Hiking Rendezvous Mountain

Wednesday of our vacation, we decided to take another hike.  (We needed a few days after our Jenny Lake hike to rest up.)  This time, we set our sights on Rendezvous Mountain, a 10,927 foot mountain in the Teton range.  This is one of the more traveled mountains, especially in the winter by the ski crowd!

Teton Village is at the bottom of the mountain, and has lots of shops and fun things to do, like horseback riding, tours, mountain bike trails, and their giant tram that takes you to the summit.  We decided to take the tram to the top of the mountain and hike around up there.

The tram takes about 12 minutes to arrive at the top of Rendezvous.  They say you'll see animals on the mountain as you ride up from time to time, but we didn't.  (I was actually pretty happy about that, since the plan was the HIKE around the area we were viewing.)  When you finally get to the top, you're rewarded with stunning 360 degree views.

We decided that we'd give the Rock Springs Loop Trail a try, a 5 mile hike that eventually connected to the Summit Trail and led us to a gondola that would take us back down the mountain.

Our first little stop was at a snow patch.  Nothing like playing in the snow in August!  We may have had a little too much fun...

Once we'd had our fill of snow, we made our way back to the main trail and continued on down the mountain.  It was at this point that we stopped seeing many other people.  Seems like most people go to the snow and turn back around to head to the top (taking the tram back down the mountain).  As we continued, the grade got even more steep and rocky.  The views were beautiful though!

At one point, we completely lost the trail.  It was like it just stopped.  Thankfully, we could see a trail sign across the way, so we made our own path across a gorge and hopped back on it.  The trail weaved us down about 1,000 feet through dense wooded areas, beautiful meadows, and down rocky cliffs.

We finally reached the Summit Trail, which we followed back up about 500 feet to the gondola.  The summit trail was actually an access road, so I'm really glad we didn't decide to take that one the entire way.  While the views were nice, there wasn't much else to it.  It WAS the most exhausting part of the hike though - there was an enormous hill leading back to the gondola which almost killed us.  Mom took to making her own switchbacks on the trial - she's so smart.  :)

It was definitely a beautiful hike, but was not easy.  The information center called it moderate with some difficult sections, which I'd believe.  If you do this loop, make sure you bring your bear spray.  There was about an hour period where we didn't see anyone else (so there wasn't regular 'traffic' keeping animals away), and saw several recent signs of bears while we made our way through the deep woods.  Thankfully, we didn't run into one, but we were glad to have the bear spray just in case!

Check out the rest of our trip here:
Hiking Jenny Lake and Colter Bay
Yellowstone National Park
Float Trip down the Snake River

Yellowstone National Park Trip

Well, we're back in Boston and I'm already missing Jackson Hole.  The last week was one of my favorite vacations ever.  I've already told you about our first day, hiking trails around Jenny Lake and Colter Bay (where we saw a bear) - check it out if you missed it!  We spent our second day in Yellowstone National Park.  It was one long day, packing everything into one trip, but we did it!

Yellowstone is the country's oldest National Park and covers more than 3,400 miles (larger than Rhode Island and Delaware put together).  As you drive through, you'll see some of the most varied, beautiful, and crazy landscapes ever.  You'll enjoy beautiful rolling hills, then turn a corner and be right in the middle of a stunning red rock cliff, then turn another corner and drive through white jagged rocks for a half mile.  There are huge lakes and lush green mountains that fall into hot springs and bubbling mud pots, and dessert-like spaces spewing water and steam.  One thing to note with Yellowstone is that your day will involve lots of driving (afterall, it's the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined!).

It's seriously like nothing you've ever seen (or will likely ever see anywhere but here).  I cut down hundreds of pictures to the ones included here...it's a good number but worth it.  :)

We decided to start with the western part of the loop, first visiting the Upper Geyser Basin, where you'll find Old Faithful.  There are miles of boardwalk paths that loop by lots of geysers and bubbling hot springs.  Old Faithful erupts approximately every 91 minutes, so as you walk around, just make sure you're back in time or you'll have a long wait before you see the most popular geyser spew again!  We were lucky enough to catch another geyser erupting, Castle Geyser, and a few others "spitting", which you'll see below.

Castle Geyser in the background

Old Faithful before it erupted

Old Faithful

We continued northwest (enter Kardashian joke here) and happened upon one of my favorite spots of the day - the Midway Geyser Basin - which featured the Excelsior Geyser Crater and the Grand Prismatic Spring.  Both are giant hot springs and have stunning colors.  As you walk around these, you'll be engulfed in (stinky) sulfur steam.  Mom said it felt like dragon breath.  This isn't one of the "biggies" at Yellowstone, but you should 100% stop and see it!

Excelsior Geyser Crater

Grand Prismatic Spring

Next up were the Paint pot stops!  First we went to the Fountain Paint Pots at the Lower Geyser Basin.  The "Paint Pots" are actually bubbling mud pots - their consistency is just like paint, and they're named for the different colors of mud found around the park (reds, yellows, browns).  Also in this area was a pretty awesomely loud fumarole (which blows steam), and another geyser just spritzing away.  We also got the best picture of the trip at this spot - Dad caught a mamma bird feeding her babies JUST at the right time.  I think you'll love it!

Clepsydra Geyser

The second "pot stop" was the Artist Paint Pots.  Here, there was also a boardwalk leading you to an aerial view of the whole space.  So neat!

Let's take a little break to look at some of the scenery on the way to Mammoth Hot Springs.

When we got to Mammoth Hot Springs it had started raining.  (Luckily, all the storms that came through while we were in Wyoming were very short.)  The Mammoth Hot Spring Terraces were formed from a combination of heat, water, limestone, and fractured rock that allowed that hot water to reach the Earth's surface.  The stair-stepped rock formations and colors are nothing like you've ever seen.  We also saw some wildlife on this stop - a baby deer and some elk sipping from a nearby stream!

The Liberty Cap (rock formation created by a hot spring)

By this time, we'd reached the "top" of the Yellowstone loop and began our tour of the eastern part of the park.  On the way there, we saw an elk on the side of the road.

Once in the Hayden Valley, we started to see what Travis was most excited about - the bison!  We turned a corner and saw that traffic was backed up.  As we made our way around another corner, we saw why - a giant bison had crossed the street and was grazing right on the side of the road!  Needless to say, I rolled down the window and snapped a few pictures.  :)  He was so close to us I could have almost reached out and touched him (of course I'd never want to).  My super-long-arm'd brother could have easily reached him.
Right after we passed our first bison, the bottom fell out.  Thankfully it was a relatively short storm (which included a little frozen precipitation...crazy...) and we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow!  There were TONS of bison in the Valley, as you'll see in the pictures below.  As plentiful as cows in the south!

The last stop for the day was the "Black Dragon Caldron" and the "Mud Volcano".  More sulfur...more bubbling mud.

One thing to check on, if when you take a trip to Yellowstone, are traffic issues.  We tallied up that construction both to and in Yellowstone added about 2 hours to our trip.  There really isn't any way around it, but you should check so you can plan your day accordingly.

Stay tuned for more vacation pictures!