Ground Breaking

 

Lots of people with guns, nothing happens

Imagine that, a bunch of open carry folks in a peaceful rally.  Must be fake news.

JMT - 10 years after

I was always planning on doing more intermediate and long trails but life intervenes.

Yellowstone

Jyoti and I took a long-awaited trip to Yellowstone.

Day 1

• Flew into Bozeman (very nice airport)
• Stopped at Mountain Grizzly Center
• Entered park via north entrance
• Checked out visitor center at Mammoth
• Drove around upper loop
• Dinner at hotel dining room

Cozy mountain cabin or Bozeman airport?

Bella at the Mountain Grizzly Encounter

Entering Yellowstone

Cloud skies over Mammoth Hot Springs

Exploring the geothermal activity

Our cabin

Day 2

• Bunson Peak hike - awesome; saw mountain goats, pika, grouse
• Hiked lower falls
• Dinner in Gardiner; got groceries (highly recommended)
• Walked around old Fort Yellowstone
• Lots of elk wandering around town eating the grass

Bunsen Peak comms hut

View from Bunsen Peak

Waterfall at Golden Gate

Creek next to Mammoth springs

Roosevelt Arch

Day 3

• Drove to Lamar Valley; saw lots of bison and pronghorn antelope
• Hiked Trout Lake
• Drove south to Canyon area
• Drove south rim of Yellowstone Canyon
• Dinner at Canyon Village (not recommended)

Roosevelt Lodge

Lamar Valley

Hiking Trout Lake

Lamar River

View from Brinks of the Upper Falls

Upper Yellowstone Falls

View from Artists Point

Day 4

• Hiked Mount Washburn - very windy and cold but awesome hike
• Drove north rim of Yellowstone Canyon
• Drove to Norris to check out the geothermal feature; it was quite smelly and we felt a bit sick
• All day was windy
• Grill was closed so we got stuff from grocery store for dinner

View from Mt. Washburn observation deck

Hazy view from Mt. Washburn

Bear track in the mud

View from Brinks of the Lower Falls

View of Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Norris Visitor Center

Norris Geyser Basin

Day 5

• Drove south rim of Yellowstone Canyon
• Checked out Lake area; super nice Lake Yellowstone Hotel
• Drove to Old Faithful area
• Hiked lower basin
• Watched Old Faithful from hotel terrace
• Another cheese and crackers dinner

Kirkland Cascades

Old Faithful Inn

Mud Volcano (very smelly)

Marmot on the rocks

Hiking Storm Point

Hiking towards Pelican Valley

On the terrace at Old Faithful Inn waiting for the geyser

Day 6

• Checked out middle and upper geyser basins
• Very crowded
• Nice (but not great) dinner at hotel dining room

Geyser basin

Steamy spring

Lots of colors in the springs

Bison by the road

Day 7

• Drove to Grand Teton National Park and did loop drive
• Had fun at historical display at Mormon's Row
• Great dinner at Lake Jackson Lodge Mural Room

View of the Tetons

Mormon Row barn

Mormon row

Lake Jackson Lodge lobby

Day 8

• Woke up early to check out the morning views
• Took Jenny Lake ferry to Cascade Canyon
• Hiked up canyon; started raining at the end; hiked back in 2 hours of rain; saw moose and pikas
• Had lunch at lodge and changed into dry clothes
• Drove long drive through thunderstorms to Bozeman
• Stayed at Fox Hollow Inn

Morning view of Lake Jackson

Hidden Falls

View from Inspiration Point

Hiking Cascade Canyon

Antelopes on the range

It was a great trip!  Next time, we want to spend more time in the Tower area and Lamar Valley to see bears and wolves.  Also, need another few days in Grand Teton.

Dystopian Fiction

A bunch of dystopian/prepper/zombie/apocalyptic fiction series I have been reading over the past few years:

• Going Home (aka Survivalist) by Angery American - first few books were great but then it got a bit repetitive
• Charlie's Requiem by Walt Browning and Angery American - gritty parallel series to Going Home
• 299 Days by Glen Tate - my favorite series and the most realistic since some of it has already started
• Extinction Survival by Walt Browning - fun zombie series based in the San Diego area
• Survivalist Series by Arthur Bradley - another zombie series that started great but ended up being repetitive
• Off Gride Survivor by Connor McCoy - a decent EMP series
• Patriot Dawn by Max Velocity - great two book tactically-focused series
• 2050 by Phil M. Williams - fun, futuristic series on the conflict between authoritarianism and liberty
• Apocalypse Revealed by Michael Zargona - good collapse story

Mount Laguna Offroading

I headed out to explore some trails in the Mount Laguna area.  Early morning, I drove out I8 to the Buckhead Springs rest stop.  From there, I headed on an out-and-back on Sheepshead Canyon Rd.  It was pretty rough in spots but had some great views to the south.  There were a couple folks camped at some nice spots.

Next, I took Old 80 to La Posta Rd and headed north.  This road was gravel and easy the first few miles as it passed National Forest and tribal lands.  The road was gated a few miles short of Sunrise Hwy and I took Fred Canyon Rd to the southeast.  This road has great views and camping spots as it descended to Kitchen Creek Rd.

From there, it was back along Old 80 to Pine Valley where I gassed up.  Then I took Pine Creek Rd north.  There was a side trip up Miners Road which was pretty rocky in spots but very nice as the creek was flowing.  Back on Pine Creek, it was easy going on the broken asphalt.  I stopped for lunch and coffee refill at a great viewpoint that overlooked Deer Park and east to Cuyamaca Rancho SP.  The remained drive up was uneventful.  Once at Sunrise Hwy, I took it south through the village and back home.