Sunday, May 23, 2010

Hiking to the Lone Star Geyser in Yellowstone Park

Before we get into today's adventures at Yellowstone Park, let me reassure my followers that I am mainly leaving because of the tooth.  It is glued together.  I make $7.75 an hour here. That does not pay for an implant, a bridge or a large pizza at the employee pub.

I am hoping that the glue holds until the end of June when hubby comes to escort me back to Ohio and my dentist, Dr. Ed.  I will continue to blog.  I just can't stop now. I am addicted.

I have been searching the internet and found that there are quite a few walking clubs in my area.  I plan to explore my backyard, get exercise and meet some people.  The adventure and photos will continue.

Now, back to hiking in Yellowstone Park.

It turned out to be a beautiful day here with blue skies that you only see in the west.  Wish I could take them back to Ohio.  Grizzly son and girlfriend were kind enough to take me with them to the Lone Star Geyser.

In the top left hand corner, you see Old Faithful.  Just a short distance east of it, you see the Lone Star Trailhead and a little red line that heads south to the Lone Star Geyser.

Doesn't look far, does it?  It was 5 miles round trip, which is pretty good for this old girl who until a month ago did nothing but sit on her butt.

The real challenge was this.

The trail was covered in snow.  It is an old service road that has been closed for many years.

It is one of the few trails in Yellowstone Park that allow bicycles.

Not today unless your bike has snow tires and chains.
We came across a little dam.

Have no idea why it is there.




It was an absolutely beautiful hike next to the Firehole river.

The weather was perfect for a hooded sweatshirt.

Hiking works up a sweat, if you must know.

Could it be more beautiful?

Other than having snow up to my ankles, this was just perfect.



We were feeling pretty smug about our 5 mile snow hike when a female jogger sped past us.

That's her racing ahead of us.

Later, a couple with their baby in a stroller came down the path.

I would have taken a picture, but I was afraid they might have been offended.

Baby, stroller, snow....why?

We passed a beautiful clearing, kind of hoping and kind of not that a bear might be lounging there.

The girlfriend and I were hoping for not.

Grizzly was the one looking for bear and claimed if it came after us, he would run for his life and we were on our own.

Girlfriend may have words with him later.  He could have at least lied.  Women like that in a man.

This is a smashed bicycle rack right before the geyser.

Nature has a way of winning over civilization in Yellowstone.

Here's the Lone Star Geyser.  It had just erupted before we got there, and it only goes off every three hours.

We didn't stick around for the next show.

It was pretty anyway.


Here's me in front of the geyser, just to prove I haven't stolen pictures from the internet.

I'm still smiling because I hadn't thought about making the trip back down the snowy road.



One more pretty picture.

We made it back without spotting any wildlife, other than Grizzly son.

Our shoes and pants were wet, our legs ached and we just wanted to sit down.

After changing shoes, we took off to the Old Faithful Inn for our reward...huckleberry ice cream.

Huckleberries grow around here it seems, and you can get anything made out of them...candy, hand lotion, lip balm, etc.  It was brilliant.  I promised myself that I would say brilliant once a day because our English guests use the word often.  I love the British.

It was a good day, wasn't it?  I don't go to work tomorrow until 2:30, so there are opportunities for adventure in the a.m.  My laundry is done and there is no other housework to do, so I will be out and about.

Hubby, don't panic about the charge on the bank statement to Land's End.  My hiking shoes are too small and my  toes are starting to curl up like the Wicked Witch of the West.  I really, truly, absolutely need them.  Hugs to you all.  I am surviving.

4 comments:

Cheryl Kohan said...

You are a brave, brave woman and I am in awe of you. Who needs Grizzly, anyway? Or the girlfriend. You are woman, hear you roar!

Theresa said...

The photos are gorgeous, but my eyebrows went up when you said snow. It was about 96 today here in Arkansas!

Sorry about your tooth driving you home earlier than planned. Wonderful, wonderful adventures.

Eidin said...

Huckleberry ice cream! Nothing says life is good like huckleberry ice cream.

I have done this little hike a couple times. Very, very pretty. Must have been nice to have it be so uncrowded. Good work with the camera.

Judy said...

Thanks everyone. I didn't feel real brave. There were a few other people on the trail which makes it a little safer. If there are bears, they probably went away when they heard everyone. Rumor has it that there are a lot of bears around this year. Yikes.
Not looking forward to the heat and humidity in Ohio. It's snowing again as I type.

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