HomerJ
Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2012
- Messages
- 1,199
9-23-2010 to 9-27-2010
Some friends and I decided to do a late season backpacking trip into Yellowstone as we were having such great weather for this time of year. We had decided on a short hike (our camp was less than 4 miles from the trail head) in into the upper Firehole River area. This was the area we were suppose to go to during the 2nd half of our trip in July, but we ended up ditching that idea and heading out early because of the horrible mosquitoes.
9-23 - We drove up and "car camped" at Grants Village so we could pick up our back country permits. The campground was less than 1/2 full which was a nice change from when we were here last in July. One of the guys with us had never been to Yellowstone so we drove up to Canyon that evening so he could see Hayden Valley and "The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone".
9-24 to 9-27 - The next morning we hit the trail. The trail was really easy hiking, most of it (about 2.5 miles) was on an old road that you use to be able to drive on to get to the Lonestar Geyser.
The weather ended up being very nice and warm. It was almost hot at times! The nights were cool, but it mostly stayed above freezing. I think it only got down to freezing one night. I stayed really warm in my zero degree bag.
The only bad part of the trip was that the fishing was really slow and the fish were small. Most being 6" or smaller, although we did see a couple around 10". We didn't catch any worth cooking so we didn't get to eat fresh trout this trip.
The highlight of the trip was the Shoshone Geyser Basin (about 6 mile hike from camp). The trail is very easy with only a moderate pitch. We had hiked to the geyser basin back in July when we camped on Shoshone Lake and had found a nice hot tubing pool where the hot water ran into Shoshone Creek! So this trip we packed in our swimming trunks! The water was wonderful after being in the back country for a few days! I think cross country skiing into the Shoshone geyser basin in the winter would be awesome!!
On our last evening just as it was getting dark a HUGE bull bison wondered into our camp!! We were sitting around the fire talking and all of a sudden we saw this bison about 30 yards away! He didn't care one bit about us. He just wondered over to an area void of vegetation, pawed at the ground to break up the dirt, and then rolled around in it covering himself with dirt. After about 7-8 minutes he wondered off. We were kind of glad to see him leave as we didn't want him rubbing up against our tents and destroying them! I would have taken a picture of him, but decided flash photography could be a bad idea! LOL!
Anyway, we had lots of fun and great weather. Just wished the fishing would have been better. Here's some pics from the trip.
Hiking along an old paved road
Bridge over the Firehole River
Shoshone geyser basin
Firehole River
Lonestar Geyser
Firehole River - Meadow
Firehole River - Meadow
Shoshone geyser basin - Shoshone Creek
Soaking in Shoshone Creek!!!
Shoshone geyser basin
Buffalo at Lonestar Geyser - we wondering if this was the guy who wandered into camp and rolled around in the dirt the evening before!
Mt Moran - Grand Teton Park
Some friends and I decided to do a late season backpacking trip into Yellowstone as we were having such great weather for this time of year. We had decided on a short hike (our camp was less than 4 miles from the trail head) in into the upper Firehole River area. This was the area we were suppose to go to during the 2nd half of our trip in July, but we ended up ditching that idea and heading out early because of the horrible mosquitoes.
9-23 - We drove up and "car camped" at Grants Village so we could pick up our back country permits. The campground was less than 1/2 full which was a nice change from when we were here last in July. One of the guys with us had never been to Yellowstone so we drove up to Canyon that evening so he could see Hayden Valley and "The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone".
9-24 to 9-27 - The next morning we hit the trail. The trail was really easy hiking, most of it (about 2.5 miles) was on an old road that you use to be able to drive on to get to the Lonestar Geyser.
The weather ended up being very nice and warm. It was almost hot at times! The nights were cool, but it mostly stayed above freezing. I think it only got down to freezing one night. I stayed really warm in my zero degree bag.
The only bad part of the trip was that the fishing was really slow and the fish were small. Most being 6" or smaller, although we did see a couple around 10". We didn't catch any worth cooking so we didn't get to eat fresh trout this trip.
The highlight of the trip was the Shoshone Geyser Basin (about 6 mile hike from camp). The trail is very easy with only a moderate pitch. We had hiked to the geyser basin back in July when we camped on Shoshone Lake and had found a nice hot tubing pool where the hot water ran into Shoshone Creek! So this trip we packed in our swimming trunks! The water was wonderful after being in the back country for a few days! I think cross country skiing into the Shoshone geyser basin in the winter would be awesome!!
On our last evening just as it was getting dark a HUGE bull bison wondered into our camp!! We were sitting around the fire talking and all of a sudden we saw this bison about 30 yards away! He didn't care one bit about us. He just wondered over to an area void of vegetation, pawed at the ground to break up the dirt, and then rolled around in it covering himself with dirt. After about 7-8 minutes he wondered off. We were kind of glad to see him leave as we didn't want him rubbing up against our tents and destroying them! I would have taken a picture of him, but decided flash photography could be a bad idea! LOL!
Anyway, we had lots of fun and great weather. Just wished the fishing would have been better. Here's some pics from the trip.
Hiking along an old paved road
Bridge over the Firehole River
Shoshone geyser basin
Firehole River
Lonestar Geyser
Firehole River - Meadow
Firehole River - Meadow
Shoshone geyser basin - Shoshone Creek
Soaking in Shoshone Creek!!!
Shoshone geyser basin
Buffalo at Lonestar Geyser - we wondering if this was the guy who wandered into camp and rolled around in the dirt the evening before!
Mt Moran - Grand Teton Park
