Family Trekking in the Basin

I was fortunate to have my family come visit again in August this year.  They arrived late Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed time together that night and Sunday, and Monday, it was time to get out and explore.

 

Our destination: Johnson Lake.  There are two trails to Johnson Lake: the first is from the Baker Creek Trailhead, the second from the Shoshone Trailhead.  It's a shorter round-trip hike from the latter, so up Snake Creek Canyon we drove toward Shoshone, and we were off.

 

The trail, although shorter, covers the same elevation gain.  Translation: very steep!!  I kind of felt bad dragging them up such a steep trail.  Adam did fine, Dad enjoyed himself, and Mom, with the help of some borrowed trekking poles, was a trooper.  (She and I both have testimonies of trekking poles.)

 

At one of the rest stops...bumps on a log.

Getting closer to the lake, there was this tree, growing right out of a crack in the rock.  Crazy!

We got to the lake, had a lovely lunch, and took a ton of pictures before heading back down.  Sunday was rainy, Tuesday brought thunderstorms (that knocked out power in the middle of my cave tour, no less...it's dark down there!), but Monday, the sky was the clearest blue, the weather was perfect, and we were basically the only visitors on the trail.

Adam found a rock on the lake and posed for his future statue.

The road from the valley up to Snake Creek Canyon was lined with Rocky Mountain Bee plants.  It's sunset in the picture below, so hard to see these plants, but they are absolutely beautiful!

We had dinner at the Silver Jack. (Yup, Baker has three places to eat!)  Mom's even smiling after a very long day.

Adam still needs to work on his "I'm trying to appear less tired than I am" smile.

It was a great day and a great weekend.  It's always nice to spend time with family and I don't think we ever out-grow playing show-and-tell to our parents.

Montana Wedding

I was able to drive up to Montana for my dear friend Heather's wedding last weekend.  Part of my itinerary took me through Yellowstone National Park; the part in Montana.  I kept thinking, "Oh, yeah!  I work for this company!"  It was really beautiful and it made me miss Montana immensely.  I've gotta get myself back up there.

The ceremony was held out in the hills east of Livingston, MT.  It was a lovely setting and an absolutely beautiful ceremony.  Here's Molly, younger sister to the bride and a good friend from Deer Lodge days. (random dude in the back is the DJ)

 Maureen, older sister, and good friend from Deer Lodge days.

Elizabeth, maid of honor, and a very dear from from Deer Lodge days.   We shared a hotel room for the weekend and got a whole lot of catching up done and not much sleeping.

 Dave (the groom), Dave's brother-in-law, Dave's dad, and Heather's older brother Eric.

Heather, a beautiful bride, walking in with her dad. 

 Gettin' hitched!

 At the reception.

It was a wonderful day, a fast and furious but wonderful weekend, and it went by much too quickly.  It was wonderful seeing old friends, chatting with friends who came from Deer Lodge, and most of all, getting to celebrate this happy time with my friend!

Mt Washington Attempt

There is, what is called by the rangers, the Magic Forest, sitting just below Mt. Washington in the west-central part of the park.  It is a spectacular Bristlecone grove.  I have been wanting to get up there for a while now.  There is a road that goes from Spring Valley (west side of park) up the west side of Mt. Washington.  This road is not recommended unless you have four-wheel drive, have been up the road before, and a strong constitution. 

My dilemma...getting up to the grove.  After consulting my topo and a co-worker, I decided to drive up Snake Creek Canyon, hike to the ridge line dividing Snake Creek from Big Wash, then hike the ridge line to the grove, and why not, while I'm up there, scurry up Mt. Washington too.  See map with planned route below.



I hurried to get my chores done in the morning, then took off.  It had been over a year since I was up Snake and I had forgotten how pretty it is up there.  I started my hike, hit the ridge line, and started to bushwhack west.  A view looking north into Granite Basin.

At the saddle, about to leave the trail, looking southeast into Big Wash.

My view from where I stopped for lunch, looking back the way I came.  This is looking east, along the ridge line I was following. 

Looking north to Pyramid, Wheeler, and Jeff Davis Peaks.

When I finally stopped for lunch, I was absolutely exhausted.  I was really sweaty, had been rained on and was a bit damp, and the sky was threatening to storm worse.  Looking west, it seemed like I still had a really long way to go to reach Mt. Washington.  I'm not exactly sure how far I went, I'll need to look at a 7.5 minute topo to try and figure that out.  I did, however, eat my lunch in a truly magnificent Bristlecone grove.  Again, don't know if I reached the Magic Forest, but it was grand all the same.

Looking south across Big Wash to what I think is Lincoln Peak?  See how nasty the sky is looking?

A very, very, very zoomed in view of the trail head where my car is.  The trail head is at 8250ft and by my best estimate from my topo, I had lunch at 10,700ft.

There was some spectacular thunder as I was making my way down and some really cold rain.  I made it safely back to my car, and had thought about doing a short hike part-way up to Johnson Lake, but the sky was telling me it wasn't finished so I called it a day.  I got home, tired, dirty beyond all reason, bummed I didn't make it to the peak, but determined to try again.  Next time, I'm going up the road with an LE ranger, or someone with a truck.

During the walk down, I stumbled upon this little cave/crawl space.  Not the best picture, but I had fun, despite it was limestone and it chewed my skin up pretty bad.

I wish I was a better photographer so I could better capture the beauty of this park.  Hmm...maybe a winter project?