Yellowstone National Park: Mount Washburn, and then some music

The harder walk this day was scheduled to ascend Mount Washburn, altitude 10,243'. After a fair amount of discussion between Mike and Dave, they agreed that we would ascend the old road from the South, and descend the Northern spur.

The day started with the usual drive to Canyon Visitor Centre, where the groups split up. Bo dropped the harder group where the old road joined the 'Grand Loop Road'. The old road was well graded for walking, and had zigzags (that the Americans call switchbacks) so we made good progress. Rosie coped with the altitude pretty well.

As the path levelled out before  the last part of the ascent, we came across a herd of  goats on the rocks alongside the path. Lots of photos were taken. As we tried to pass them, the herd spread across the path and we had to edge past them.

The top of the mountain is crowned with a fire tower, which is home for a warden for the whole of the summer. It looked pretty cosy and had incredible wide-ranging views, but it must be hard to sleep with 360 degree windows.

There was a sign indicating the height, so we took the compulsory photos but, probably inadvisably, kept out hats on. Lunch was taken sitting on a log at the top.


The long and gentle descent passed the site of a previous fire, with a mixture of charred black and silver trees. As usual, Glynis, the 70-something  Australian, was with us on this harder walk (2,000' of ascent). Not long after a short stop to photograph yet more goats, she noticed that the bottom half of our of her hiking poles (attached to her rucksack) had dropped off. I vaguely remembered seeing something metal alongside the path, so I did the gentlemanly thing and walked back a while to fetch it for her.

The previous evening, I'd suggested to Bo that it would be nice if he brought his guitar into the hotel so he, and Rosie and I, could play some music for the rest of the group. So, when we got back to the hotel, I asked at reception whether there was somewhere we could gather for some songs. They eventually agreed that we could use one of their conference rooms. Over dinner, which was a little cold, but surprising OK otherwise, I let the rest of the group know what we had in mind.

After dinner, we collected some drinks and most of us (but not the antipodeans) gathered in the conference room. Bo kicked off with a nifty jazz-guitar version of Misty and later played Over the Rainbow and (after we'd done some country songs) sang the Merle Haggard song, Today I Started Loving You Again. As we'd crossed the Continental Divide whilst in Glacier National Park, we had to try Kate Wolf's Across the Great Divide. We usually play this in D with Steve singing lead and playing guitar, Rosie singing the harmony part and me playing bass. Rosie decided that G is a better key for her, and it went pretty well. We also did Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger (set in Montana), Looking in the Eyes of Love and (as Bo had set a jazzy tone), That Ole Devil Called Love. And Rosie sang The Kipper Family's (from Norfolk) The Unlaid Maid. It was great that Laura  joined in with the spirit and sang Flanders' and Swan's The Gasman Cometh (All makes work for a working man to do...).

And then, after another round of drink, off to finish packing because we were heading to Jackson the next day.

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The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Our programme described a walk along the North and South Rim Trails of The Grand Canyon. Dave proposed that the whole party walked along the South Trail, but that there were sections that were somewhat exposed (in the sense that there a steep drops to the side of the path). Some of felt we were getting short-changed by missing the North Rim, others were worried about the exposure. By this time, we'd been joined by a second guide, so Mike organised a shorter walk for a few people, and convinced the rest of us that the South Rim walk was a full day's worth.

Bo drove us all to Canyon Visitor Center. We took the same drive in every day, alongside a lovely river. Today, we made a short stop to photograph some elk.

After using the facilities at Canyon, we drove on, dropped off the few you'd opted for the shorter walk and parked close to the South Rim. We set off in an Easterly direction across a grassy landscape. It was already sunny and getting hot, despite only being mid-morning so we were pleased when we entered some woods.

We soon stopped to admire Clear Lake, which is fed by a hot spring. This gave Dave the opportunity to remind us that this is a bear area - and to tell us about the hiker who'd been mauled to death here in 2011 after disturbing a female grizzly and her cubs. Bears that attack humans in the park are usually 'euthanised', but this one was reprieved because the cubs had been with her at the time of the incident. However, she attacked again  later in the year, so met her maker.

Shortly after Clear Lake, we came across a series of mud pots in the heat of the sun, before re-entering woods and heading North towards the canyon. We headed further East when we reached the edge towards a viewpoint where we stopped for our lunch.

So, now we could see why this is called The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - it's very steep-sided and heads down to the fast-flowing Yellowstone River. Stunning.

We then followed the South Rim trail, which sometimes did get a little close to the edge, but not close enough to worry anyone. There were plenty of photo opportunities and different views of the gorge revealing themselves. We could soon see the Lower Falls and hear them getting loader as we got closer. Artists' Point was understandably crowded because there was car park nearby! There were queues to take photos from the best spots. We waited our turn!

We both took a large number of T-shirts on this holiday. It was entirely coincidental that both we chose to wear our Steely Dan T-shirts on the same day.

A bit further along the trail, we had the option to take the 300+ steps down Uncle Tom's Trail (and then back up again). Rosie declined the opportunity. Feeling properly recovered from my earlier impairment, I went ahead and was glad that I did. We got below the level of the top of the falls. I ascended quickly, just to show myself that I could. I was pleased to have a rest while waiting for the others.
We re-assembled and headed towards the Upper Falls. These would have been spectacular if we hadn't seen the Lower Falls earlier. 

We were hot and bothered by the time we got the car park, and the aircon in the coach was welcome. The others had been left at Canyon Visitor Center and had had the chance to look in the shops. Some had bought ice creams. This had to be done, but Rosie prefered to rest  rather than choose her own flavours. So I walked to the shop and joined the 'line'. There was great choice of flavours, so one flavour each was not going to do the trick. So I went for the 'two scoop' option. It turned out that these each 'scoop' was actually three scoops. So we each had six scoops in a tub. As Bill Bryson would say - an ice  cream the size of a baby's head. I had to dash across the car park in the afternoon heat to avoid them melting. Finishing the ice creams would clearly not going to help our appetites for dinner. But the ice creams were delicious, especially my peanut butter and chocolate flavour....

Dinner that evening was not at the Holiday Inn (hurray!), but at the Grizzly Claw Mexican restaurant. This didn't look particularly promising, but turned out to be tasty, with decent portions but no drinks licence. I'd happily have eaten there every night at Yellowstone.

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Yellowstone: Old Faithful and the classic sights

West Yellowstone is just outside the National Park, so our routine here was to pick up lunch at the decent supermarket close to the hotel, and then be driven for about an hour into the centre of the park. On our first day, it made sense that we did the big tourist thing and hit the geyser trail. We did this as a whole group, rather than splitting into 'harder' and 'easier' routes. Our guide here was Dave, who is about our age and, it became clear, knowledgeable about the park but somewhat introverted.

We parked near the Old Faithful Inn - built in 1904 and a stunning wooden construction. The Old Faithful geyser is so-named because of the predictability of its eruption schedule - between 45 and 125 minutes apart . We'd arrived in good time for the next one, so were able to sit on one of the benches and wait with the crowds. This felt similar to a show at Disneyland, without the pre-show entertainment. There were lots of children around - all very well behaved despite the longish wait.

Old Faithful obliged and was duly spectacular. We then had a brief visit to the Visitor Centre (and its loos) and re-assembled for our walk. After a short while on a boardwalk. passing a spectacular hot spring, and then ascended through woods to Observation Point, looking down on Old Faithful and the Inn. Dave had worked this well, because we were just in time for another eruption. we then descended to the boardwalks and followed Dave to a series of geysers, hot springs and mud pots. 

We took a break in some shade, and most of us ate our lunch. Rosie made a little friend here and allowed it to crawl on her hand. This was put to an end when Dave pointed out that she'd have to have a rabies shot if she were bitten.

We'd worked out Dave's approach now - after a detailed and engaging description of a feature, during which he'd answer any questions (usually including one about pine trees) and then move on to the next feature at a fast pace, with no attempt to wait for the group. I think this was in order to avoid any 'small talk'. His descriptions often included details of the different ways that people and animals had died in the park. My favourite was the one about the bison that ventured onto the thin material surrounding a hot spring and fell in. The water in these hot springs can be close to boiling point so, even though the bison got itself out, it staggered over and died nearby. This was noticed by a bear that quickly came over and claimed a ready-poached dinner. In Dave's telling, the bear stood on top of the carcass in triumph.


After a few more geological features, we rendezvoused with Bo and his coach and headed back to the hotel. The Holiday Inn had a pool, so Rosie took a swim while I explored the town a bit - looking for souvenirs or a decent bar for later use! It's small, and clearly just a tourist town. It's easy to forget this is 'The West', but there were some reminders, not least the sign on the right - in the window of a photographers.

Dinner met our expectations - it was poor and once again featured carrot cake. A few of us joined Mike on his venture out on the town in search  of a proper bar. We eventually found The Slippery Otter - a large selection of beer, sports on the TVs and a large contingent of bikers ordering pitchers. I think that counts as a real bar. Both the beers I had were good. No-one else wanted to stay for a third!