Freedom

Friday, May 18th, 2012

Today was the opening day for the Old Faithful Inn!! Luckily, I didn't have to work:) hehe. I instead got to hike two different glorious trails. In the morning, we hiked to Lone Star Geyser. It was a pretty flat, easy hike. The geyser was neat looking though and I had great company (Francis, Steele, and Emily). We then headed back to Old Faithful for lunch and decided to go to Bunsen Peak (Francis opted out of that one). Even though we were tired and the weather was crummy we still thought we should conquer the peak. We drove about an hour and a half to get to the trailhead for Bunsen. I couldn't have asked for a better hike. I like hikes that are uphill and there is a viewpoint at the top. Going up Bunsen we could see for miles across Yellowstone. We even saw some elk below us in the valley. I'm glad I was hiking with Emily and Steele because we came upon some snow that blocked the trail... so we followed someone else's tracks across and made our own trail, too. We also saw some very fresh bear tracks in the snow (Steele always brings his bear spray!). We saw a grizzly bear driving to the trailhead so hoped maybe the bear that left the tracks had already gone down the mountain. We finally reached the top though and it was absolutely worth it. No picture I took with my camera captured the amazing view. The more time I spend in Yellowstone, the more I just want to walk out into the wilderness and live.

We stopped by Mammoth for dinner and Steele surprised Emily and me with some ice cream for the drive home. I was driving Steele's truck so he could sleep a bit (he works nights) so Emily was spoon feeding me the ice cream from the back seat. It was fun and hilarious. Emily and I also discovered that we both like singing. We sang Steele to sleep and occasionally he'd join in if he woke up. We drove by a mamma grizzly and her two cubs. People were out of their cars and wayyyy too close to the wild bears... later we saw the rangers zooming with their lights on... probably to make sure the people backed away from the bears.

When we got back Steele had to work so Emily and I showered up and decided to watch a movie. We watched Snow Day and relaxed. It was a great ending to a great day:)



Saturday, May 19th, 2012

Emily, Francis, Steele, and I decided to hike Garnet Hill Loop...the first hike Steele, Emily, and I tried to do together but lost the trail because we were trying to dodge bison. Before the hike I woke up and went to shoot some hoops at the rec center. Then Nick, a guy I danced crazy with at the pub, came in and shot with me. It was great to see him! I hadn't seen him since the crazy dancing night so it was good to reconnect:)

When we finished the two hour drive to get to the Garnet Hill Loop trailhead we immediately set out on the 8 mile hike. Emily said it rather poetically when she said something like this trail was more about the journey then the goal of getting to a peak... and what a wonderful journey. The trail goes up and around Garnet Hill and never goes to the very top, but still provides amazing views. It took us 3 to 3.5 hours to finish the trail and was completely worth it. I have found that there is another way I like to run. I used to tell people the only way I like running is when I get to chase some sort of ball haha. Running in general I hate, but I love short sprints on trails. Running in the wilderness, surrounded by beauty and wild animals makes me feel free.

We saw some great views, wildlife, and bones on Garnet Hill Loop. We saw marmots and pikas... a coyote crossed our path less than 30ft away towards the end of our hike... we saw bison and their red dogs (that is the slang term for a bison calf...one was running around like crazy... I decided that one was me), and pronghorn. When we passed the bison on the trial it freaked me out because we were a safe distance away, but then they started all getting up and moving towards us at first. And a bison with their red dog are not very friendly! We stepped up our hiking though and they veered off.

On the drive up and back we saw a grizzly and black bear, another bear that was just chilling under a tree that we couldn't identify, elk, and bison. Apparently, it's mating season for bears so they should be out a lot!

In total, we hiked about 18 miles in the past two days.:)