Day 17: Geothermals and Rest

Today we spent the morning traveling around looking at the geothermal features of the. Midway geyser basin. These included Red Spouter and the famous Grand Prismatic.

Pretty hot spring

Red spouter

Flowers and geysers

In the afternoon, we went back to Old Faithful to take showers. It is amazing how much of a difference a good shower can make in your day, especially when you haven't had one for several days. We then had the remainder of the afternoon free to wander about the Old Faithful resort area. I treated myself to an ice cream and people-watched for most of the time, while my inner introvert rejoiced at the opportunity for some time alone.

Grand Prismatic

In early evening we returned to camp, where my crew cooked dinner and then we relaxed and told ghost stories around the campfire to finish off our excursion in Yellowstone.

Hot Spring Lake

Turquoise Pool

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Day 16: Crisis and Connection

Elk

Today we took a break from Yellowstone (after seeing the Canyon) and drove up into the Beartooth Mountains to look at features within the Absaroka volcanics. Some of our stops included: Tower Falls, where we looked at the layering of flows compared to the presence of glacial features, as well as the columnar jointing of the basalts; Mount Washburn, where we discussed the differences between the Yellowstone caldera and the formation of Mount Washburn as a stratovolcano; and near the summit of Mount Washburn where we observed where blocks of the original mountain formations had broken and slid down 5-30 miles along a "shelf" of limestone.

View from an overlook

During a snowball fight at an overlook by the Gardner trailhead along Beartooth Loop, one of the students got stuck up to his chest in a snowbank. After a tense 10-15 minutes the student was freed from his icy trap thanks to the coolheadedness and diligence of the professors and a group of students. Sadly while the student was saved, he lost his camera, and when we returned to search for it, it was nowhere to be found.

Beartooth Pass: Gardner Trailhead

Driving along Beartooth pass I felt an intense range of emotions. Loneliness, content, longing, familiarity, peace, and a kind of subtle elation that I can't quite explain. I have always felt the most at home in mountainous landscapes but these vast, treeless alpine meadows, exsisting as spalshes of green and yellow rolling gently among the jagged and snow-covered mountain peaks touched me somewhere deep within the core of my being. I became lost within myself, no longer aware of the cramped and crowded van that continued to jostle its passengers as we drove or the slight odor that eminated from everybody as we neared the end of our 4th day without showers. It was just my musings and this landscape, worn by multiple glacial events, wind, and water; shaped by time itself. I saw flashes of what my life would be if I lived here: the construction of a fairly large home which would function as a bed and breakfast during the summer months; the extensive greenhouse around back which would provide fresh vegetables and fruits year round; the bitterly cold days of donning a fur lined parka and taking the snowmobile down into town for supplies because the roads were impassable by car; joining a rescue party to search for a skier lost during an avalanche, and spending the evening cuddled on the couch by the fireplace, safe and warm with family and pets as the biting wind howled outside. These and so many others, both happy and sad, danced through my mind. Perhaps in a past life this was my home and part of my soul still resides in this harsh and beautiful place. I shall return here someday, though when and upon what occasion I know not, but I feel with great certainty that this will not be the last time I gaze upon this high altiude haven, so far above the timberline.

Glacial Valley

Alpine flowers

Sunset

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Day 15: Geysers, Mammoth, and Bears, Oh My!

Things can get really stessful we you don't have a way to contact the outside world. Usually I have no problem disconnecting when I don't have service, and just saying "I'll deal with it when I get home." However today I was severely stressed out because there was an occassion where it was very important that somebody in the group have cell service. As we were leaving Old Faithful, I checked my email in which a woman that had contacted me on LinkedIn about a job informed me that she needed to talk to me on the phone and have my resume before 5:30pm on Friday for me to be considered for the position. I recieved this email at 7:00pm EST on Wednesday. So needless to say, for the first part of today I was freaking out trying to see when people had service. It wasn't until 4:00pm EST that anyone in the group got service. I called the woman while we waited for our guide to show up, and I must say, all the stress and freaking out was worth it, as I landed an interview for shortly after I return home from the trip. As I have yet to hear back from any of the other jobs I applied for and the reality that I will not have a job when I get home is sinking in more and more the closer I get to the conclusion of this trip, having an interview is very exciting.

Aside from that anxiety and excitement, today was more of a driving day to look at various features within the park. We visited The Norris Geyser Basin and Mammoth Hot Springs (where there are no mammoths). And on our way back to the campsite we saw a grizzly bear cub nomming some grass on the side of the road.

Mammoth Hot Springs

North Gate of Yellowstone

Grizzly cub on the side of the road

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Day 14: Move Along, Move Along, Like You Know We Do

Sunburn has been the bane of my this trip. It seems like no matter now much I put on and how often I reapply I still end up burnt. I'm starting to think that the increased amounts of solar radation due to the thinner atmosphere, coupled with my sunscreen likely being expired is to blame. I am defintely not looking forward to how my skin is going to look when I come home and actually get to where a variety of different shirts. I will have weird farmer's tan lines, and my arms and neck will be somewhere to the tune of 5 shades darker than my legs. Some people would be excited about getting more tan, but not me. I've always loved my pale skin and since I have lots of moles as it is, it is also safer for me to not be tan, and instead to embrace my ghostliness. But sadly, it appears a spray tan may be in order once I get home, just so I don't look ridiculous in normal summer clothes. :(

Jackson Lake

But anywho, on to our activites from today. Today we left our wonderful campground in the Tetons to head into Yellowstone. We made a few stops along the way to our new campground. Our first stop was at Jackson Lake, to bid the Tetons goodbye (and get a good look at the Teton fault). The beach was an array of different sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic pebbles, hinting at the complex history if the area which we had studied and examined so much over the past several days. After a 'always required' group shot (we take one at most of the places we go) we headed north.

Yellowstone Lake just beginning to thaw

Upon entering Yellowstone I think we all became a little worried by the amount of snow present on the ground. There was easily 3 feet of the white fluffy stuff still chilling out, holding down saplings and the lakes were still mostly frozen, making everything look like a winter wonderland. This would have been very exciting, if we weren't intensely aware of the fact that we may have to be camping in the lovely snow for the next several days. We then stopped at Lewis Falls to look the end of a rhyolitic flow, as well as the lithofisae, or stone bubbles, present in the rhyolite. A little ways down the road, we had lunch on the Continential Divide, which of course included a brief snowball fight.

Old Faithful

After lunch we went to Old Faithful, who was indeed faithful, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and looking at the various pools and geysers in the Upper Geyser Basin before we headed to Madison campsite.

Throughout most of the park, including our campsite, there is no cell signal of any sort, so my posts will likely be updated days later than they should have been. The majority of the park also lies within the caldera of the infamous Yellowstone supervolcano, so if the volcano erupts while we are here, you can be content in knowing that I will likely be dead before I even realize what is happening*. And really what better way to go out on a geology trip than in a volcanic eruption.

*no need to worry though because the park service does not believe that any kind of massive explosion is eminent :)

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Day 13: Canyons and Cleaning

Today we went for a day hike on a 5-ish mile hike along the Granite canyon trail. It was a scenic trail that was an easy hike, but as I expected the reduced amount of sleep I got last night plus the general fatigue from going on hikes multiple days in a role, made it a little more difficult. The one noteworthy event that happened on this hike was that we decided to "polar-bear" into the river. Like most rivers in the area, this one is fed with melt waters from snow and glaciers. Still I figured, "psh. I've swam in cold water before so this shouldn't be too bad." Holy crow was a wrong. As soon as you step into the water, the pain hits you immeadiately, like thousands of tiny needles stabbing you all at once on every part of your skin. The initial group that wanted to undertake the feat stood in the river up to our knees and then sat down. We then retreated from the water very quickly. Slowly everybody else tired the water as well, some going all the way on, but most just stuck their feet in. The water was frigid, but afterwards you felt very refreshed and alive.

After we finished out hike, we got a surprise from our professors. They bought lift tickets so that we could take the aerial tram to the top of Rendevous Mountain, and get above 10,000ft. The elevation at the summit is 10,450ft. At the summit there is also a little shop, called Corbet's Cabin where they serve made to order waffles. The waffles were delicious.

After our verticle excursion, we went into Jackson Hole to do laundry. It was so frustrating. The laundry mat was definitely set up for regulars instead of visitors, and the need for only coins was very frustrating as none of us carried cash with us. It was also frustrating that after 4 cycles in the dryer my clothes still weren't dry. :(

We didn't get back to the campsite until 9-9:30 and dinner wasn't ready until almost 10pm. So as a consequence of the latter half if the day, here I am now about to go to sleep, once again after 11pm, in damp long underwear. At least they are wool, so I know they'll warm up soon. But my bag is still amazingly comfortable and the cool wool feels good against my sun/wind burnt skin, so things aren't all that bad.

Also we saw another moose today :)

Pictures will come later, once I can transfer them from my phone

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Day 12: Jenny Lake is in my ears and in my eyes

Today we had the pleasure of meeting up with Dr. Ann Mattson, of the Jenny Lake visitors center. She spoke woth us about the geology and ecology of the Tetons and the Greater Yellowstone region in general. She lead us on a mile-ish long hike to sit on one of the spots where the Teton fault manifests itself above ground in thenform of a fault scarp. The fault scarp runs at depth below the Grand Tetons and in many places manifest right along the base of the mountains. After lunch we began a hike through the very snowy upper level of the hidden falls trail. For much of the trail, the path was covered with snow and ice, and so we relied on the footprints of previous hikers to lead us to the end of the trail. This is the point where I realized that I really enjoy hiking in the snow. Its kind of a puzzle like...."hmm where can I step without fall through or slipping and falling down the side of the mountain". By the time we had gotten half way to Hidden Falls I had a method figured out: dig in your heels (because its better to sink too far in and fall on your butt than to slip and fall without any kind of control), and avoid the icy patches and spots where other hikes had slipped (evident in the footprints).

The view of the falls was definately worth the hike. Hidden falls is quite possible the most awe-inspiring waterfall I have ever had the pleasure to gaze upon. Across from the falls was a snow-covered slope which looked very much like a ski-slope. We took advantage of this location and the wonderful texture of the snow, to have another snowball fight.

We took the lower trail on the way out, amd the hike was fairly uneventful aside from 2 events. For one, we came across a group of recent graduates from a school in Georgia who decided to jump of an outcrop and into the lake. Just to give you an idea of how cold the water in Jenny Lake was, the entire lake was frozen over until the end of last week. So needless to say, the guys were kinda crazy. The second interesting event was getting to come face to face with a yellow-bellied marmot, who posed for us on a rock right along the edge of the trail.

Back at the campsite, we ate dinner and then a few of us went into Jackson with the professors to search for a relaxing coffee shop where we could read/work on our blogs (think Cool Beans in Columbia). To our dismay, we realized that no coffee shops were open in Jackson Hole past 7pm and we didn't get dropped off until about 9. So we spend about an hour wandering around, and finally settled for a cup of joe from the Loaf N' Jug, the local gas station/convience store.

I'm a little worried about what tomorrow brings because it is already past 11pm. For comparison, I usually go to bed between 9:30 and 10pm. So we will see how tomorrow goes, and I'll be sure to pass along the information to you all.

Wildlife notice: saw a female and a baby moose on the Jenny Lake hike today by some avalanche debris that we hiked over.

Pictures to come once I can get WiFi :)

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Day 11: Day-Hiking

Nothing will make you realize how out of shape you are quicker than taking a long day hike. Today we walked somewhere around 9.5 miles worth of trails. We started out on the scenic 7.5 mile Phelps lake loop trail, which as it sounds takes hou around the perimeter of Phelps lake. About halfway around, we had some lunch and then headed up the Death Canyon trail to get a better view of the lake. We had been warned that there was debris from a recent avalanche along the Death Canyon trail, as well as along the other side of the lake loop. Needless to say, the steep parts of the trail were really rough on me, as well as the fact that I would sink down further into the snowbanks and debris than my fellow hikers, which substantially slowed down my already slow pace of hiking. While I would like to blame my tough time on the high elevation (about 6,000') and therefore reduced oxygen levels as well as wanting to keep up with the group (who hike as if it is a race to see who can get to the top quickest), I know that it is my own fault for allowing myself to get so fat.

As much as people want to tell me that I'm not fat, I know its true. For me the biggest thing is just that I know that back before I gained this undiscolsed amount of weight that I know carry around, these hikes would have been nowhere near as difficult. And while I may be dissapointed in myself, and wish that I had done some more rigorous conditioning before this trip, the struggle isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact the struggle provided quite a self-esteem boost because I completed the hike, all 9.5 ish miles of climbing over avalanche debris and through snowdrifts(where I would sink in up to my upper thigh and then have to shovel my leg out with my hands to free it) and up and down hills. I did it. I took a little longer than everyone else, but eventhough my feet were killing me after the first 7 miles, I pushed onwards. I did everything my healthier compatriots did. And that in itself is an accomplishment.

Also...today we saw a moose swimming a river, so the day couldn't be terrible.

Now enjoy these pictures from the hike.

Beautiful Phelps Lake

First view of Death Canyon

Death Canyon is a bit of a mystery to geologists. The canyon was carved b a glacier and thus exhibits the quintessential U-shaped valley, however the deepest point of the canyon is V-shaped, which is associated with fluvial, or stream, erosion. One theory is that after the last ice age, when the glaciers retreated, the immense flow of water carved the v-shape into the lowest point of the already carved U-shaped valley.

View of opposite canyon wall from up on the northern wall of the canyon.

View of Phelps Lake from northern wall of Death Canyon

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