We woke to a very chilly morning. Each morning we camped we'd fire up the propane stove to heat some water for coffee, oatmeal, tea, and hot chocolate. This morning it tasted especially great. Our plan today was to hike to the ranger's station at the top of Mount Washburn. Mount Washburn is notable because it allows you to view the entire Yellowstone valley that was created by the last eruption 640,00o years ago. We had heard that it was a long and challenging hike, but was one of the best in the park. At the parking lot, the kids were immediately drawn to the piles of snow. The elevation of this area was around 8,900 ft. above sea level.
The hike began by taking you up some moderately sloped switchback trails. I had read in a book that in the early 1900's, they had driven Model T cars up this hill to the top backwards. They did this because cars at this time did not have fuel pumps and would run out of gas to the engine at this steepness. From time to time you could still see remnants of the old road that was used.
The views all the way up were spectacular. At one point we could begin to see the ranger station on top of the mountain. It looked a long way off.
We paused at a few point to catch our breath and capture some pictures.
The higher we hiked, the fewer trees we would see and the more snow. We were surprised to find that we had to hike through, over, and around a lot of snow. The tempatation was just too great - we each took turns pelting each other with snowballs. A lot of the snow piles were melting in the afternoon heat making it a slippery and sometimes muddy hike.
At one point, Jen and Rogan (who were leading) went down a wrong path. Instead of retracing their step along the trail, they decided to take a "shortcut" over a huge mound of snow. It appeared solid at first, but eventually gave way under their feet and they both went waist deep into the snow. Both had trouble getting out, but eventually did after getting a little cold and wet. Since Rogan was upset I didn't snap any pictures, but Jen was game enough to reenact the incident on the way back.
By the time we reached the top of the mountain, we were all pretty tired but excited that we had accomplished the feat. We sat down at the top and had some drinks and snack and took in the view a little bit.
We then gathered for some pictures by the sign at the top.
Greg and I called our dads on top of the mountain, too. We both had a full cell signal. I told my dad that I beat our hiking record by 43 feet. As I looked back though, my previous hike was actually higher than this. My previous best was 10,700 feet. Even though this hike was challenging, it does not even compare to the "Hike from Hell".
We explored the ranger station for a bit. We signed the log book. "We came. We saw. We conquered." It was really neat as you could look out in almost any direction for almost 100 miles. We could see the Teton Mountains 75 miles away clearly. I could see Mount Sheridan 38 miles away.
Mount Sheridan is significant because it was the other side of the valley where a super volcano erupted. I tried to visualize an eruption this large, one that was a hundred thousand times greater than Mount St. Helens. One that left 8 feet of ash over all of Nebraska. An eruption that changed the world's climate for centuries. The 3 eruptions in the area have been happening about every 600,000 to 700,000 years. So far it has been 640,000 years since the last eruption. They are due for another any time. Weird thought.
On our way out, we talked to the ranger that lives at the top of this mountain during the summer months. He was a very pleasant guy. He said he has supplies brought up every week or so. He does have electricity, but has no running water. He gets all kinds of "company" in the form of hikers during the day, but spends a good bit of the rest of the his time in isolation -reading, listening to the radio, and importantly, watching the horizons for fires.
All in all, the hike took about 4-1/2 hours. We rewarded our tough work today by going to the visitor's center for ice cream again. Then we went to the campsite where most of us read and relaxed. I blogged and Rogan played his DS.
That night we decided to go see two scenic overlooks of the Yellowstone River.
One of the overlooks was of the Upper Falls and one was of the Lower Falls. We were pretty tired from the long hike earlier in the day, so we didn't want to walk too far. Fortunately, the Upper Falls was only 1/8 mile and the Lower Falls was 3/8 mile but with a 600 foot descent.
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