East side

3/9/12
So I’ve finally started heading north.

I’m on the pelican valley trail which connects to the lamar river trail, then I’m taking another trail into Tower (some village).

I saw lots of Bison today. One was 2 feet away from the trail and I don’t even notice until it was right in front of me!

You can see the trail right in front of his face. I made a little detour out of respect for his half tonne body mass.

This bull Elk came put of the bushes behind me while I was having breakfast this morning.

Okay I’ve lost track of days, but the trail after Lamar Valley was the Specimen Ridge trail. I didn’t see a single person the whole day until I got to the last mile which went along the “Grand Canyon of the Yelowstone”.
It was a pretty awesome day. The trail kept disappearing so I had to actually be aware and use my map and compass. It felt like a beginner’s orienteering course. There were Elk antlers strewn all about the place.

I got in touch with my inner caveman.

I saw some female bighorn sheep. This was down a cliffside.

I saw some elk and a moose too, but I didn’t get a good shot of them.

This is the grand canyon of the yellowstone on a smoky day. There’s a yellow excavator near the top above a road which gives an idea of scale.

I took a day off at Tower and ate too much food, then did a couple if easy days to Mammoth. There was some more beautiful countryside (surprise).

A lake near tower

Petrified redwood tree. It was turned to stone 50 million years ago by a volcano.

My campsite for the first night.

A beach on the Yellowstone. I was going to swim here but I chickened out and sunbathed instead. It was cold, okay!

Black Canyon. AWESOME!

Vertical trees on a vertical cliff face. I love trees.

First time seeing cactus in Yellowstone..

AWESOME

Civilisation! I came to this town just after trying to does the Yellowstone river and failing. I got a third of the way across when I realised it was too strong, but when I tried to turn back I lost my crocs then lost my footing and got swept 50 metres down the river. It was pretty scary, I had a couple of close encounters with rocks in the water. I’m going to give some feedback at the backcountry office tomorrow. It was a rangers idea in the first place.

Now it’s the 8th of September, and I’m taking it easy tomorrow.

10/9/12
So it was such a beautiful day yesterday, I decided I couldn’t waste it, so I decided to climb electric peak instead.

This is it.

My planning was rushed and I forgot to ask the ranger where my campsite was for the night (You need a permit to camp somewhere).
I also screwed up and didn’t fill up with water when I got to the base of the mountain, so rather than going back down, I skirted the mountain to the south for a mile to a creek I saw on the map. Luckily there were animal tracks most of the way so it wasn’t too difficult.
I met some guys on the way to the summit and hiked with them the rest of the way. They were cool and it was nice having company. It turned out that they work at old faithful.

A happy rock

Looking down on the trail

Eaves. The only guy in their group who made it to the top.

That snow on the left kinda looks like Australia with a chunk missing from it. I guess the rest melted.

This was in the middle of nowhere. What the hell is it??

I camped with the guys I met that night and they shared their whisky with me. It was a good day.