Another Snowy Weekend and Delta h Day

On Friday night after we all got done for the day, the nearly the entire YCC staff, including our co-directors (minus the YCC advisor), went to Chico’s Hot Spring place near Pray, Montana. I was hesitant to go, but it was the last weekend that we would all get to spend together because after this our schedules will shift by job. Basically, it was a giant pool that is filled by a hot spring. The smaller, warmer pool is about 106 degrees and the larger pool is about 100 degrees. No lifeguard on duty, alcohol everywhere, super lax rules—you get the picture. The water did feel amazing; however, me being me—I didn’t have a fantastic time because I suck at shutting off lifeguard mode so I was hypervigilant and it was terrible. So many people doing so many dumb things. The ice cream was really good. :) They did have a hilarious sign that made me laugh super hard, so then I sent it to all my lifeguard friends who also loved it.

Then Saturday morning I went and hiked from the Mallard Creek trailhead to Mallard Lake to the Mallard Lake trailhead to Old Faithful, past the Upper Geyser Basin, and back to the Mallard Creek trailhead where I was parked. (It actually wasn’t very far—only 12.8ish miles.)

However, once you get a little ways in on the trail to Mallard Lake, you hit an immense amount of snowfall—which doesn’t go away until about 1.5 miles before you get to the Old Faithful area. I’d say 60-70% of the trail was covered in snow, which makes for a really long hike full of trailfinding and snowy shoes. There were a couple times when I was waist-deep in snow after hitting some soft spots. I only rolled my ankle once and fell twice, so not terrible all things considered. There was one hill that I really wanted to sled down, but instead I just kind of stepped super cautiously and slid. Bummers.

Mallard Lake honestly wasn’t that special; I did see mallard ducks. Cool.

Even though I got to the Old Faithful area about an hour after I planned to—due to all the stupid snow—I got there about 20 minutes before the next eruption, so I really couldn’t have timed it better. I played tourist and went to a ranger talk (Ranger Meiko) and read all the stuff in the visitor center, diligently taking notes to help me absorb as much information as possible in case any of the enrollees ask me any questions. (If you want any fun facts, just ask. :D )

I headed back through the Upper Geyser Basin, stopping at some of the geysers/pools along the way. I saw Grotto Geyser erupt. It said it erupts anywhere from 50 minutes at a time to more than 24 hours at a time. The trail back to Mallard Creek trailhead was called Powerline Trail.

Artemesia Geyser

Grotto Geyser

Morning Glory Pool

Now, I want you to envision something for me. Picture a giant grove of trees of varying sizes and shapes, mostly logpole pines. Now imagine there’s a tiny winding dirt path through there. Now cover it with snow of varying depths—anywhere from kinda melty/muddy to well over your head. ß That was the trail in the morning.

Now, envision the same grove of logpole pines. Take three bulldozers and line them up side-by-side. Have them clear a path. Then, put up poles for power lines and put a dirt path directly under them. ß That was the trail in the afternoon.

SO DIFFERENT!

I hopped back in my car and stopped at the Museum of the National Park Ranger in the Norris area on my way back. The museum is staffed by retired rangers for the summer who come a few weeks at a time to volunteer. I thought it was actually a neat little museum! I also thought it was really cool because in one of the exhibits, it had a picture of Herbert Hoover National Historic Site of his childhood home and garden. That’s what I worked on during my internship! Wooo…so many connections everywhere.

Also, I came back from hiking with puzzle brain and completely knocked out the rest of the puzzle that had been giving us crap for the past few days in like half an hour. ;)

Reasons I Hate Driving in Yellowstone

1)   Tourons

2)   Animals

3)   The landscape itself

Sunday—Canyon Village/Tower area day—aka Delta h Day :)

Why D, you might ask? Well that would be because I did so many stairs today my friend. So, so very many stairs…

So I started off at the Canyon Village Visitor Center, absorbing knowledge and writing down information in my little ranger notepad. Then I talked to the interp ranger at the front desk to ask about all the trail closures (of which there are currently a ton in the Canyon area). So once I got that all straightened out, I revised my hiking plan—which really just amounted to skimming it down quite a bit and also having to drive more and hike less. Shucks.

I started at the beginning (west side) of North Rim Drive and hiked down to Lower Falls, which was only 3/8 of a mile. The switchbacks were decently steep though and there were lots of people struggling. It took me 6 minutes to get down, and then 8 minutes to later get back up. Pretty much the theme of the day.

From Lower Falls overlook

Lower Falls is the tallest waterfall in Yellowstone at 308 feet. Upper Falls is only 109 feet. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River is roughly 24 miles long. It varies between 800’ and 1200’ deep. Thermal activity and iron deposits are primarily responsible for the variations in color.

I took the North Rim trail as far east as I could before it was closed around Inspiration Point, so I got to the Grand View. Having nothing better to do, I stopped at all the overlooks and did all the trails on the way there, including Red Rocks. For some reason, my brain always tells me to run down the stairs, which is fine—not challenging, but then it also thinks it’s a good idea to run up all the stairs…challenging. Very challenging. Some days I don’t know what to do with myself. Great workout though.

Lower Falls from Lookout Point

From Red Rocks

presumably some of the red rocks which gave Red Rocks its name

After I finished everything that could currently be done on the North Rim, I headed to the Brink of Upper Falls area, which is a miniature trail that leads to the top of Upper Falls. Again, lots of stairs, but super short and super easy. I ate my classic lunch of pb&j and an apple on the rocks there, and I had more than one person tell me I was so smart for doing that. *eyeroll*. People are silly. I’m not going to eat in my car or something when there’s a waterfall right there and perfect-looking rocks.

Brink of Upper Falls

Next up was South Rim trail, including the famous Uncle Tom’s trail. Now, Uncle Tom’s trail is rumored to be closed, but in fact only the parking lot area and trail down from there is closed. If you park at Artist’s Point, you can take the South Rim trail over to the Uncle Tom’s trail and go from there. I would highly recommend it. It is an absolute TON of stairs, but the view is just so pretty. You basically have to do it if you’re able. (Okay, you don’t, but you’d be missing out.) For the record, I didn’t run up all 328 steps and the trail back up. That would’ve been dumb.

 (If I was Julie Andrews and had to sing about my favorite things, rainbows at the bottoms of waterfalls would 100% be one of the things.)

From the bottom of Uncle Tom's Trail

View from Artist's Point

View from Artist's Point

Speaking of dumb, if you ever want to frustrate/annoy me while hiking, here are some of my hiking pet peeves that I encountered today—all way too close together!!!

1) People using trekking poles on concrete. What’s the point? What are you doing? (People using trekking poles on metal grated stairs falls under this category as well. There is literally no point.)

2) People hiking side-by-side on narrow trails. Get out of my way.

3) Oblivious people. They swerve back and forth across the trail—they have no idea you’re there and want to go around their slowpoke-ness. They stop and tie their shoe and manage to block the entire trail. Again, get out of my way.

4) People at a lookout that stand and talk to their friends/family with their backs turned to whatever they’re supposed to be looking at and hog the crowded area, not moving so other people can see or take pictures. Again, GET OUT OF MY WAY.

5) People that hike in high-heeled boots, flip flops, or other inappropriate footwear. What are you even doing?

6) People that litter. Stop. Just stop.

7) People that pass the three posted signs that either say “no pets” or have that picture of a dog with a line through it—with their dog. Again, what are you doing? There are reasons pet access is limited in certain areas. Follow the dang rules.

8) People that drive five steps from overlook to overlook when it would’ve taken them two minutes to walk. You’re being really inefficient.

9) There’s more, but I’ll stop now.

Stupid tourons.

Well anyways, I still had time to kill, so I went back to Mammoth via the Tower area. I stopped at Tower Falls, which is 132 feet tall—so just taller than Upper Falls, which is 109 feet tall. I also got Buffalo Chip ice cream while I was there, because I went through all the stores in Canyon Village and behaved myself and convinced myself I didn’t need ice cream. Well, by the time I got to Tower, my blood sugar—in addition to my touron frustration—needed ice cream.

View from random overlook on the road between Canyon and Tower

Tower Falls

 

I saw two bears just west of Tower Falls. I only saw them because I turned the corner and about slammed into the pick-up truck that had decided to slam on its breaks and come to a complete stop in the middle of the road. Caused a nice animal jam as we looked at the mama bear and her cub. Still no picture, sorry I was driving. :P I went through at least four more animal jams on my way from Tower to Mammoth—one more bear a long ways away, elk, bison, you name it—people will stop their cars in the middle of the road to take a picture of it. Again, get out of my way.

I found out that ACMNP (A Christian Ministry in the National Parks) is here in Mammoth this summer, so I’m pretty excited about that. They have service four times on Sundays, but given my schedule as a rec ranger, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to any of them except tonight’s. A real bummer… :( I didn’t miss a single week last year in Yosemite because I could go every Sunday at 0900 before work started at 1000. Darn kids and their rec trips. ;)

Today was a day of short-distance hiking, but definitely a day of elevation change as I went down into the canyon and back up multiple times. It was also a day that tested my patience, which I shall continue to work on. It is a fruit of the spirit after all.

Until next time my friends.

Update: Alicia said that in the past sometimes one of the rec rangers will take a group of students to the 1900 worship service if they’re not on KP. (I don’t get off work until 2300.)