Fun With Friends: Mystic Falls and Grand Teton N.P.

The week before our friends Jim and Judy were due to arrive on their summer road trip from North Carolina, we decided to meet Dan and Jonell up in Yellowstone National Park and do a hike we've been wanting to do to Mystic Falls. It's in my "Best Easy Day Hikes in Yellowstone" guide, and the falls sounded really nice. Remember the "easy" part in the title :-).

It turned out to be a gorgeous day, so we headed out from the ranch early in the morning. We wanted to be at the trail head by 9 AM as it is so busy in the park that if you arrive too late it can be difficult to get a parking space. We were pretty close, and pulled in at the exact same time as Dan and Jonell. Great timing!

The trail head is in an area called Biscuit Basin, another geyser and thermal feature area in the park. Biscuit Basin was named for a former feature found here, geyserite knobs that resembled biscuits that used to surround some of the features here, predominately Sapphire Pool.

Crystal clear Sapphire Pool used to have strings of bubbles coming to the surface, that would occasionally reach a rolling boil engulfing the entire spring. In 1959, the Lake Hebgen earthquake occurred to the northwest, and Sapphire Pool began erupting 125 feet in the air. These violent eruptions increased the size of Sapphire's crater, destroying the unique "biscuits" and changed its shape from circular to oval. After 1964 the eruptions dwindled, and ceased any significant activity.

Mustard Geyser is actually two small geysers connected underground that merge and spouts through one crater.

Avoca Spring is a grotto-like cone that was an active boiling spring until 1959 when it developed into an erratic geyser.

Silver Globe Geyser is next to Avoca and is actually connected to it.

 From here we veered off the boardwalk circling the basin and headed out on the trail to Mystic Falls.The trail is 3.5 miles round-trip from this point, and is quite steep in a few areas.

The trail started out innocently enough, following the Little Firehole River for awhile.

The forest area opened up as we got closer to the falls...

and we saw a lot of wildflowers, especially these sunny yellow ones.

A turn in the trail brought us to our first sight of these beautiful, 70 foot high falls.

We then started switch-backing up the mountain to higher vantage points.

Looking back as we climbed, we could see how high we were getting. The river we were walking alongside is in the lower right of the picture.

Now much higher than the brink of the falls, we could see the cascades leading to it. And we still had higher to climb before getting to the Biscuit Basin overlook!

Finally arriving at the overlook, we took in the view of where we had started out, far below!

After a brief rest, it was time to tackle to steep switchbacks heading back down. As much uphill as we had on the way up from the direction we came, I sure was glad we hadn't decided to take this route up to the overlook!

Back at Biscuit Basin, we checked out some cool, bright yellow thermal bacterial mats...

and some dead trees beside the blue pools, and then headed off to the Old Faithful Visitor Center for some lunch.

We decided to have a nice lunch in the restaurant of Old Faithful Inn rather than the cafeteria this time. 

After lunch we tagged along the free tour of this historic Inn.

The tour took us down and showed us one of the rooms available for guests.

Its pretty small, just a double bed with a dresser...

and a sink to wash up in. There is a shared bathroom for several rooms in the hallway...no private baths!

The staircase went up to an area called the Crow's Nest, but the same 1959 Lake Hebgen earthquake caused enough structural damage to render the staircase unusable.

I liked the "candles" used for lighting at the Inn; all electric, no open-flame candles allowed.

After a stop for some huckleberry ice cream, it was time to say farewell to Dan and Jonell and head back home to the Tetons. We do expect to visit with them one more time before we head off to Amazon for the fall, we would like to visit and see West Yellowstone.

This past week was very busy for us. We had visitors from back east, our good friends Jim Walker and Judy Edwards. We've known them for a long time, back in New York, and now get together when we are traveling in the same areas. They decided to take a road trip out west this summer, and we were quite pleased to be able to give them the whirlwind tour of our summer playground.

Judy and another friend from Bridgehampton, Clay Dilworth, posed for a picture at Oxbow Bend with Judy's cute little dog Shadow.

We also went for a drive to Two Ocean Lake.

A stop at Jackson Lake for a view of the Teton Range across the willow flats.

String Lake....

and Jenny Lake, with Cascade Canyon in the distance.

The best part of the drive occurred going up Signal Mountain, with a big black bear teasing us as he poked through the bushes alongside the road...

and finally came in sight for a great photo op!

We planned several activities together for the week, with a trip to Jackson for sightseeing and dinner one night, and Al took them all four-wheel driving on River Road one night while I was working. They took a great float trip on the Snake River one evening, seeing elk, moose, eagles, beavers and river otters. All too soon, the week was up and we bid them a fond farewell as they headed north to stay at West Yellowstone for another week. 

We also have family arriving for a visit starting tomorrow! Al's sisters Ginny and Susie and our best friend Patti arrive tomorrow night for a ten night stay here with us. So we will be reprising our roles as tour guides, with driving tours, a float trip, a rodeo, and a dinner cruise on Jackson Lake among the highlights for the next ten days. Pictures and news will arrive as I find time between guiding and working :-).

More Touring, Biking and Deer

Another work week passed, busy as usual. Overall, we have have really nice guests, but as anyone who has worked in the retail, service, or hospitality industries knows, there are always those few. I really try not to let the grumpy ones get to me, even though it is hard. One thing working in these positions has taught me, though, is to take all reviews I read with a healthy grain of salt. I rely heavily on two different forums for reviews while traveling, rvparkreviews.com and tripadvisor.com. I like to know what folks are saying about the areas I am traveling to, and the things to do as well as places to eat ;-). Here at Luton's we are very proud of our five star rating, and work very hard to maintain that rating. It can be very aggravating to receive a less than stellar review, especially when the complaints are either not valid or arise from someone who is disgruntled about one thing or another. A valid concern is always addressed immediately upon our being made aware of the problem. When we get complaints about things like how much road work is in the area, or that the wildlife is hard to find, I just shake my head...what can you say?? In the meantime, we are very proud to be working at such a wonderful establishment, and take comfort in the fact that we do our best every day to ensure a satisfactory guest experience for all of our guests. So when I read reviews of campgrounds, restaurants or activities in a spot we are traveling to, I really try to look at the overall feeling of the reviews, and if there's only a small percentage of not-so-good reviews amidst plenty of good ones, I have to figure that as an outlier! 

Enough about work! Dan and Jonell joined us again here in the Tetons for a day of exploring the park. Arriving early in the morning, we met them in the park and we proceeded to take a leisurely driving tour. Our first destination was Signal Mountain, a five mile drive to the top of, you guessed it, Signal Mountain.

Folks unable to do a strenuous hike up a mountain find beautiful views from atop the summit. The view to the west shows the Teton Range across Jackson Lake. The name is derived from the search from a missing business man in the area in 1890, Robert Ray Hamilton, who ran a lodge nearby with his business partner, John Dudley Sargent. Search parties were organized and instructions given to light a signal fire atop the mountain when he was found. he was found a week later, his body floating in the Snake River. Although never convicted, it was suspected that his partner had murdered him. So even though there is a cell tower located at the summit, that is not the reason for the name Signal Mountain!

We stopped at several overlooks on the scenic Teton Park Road, which follows the base of the Teton range from Jackson Junction all the way to Moose, 21 miles away. Just before the Moose Junction, we turned off onto a side road called the Moose-Wilson Road, heading for the LSR Preserve to do a short hike. Along the way, we spotted this female moose in one of the many ponds alongside the road. You can't see it in this picture, but she was protecting her baby in front of her. There wasn't any place to pull over to get a better picture, and there was a lot of cars, so we couldn't just stop in the road. 

Upon our arrival at the LSR Preserve, we found a line of cars waiting to get into the parking area. Not good! There was a ranger handing out information, and said there was a wait of 8 vehicles in front of us for a parking space, and it could be quite awhile. We decided not to wait, and headed back out, thinking we would try the trail head at Death Canyon....yes, I know, a horrible name but a beautiful trail :-). That parking area was also jam-packed with cars, so we did the next best thing to going for a hike; we went to lunch! Dan has been wanting to go to the Pizza and Pasta restaurant at Dornan's, a popular area in Moose. After ordering our lunch, we headed up to the outdoor patio on the upper level to wait for our food. I have to say, lunch was very good. Al and I split a baked brie with raspberry jalapeno compote, then I had an individual pizza while Al had a meatball sub. It was so good, I could eat that brie dish every day!! The view was quite nice as well, don't you think?

After dawdling over lunch and drinks for awhile, we drove to one more scenic spot before Dan and Jonell headed home; Schwabacher's Landing.

There's a short walk along the shore of the Snake River, with multiple spots for fantastic views of the Teton Range.

Its also a great spot for wildlife spotting, although the only thing we spotted that afternoon was a beaver!

Schwabacher's Landing is one of my favorite sights.No matter what season, it is beautiful.

That pretty much rounded out our day, and we said our fond farewells to Dan and Jonell. No worries, though, they will be making an appearance again in my next blog :-).

The next day was promising to be a rainy afternoon, so we loaded up our bicycles and headed out in the morning to the bicycle path that runs along a section of the Teton Park Road. Its the first time we've taken out the bicycles since we left Florida! We figured we really did need to do some riding, to justify bringing them along with us ;-). 

there is definitely some nice views to look at as we biked along.

The trail does run right alongside the road.

After about 2 1/2 miles of mostly uphill pedaling, against the rather strong wind that was blowing, I was ready to turn around....no sense overdoing it!

We crossed over Cottonwood Creek...

where I found a nice picture of some of the many wildflowers blooming alongside the trail. We rode a total of 5 miles, and we have vowed to ride more often and get the mileage up higher before we leave for the season.

One night we went out to eat for dinner with our friends Larry and Elaine. There's a small place close to the ranch called the Buffalo Valley Cafe at the Heart Six Ranch. The menu, and the restaurant, is small, but it's really good. After eating, we went for a wildlife spotting expedition, riding up Buffalo Valley Road into the Bridger-Teton National Forest. No bears, but we did spot this young mule deer sporting his new set of antlers. 

It was a great night for a drive.

That's about it for this entry. We are fully booked now here at the ranch, and I am fielding several calls a day looking for a place to stay. It is very busy in the Parks, and not really too advisable to come without a reservation to stay, but plenty of people are doing just that. It is really nice to see the interest in visiting these beautiful parks. Visitor count to Yellowstone National Park through June 1 was up 24% from last year.  It does make it harder to get around, but hopefully visitors realize what a treasure these parks are and more people will see the need for preserving our lands. 

Our next adventure will be a beautiful hike to waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park. We also have our friends Jim and Judy arriving next Sunday for a week, then some of our family is coming for a visit as well. We are surely in tour guide mode now! 

Tour Guiding and Hiking

It's been another busy couple of weeks at work, and on the weekends as well. Our friends Dan and Jonell came down one Sunday from West Yellowstone, and Steve and Joan and Dave and Maxine  came west from Lander where they are working for a few weeks.

We met for lunch at Signal Mountain Lodge. We had a great time catching up with what everyone is doing for the summer. After we finished lunch, we took a drive through the Park, but not on your normal roads. We decided to go down the RKO Road, a dirt/gravel road that runs  35 miles mostly parallel to the Snake River, but high on a ridge above the river.

We had some beautiful views from atop the ridge. Joan said she would love to just bring a comfortable chair up here and hang out for hours :-).

We did see some wildlife along the way, mostly pronghorn with some young'uns. After our drive we headed back to the ranch and had a bit of a visit with Steve and Teresa (who worked with Steve and Joan at Chalk Creek) before everyone headed back to their respective areas. We had a wonderful time spending the day with everyone!

The next day we had a bit more vigorous activity planned. It was a sunny, cool morning, so we packed up our hiking gear and headed off to String Lake to hike into Paintbrush Canyon. The trail actually goes high into to the canyon to Lake Solitude, over 10 miles. Many people make it a two day hike, going up to Lake Solitude, then descending through Cascade Canyon back to String Lake. I am not that ambitious :-). We just go as far as we want to, then return via the same trail.

We arrived at the String Lake trail head around 9:30 in the morning. Even that is fairly late for this time of year, but luckily we were able to find a parking space easily. Its been so busy in the park this summer that if you don't stake out your parking space early, you lose!

The first 1/2 mile of the trail is flat, following the shoreline of String Lake. This is one of my favorite areas of the park, it's so pretty and scenic. Last year we had our kayaking adventure starting on String Lake, and you can read about that here. At the end of String Lake is a bridge we crossed to get to the other side, and from there it was all uphill!

The first of three marmots that were checking us out as we hiked.

Most of the hike was shaded by these beautiful trees, which really helped keep us cool.

There were some open areas, where we were tantalized with glimpses of the mountain peaks we were headed towards.

Not forgetting to look behind us, Leigh Lake in the distance. Yes, we've climbed pretty high up at this point, but still more to go!

We kept going, hoping the trail would head into a more open area of the canyon.

The mountains seemed to be getting closer, and we could finally start to hear the sound of rushing water. We knew from the trail map that the trail eventually reached a river.

Darn! The trail twisted back into the forest again. It was starting to remind us of a queue at Disney; just when you think you're getting close, the line turns and you see how much longer it really is!

We were especially cautious through this area, as I thought these might be huckleberry bushes....a favorite food of bears!

The sound of water got louder again, and I had stopped to take some pictures so Al got a little ahead of me, and rounded a bend out of sight. As I started to catch up, all of a sudden a fat little marmot came tearing around the bend in the trail, moving as fast as his little legs could carry him towards me! He suddenly saw me, stopped with a loud squeak, then turned around. I think he realized that Al was up ahead though, and then he darted off the side up onto the rocks.

He then proceeded to inspect me very thoroughly!

I guess I passed inspection, as he allowed me to pass by him on the trail without running away. He was very cute :-).

We finally had reached the river! 

We went a little further up, until we reached the four mile mark. We figured that was far enough, giving us an eight mile hike. We had ascended a little over 1000 feet by this time. 

This was the view from one of the back country campsites that hikers can stop at. I don't think we're getting our trailer up here :-)!

One of my objectives for the day was finding the wildflowers blooming. There were definitely a lot of them! The canyon's namesake, the Indian paintbrush, is the red flower on the left.

We made it back down to String Lake as the afternoon clouds were rolling in. Lately we have been having late afternoon thunderstorms, sometimes quite strong, so it is always best to be off the mountains by mid-afternoon. In fact, July 9th we had an extremely severe thunderstorm, so close that several bolts of lightning landed here right on the ranch. By the end of the storm, the ranch had lost our internet, our phone lines, our time clock, and all the breakers in the maintenance garage had flipped off. In our RV's, we lost the phone connections to the office that are in ours and Elaine's RVs, Elaine and Larry lost their air conditioners and water heater, Gail lost her converter and electric fireplace, and we lost our Wifi Ranger booster and the bedroom TV. I will never underestimate a lightning storm! The storm wasn't even upon us yet, and I had been walking back to our trailer at the end of our shift when a bolt struck in the meadow off to my left. I actually felt my hair starting to stand up. I dashed for the trailer in no uncertain hurry after that! It took a few days and a lot of work by Brad, but we did get our equipment replaced and the internet and phones working again. 

I guess that's enough for this installment. I will start working on the next, which will include another visit to the Tetons by Dan and Jonell, among other fun stuff! 

A parting view of Mount Moran across String Lake.