The second half of our National Park Adventure took us north from the Tetons into Yellowstone.   According to Google, it was only about 70 miles from the Tetons into Yellowstone and the Old Faithful Inn.    But this being ‘fall’ and the road repair season is incredibly short, we found out 2 weeks before our journey that part of our road to the Inn was closed for repairs. The detour was only about 100 miles (yes, this is the western wilderness!).

Tuesday September 16
With our “extended” drive to Yellowstone, we checked out of Signal Mountain Lodge, saying goodbye to the Tetons in the early morning, and began the long drive up to Yellowstone. We had already decided to make the most of our little detour by planning to stop for a hike along the way. But not so fast, we were treated to what was the first of many encounters with wildlife – a roadblock! A bison was meandering across the road directly in front of our car, stopping traffic in both directions. It was a sight!

After 2 hours, we arrived at the Dunraven trail head for a 6 mile round trip hike up Mount Washburn.   This was billed as a moderate hike with steady elevation gain of 1400 feet on a wide, mostly gravelly path.  For us, it gave us something to stretch our legs after sitting in the car for awhile.

Leaving the parking area, we encountered many other hikers on the route, as the summit was said to have some of the best views, 360 degrees, of Yellowstone.   There is a fire tower atop the summit, staffed by one employee for the entire season (sure seems like a very lonely job).   The gravelly path that was the trail was really a road, since parked at the summit fire tower was a compact car, with a Massachusetts license plate!     Definitely not a road we’d want to drive on though, no guard rails and some pretty steep drop-offs!

The hike down was easy and we were soon back in the car for the remaining hour plus drive to the Old Faithful Inn.

We were surprised by the size of this vast complex, centered around Old Faithful and the many “thermal features” that make up Yellowstone park.  Guests were arriving by the bus load. We got our first glimpse of Old Faithful spouting shortly after our arrival, and learned this occurs every 90 minutes or so.

Wednesday September 17
Today we planned our second most ambitious hike of this trip.    The Seven Mile Hole trail, an 11 mile out-and-back trek down into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It was a 42 mile drive half way around the park to get to the trailhead, and again we were slowed by a bison roadblock!

This was Jeanne’s first experience with a reverse hike (down first, up last)!      For most of the first section of the hike, we followed the north rim of the Canyon.  The nearly 1,700 feet elevation loss down into the Canyon carved out by the Yellowstone River occurred in a span of about a mile, near the turn around point, and followed some rather precipitous (and a bit frightening) switchbacks on loose gravel.     As it leveled out near the river, we observed several thermal areas and waterfalls along the way.

We completed the hike in just under 5 hrs. The drive back to the Old Faithful Inn was over an hour. Along the way, we detoured along Firehole Canyon Drive, viewing the Firehole River and waterfalls formed by volcanoes some 60,000 years ago.

Thursday September 18
Nearly a week into our travels, it was time for a rainy day and that’s what today brought. The rain was intermittent so we stayed closer to the Inn and drove along Firehole Lake Drive, stopping along the way to see some of the many geysers close up. From there we drove a bit further north to Fountain Flat Drive, where we parked the car and began what we hoped would be a 3-5 mile flat loop along some of the lower geyser area trails.  Threatening skies caused us to turn back after a mile and we made it back to the car just seconds before the skies opened up. The rest of the day was spent at the Inn, with some down time for reading, etc.

Friday September 19
This was our last full day in Yellowstone, so we wanted to make the most of it.   We were again treated to some beautiful weather – the intermittent rain the day before seemingly washing all of the clouds away.   We decided on Purple Mountain for our last hike of the week.   The trailhead was a half hour drive north, just beyond the turn off to the West entrance of the Park.

The moderate 6 mile round-trip hike ascended 1600 feet and the trail itself was about 2 feet wide, narrowing as we ascended with numerous switchbacks to ease the uphill climb. It was lined mostly by pines, but every so often, there were some Aspen colonies competing for the sunshine.

We summited Purple Mountain in about an hour and 20 minutes and as promised in the literature, we were treated to outstanding views. From the summit we took in sweeping views of the valley below, the Gibbon River that snaked through it and the canyons and mountains in the distance.

After a snack, we followed the same trail and were back at the car in just over an hour.  Interestingly, this was the first hike of our trip that we didn’t encounter other hikers.   And fortunately (thankfully!), like on our other hikes, we also didn’t encounter any bears either!

Saturday September 20
We checked out of the Old Faithful Inn around 9:00 am and began the long drive back to Jackson, Wyoming (remember the 100 mi detour?!) where we would spend our last night before an early flight on Sunday morning.

Another glorious day, so it was a nice drive back through Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park, with no road blocks. We stopped for lunch at the Jackson Lake Lodge, overlooking the mountains, under sunny skies and pleasantly and unseasonably warm weather.   After lunch and another hour plus in the car, we arrived in Jackson around 2:00, stopping briefly to drop off our ‘temporary’ coffee pot at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore!

We spent some time exploring some of the shops in this touristy ski resort town, but found them to be pricey and very “country” (i.e.. Cowboy boots) oriented.   In the evening we enjoyed dinner at the Silver Dollar Cafe, recommended by Good Mike. It was a lovely evening and we opted to sit at a table on the sidewalk outdoors.

Sunday September 21
Rise and shine early, to return the rental car and head to the airport. We experienced a delay on the ground due to some weight issues and waited as they removed or readjusted baggage. Finally we were off, arriving in Minneapolis with just enough time to power walk to another terminal and catch our connecting flight to Boston. That flight was on time and we were safely home shortly after 6:00 pm.

Time to plan our next trip – Our honeymoon in June, when we plan to spend a long weekend in Quebec City. Peter is already looking for hikes in the area…….