something if I tried to walk on the trail in the direction of the bears.

Like I mentioned earlier, there are numerous trails in the area, so I took the trail that goes up the hill, and then cut across the hill so that I was immediately upon the lake.  It was such a beautiful evening without any wind.  The lake was picturesque.

Lost Lake

From there I hiked to Lost Creek Falls, which isn't far from there.  I had to walk on the outskirts of a small ravine until I got to a beautiful vantage point of the falls, which is just behind the Roosevelt Lodge.  I had to wonder if President Theodore Roosevelt rode his horse to this same waterfall when he was camping in the area in April 1903 (when there's lot's of snow on the ground).  The falls itself is a 40-foot plunge among a basalt cliff.

Lost Creek Falls

Because of where I decided to park, I chose to hike down to the Roosevelt area and then hike along the road back to my car at Petrified Tree.  That evening, I hiked around 5.4 miles.  I suppose if I had parked my car at the campground at Roosevelt, I might have been able to shave between half a mile and a mile off of my walk, but that's hindsight for you.

Petrified Forest and Cascade Lake

Greg and I decided to hike together a week ago Saturday.  He especially wanted to go somewhere in the Lamar Valley area, but really had his eye on the Petrified Forest.  Obviously, that's where we ended up, but I kind of prepared myself for several locations along the Northeast Entrance Road.

The kicker about the Petrified Forest Trail is that as far as I can tell, it's not even an official trail in Yellowstone National Park.  If you were to pick up a trail map for the park, the trailhead and the trail are not listed at all.  In order to find out about this trail, I had to look at one of my trail books.  It is funny that despite the fact that Yellowstone generally discourages the use of unofficial trails because it's inconsistent with Leave No Trace, there was a marker at the parking area that read "Trailhead."  The parking area is in the Little America area, a local title to the west end of the Lamar Valley.

From there, Greg and I hiked up toward Specimen Ridge.  It's a fairly steep climb, and it can get quite hot if anyone tries to hike this trail in the heat of the day.  Fortunately there are a couple places where there is shade from a few trees to take a rest.

I can attest that the title of this area doesn't disappoint the hiker.  Petrified trees are strewn throughout the hillside, especially in the steepest parts.  As well, I enjoyed seeing some bitterroot blooming on these same hillsides.  The view from even halfway up to the ridge is incredible, and we could even see Electric Peak (some 26 miles away as the crow flies).

Bitterroot is the state flower of Montana.

I'm standing next to a giant sequoia petrified tree.

We didn't go all the way up to the Specimen Ridge Trail, but we headed back to the car to cool down and drive to a place to get some lunch.  Greg and I decided to eat at the picnic area just north of the Cascade Lake Picnic Area and Trail.  Afterwards, we went to the Cascade Lake Picnic Area and hiked on the trail to the lake.  The trail goes through some beautiful meadows until it comes to this marshy lake.  We could easily see that the lake had fish in it.

Cascade Lake

I am always puzzled why some people choose to fish in a lake with a barbless hook, only to catch the single kind of fish that they cannot keep.  The lake almost certainly primarily holds cutthroat, a prized and protected trout.  What's the point of fishing in this lake, I wonder?  Greg and I watched a man fishing at the lake with his family nearby.  We just had to wonder what the whole point to the endeavor was.

That day, we hiked 3 miles on the Petrified Forest Trail, and then hiked 4.3 miles along the Cascade Lake Trail.  We didn't do too badly!

Monument Geyser Basin and Harlequin Lake

Yesterday Greg and I had an easier day as we hiked, mostly because of the weather.  First we went to Monument Geyser Basin.  The trail is about 3.1 miles long and starts on the west side of the road just past Artist Paint Pots as one drives south.  For a short time, it followed the beautiful Gibbon River and then sharply went up a hillside.  Through the trees we were able to see Gibbon Meadow, a calming, beautiful view.  Once at the top of the hill, Greg and I had lunch just outside the geyser basin.  We sat under a tree near a cliff looking south at the canyon.  From there, we walked a short distance to the basin.

Gibbon Meadow

I did a little research on this basin before I went on the trail.  Since I'm also now a hiking tour guide, I might as well learn everything I can about the new places I visit.  The monuments in that basin have apparently been created at the end of the Pinedale Ice Age when glaciers formed a dammed lake here.  Underwater, the thermal features made these strange spires, similarly to the ones in Yellowstone Lake.  Today, these spires still vent steam as fumaroles, the hottest kind of thermal feature, but there are some hot springs and mud pots in the area too.

Some of the "monuments" at Monument Geyser Basin

When we got back to the car, Greg and I debated swimming at the swimming hole in Firehole River, but we chose to go to Harlequin Lake first.  It's not a very long hike, only about 0.9 miles long.  The trail starts just 1.6 miles west of the Madison Junction and goes through a lodgepole pine tree forest that regrew from the 1988 fires.

The sky was starting to get dark and we were wondering if we would come under rain.  Well, we got to the lake just as it got started to lightly rain, but we immediately headed back since it started hailing, and we saw lightning.  Greg didn't bring any rain gear, so he ran ahead of me.  I patiently walked through the forest during this lightning storm.  I've camped outside in the lightning, and I'm not unfamiliar with its dangers, but I still wanted to get to the truck soon.  Just before I got to the clearing at the beginning of the trail near the parking lot, I could see in the reflection of my glasses and on the brim of my hat bright light from lightning behind me.  Not a second later, a thunderous "BOOM" exploded behind me.  That was a bit close and powerful for my taste.

Greg was already in the car, and when he saw the lightning hit so close to where we were hiking, he was cursing and thinking about the worst possible scenario.  But just as he was thinking those things, I appeared in the clearing donning my red and gray rain gear.  Although he was freaking out a bit (justifiably) because of me being out in the lightning, I still felt pretty calm despite that close call.  In any case, we were both safe and he was mostly dry.  We obviously scrubbed our plans to swim, and just headed back to Gardiner, where the rain was much lighter.  On the way home, we talked about some of our other experiences with lightning in the past.  What a day!