Yellowstone National Park

Trip Date: September 2013

This trip to Yellowstone National Park was part of our trip to Glacier National Park and Grand Teton National Park in September and over 11 days of hiking we hiked over 140 miles with an elevation gain of over 25,000 feet.  These are not technical reviews – just my opinion and favorite parts!  This was a trip of a lifetime and well worth the 2 lost toenails.  Now, on to the review {awesome pictures}!

Yellowstone National Park
Our Travel Dates: September 6 – September 11 (2013)

Our Yellowstone National Park Recap:
Yellowstone Totals: 61.8 miles & elevation gain of 14,600 ft

{You can read about Day 1-5 in Glacier National Park here}
Day 6 – Drive down from Glacier to Gardiner
Day 7 – Pebble Creek (7.8 miles, 1600′) & Petrified Trees 2x (4.5 miles, 1,800′)
Day 8 – Bunsen Peak (11 miles, 2,900′) to Osprey Falls (5 miles, 600′), Hoodoos (5 miles, 600′) & Mammoth/Hot Springs, drive to West Yellowstone
Day 9 – Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful, & Artist Paintpots (2.5 miles, 500′ total)
Day 10 – Mount Washburn (7.5 miles, 1,400′) & South Rim of the Canyon (5.7 miles, 700′)
Day 11 – Big Horn Peak (12.8 miles, 4,500′)

Scott spent a lot of time planning our hikes and our cabins.  I swear he picked out the MOST STRENUOUS hikes he could for each park.  This book helped with our planning: A Ranger’s Guide to Yellowstone Day Hikes. Also, this is an amazing website to check out if you are going to Yellowstone!

Day 6 – Drive down from Glacier to Gardiner

This was just another beautiful drive in Montana!  We stopped in Bozeman for lunch and fell in LOVE!

Day 7 – Pebble Creek (7.8 miles, 1600′) & Petrified Trees 2x (4.5 miles, 1,800′)

Coming into Yellowstone on the first day we got caught in a “traffic jam” of bison!  The traffic was backing up so far they had to call in a ranger to move the bison out of the way!  After the minor delay we proceeded to Pebble Creek!  We planned on doing the entire Pebble Creek hike but once we got to the part where we had to keep crossing creeks we turned around after the second one because we didn’t have on the right gear.  We still did 7.8 miles and it was gorgeous.  It is quite the climb to begin with but then levels out and you are in the valley for miles.  After finishing up Pebble Creek we tried to eat lunch but the restaurant we planned to go to was actually closed so we had to just keep munching on what we had on hand (more details below).  After eating we went to do Petrified Trees.  We got about halfway up the mountain when it started raining so we can down the mountain and waited until the rain slowed down.  Once it started clearing we made our way back up.  We thought this was going to be an easy hike but it fooled us!  It was VERY steep but we made it to the top finally!

Day 8 – Bunsen Peak (11 miles, 2,900′) to Osprey Falls (5 miles, 600′), Hoodoos (5 miles, 600′) & Mammoth/Hot Springs, drive to West Yellowstone

The Bunsen Peak part of the hike was a pretty typical hike for us but once we got to the trail to Osprey Falls things changed!  I was scared to death – it was so steep and the trail was so narrow.  I literally cried one time.  It is just switchback after switchback that takes you down into the falls.  What a gorgeous view once we made it.  We sat and ate a snack and then headed back out of the falls.  We went to lunch and explored Mammoth/Hot Springs before heading back out again to hike The Hoodoos.  The Hoodoos is one for the books!  When we saw Hoodoos, we though of Bryce Canyon type Hoodoos but that is not what we saw.  Oh, and did I mention that we were exposed on top during a lightning storm?  This was another mountain that we had to run off!  We even tried to hitch hike down to our car!  Maybe that has something to do with my negative view of this hike!  After being soaked on this hike we headed out to change cabins again – this time in West Yellowstone so we could explore the hikes on that side of the park!

Below was the double rainbow we saw after hiking the Hoodoos and leaving for West Yellowstone.

Day 9 – Grand Prismatic Spring, Old Faithful, & Artist Paintpots (2.5 miles, 500′ total)

We actually had a big hike planned for this day but I was exhausted by this time so we decided to do a few shorter ones and more “touristy” things.  The daily total for the hikes was only 2.5 miles but we were able to see a lot of really cool things!  We hiked up to see Grand Prismatic Spring, climbed up the side of a mountain on the side so we could get a better view – it was truly amazing! Then we went to Old Faithful and got there with pretty good timing because we only had to wait about 10 minutes before it did its thing!  After Old Faithful we went to Artist Paintpots.  Words can’t describe this, only pictures so I’ll include them below.  I’ll just say that Yellowstone is a crazy, crazy place!  I felt like I was on a different planet most of the time!

Day 10 – Mount Washburn (7.5 miles, 1,400′) & South Rim of the Canyon (5.7 miles, 700′)

Everyone told us that we had to do Mount Washburn and it was really cool but it was also similar to the hikes we have in Georgia.  It was a wide, paved road for the most part instead of narrow steep trails.  It was nice for a change of pace!  After hiking Washburn we went to South Rim of the Canyon only to find out that our camera was dead and Scott forgot the extra battery.  We drove back to our condo, got the battery, and headed back to South Rim.  Scott thought it was magnificent but I think that is because he has never seen the Grand Canyon!  It was beautiful but seemed to be just a smaller scale of Grand Canyon.  I have visited the Grand Canyon but that was before our hiking days so we plan on going back soon to hike!

Day 11 – Big Horn Peak (12.8 miles, 4,500′)

Big Horn Peak is actually not in the “official” entrance to the park but is on the way to Big Sky. This was one of our favorite hikes!  It was one of the hardest 12.8 miles I’ve ever hiked!  It was so pretty, part of the time we were in the valley, part of the time we were in the forest, or climbing the mountain!  At the top it was pretty steep and scary because of the narrow ledges! After hiking we headed to Big Sky to eat dinner.  Big Sky was another gorgeous Montana town!

After leaving Yellowstone National Park we spent one day in Grand Teton National Park and hiked 18.9 miles.

– Whitney

Glacier National Park

Trip Date: September 2013

I must admit that I am having Montana withdrawals already!  I have never felt so strongly about a state before.  However, it was one of the three states that I always picked when playing M.A.S.H. when I was younger.  The other two were Wyoming and Maine.  The reason that I picked these states as a kid is because of the populations.  Someone once told me that Montana had more cows than people so it has always been my favorite state even though this was my first time traveling there.  We did stay in Jackson, Wyoming during our visit to the Tetons and I could live in Wyoming but I would still prefer Montana.

One of the best things of all was that we rarely had any cell service.  It was fantastic.

Our trip was more than I could ever even attempt to describe.  I will break it into different posts that I can talk more about the hikes themselves but overall we hiked over 140 miles with an elevation gain of over 25,000 feet.  We were gone for 13 days, 11 of those days were hiking, 2 of those days were for driving to and from the airport.  We were in four different states and visited three different National Parks.  We put 2,800 miles on our poor rental car!  We had actually planned on hiking 160 miles but thunderstorms prevented us from completing a few of our hikes.

This was the basic outline of our trip:

• Aug 31
  • Flew from ATL to SLC
  • Drove from SLC to Missoula, MT
• Sept 1 – 5
  • Hiked over 60 miles in Glacier National Park (MT)
• Sept 6 – 10
  • Hiked over 60 miles in Yellowstone National Park (MT & WY)
• Sept 11
  • Hiked over 19 miles in Grand Teton National Park (WY)
• Sept 12
  • Drove from Jackson, WY to Logan, UT
• Sept 13
  • Drove from Logan, UT to SLC
  • Flew from SLC to ATL

These are not technical reviews – just my opinion and favorite parts!  This was a trip of a lifetime and well worth the 2 lost toenails.  A trip like this would have never happened if we hadn’t taken a HUGE step/risk back in May when I left my “day job”.  Now, on to the review {awesome pictures}!

Our Glacier National Park Recap:
Glacier Totals: 62.4 miles & elevation gain of 10,600 ft

Day 1 – Drive up from Missoula, MT & Lower Quartz Lake (7 miles, 1,100′)
Day 2 – Highline to Swiftcurrent Lookout and Pass (19.6 miles, 3,500′)
Day 3 – Grinnell Glacier (12 miles, 1,800′)
Day 4 – Pitamakin-Dawson Loop (19 miles, 3,500′)
Day 5 – Avalanche Lake (4.8 miles, 700′) & drive to Gardiner, MT

Scott spent a lot of time planning our hikes and our cabins.  I swear he picked out the MOST STRENUOUS hikes he could for each park.  These books helped with our planning: Glacier Day Hikes & A Ranger’s Guide to Yellowstone Day Hikes. Also, this is an amazing website to check out if you are going to Yellowstone!

We flew from Atlanta to Salt Lake City.  We had to wake up at 3:30 AM in order to make our flight out of Atlanta at 6:00 AM (we live about an hour outside of Atlanta).  We boarded a plane to Salt Lake City, stopping for a layover in Houston.  We actually booked our plane tickets before we even knew exactly where we would be going for our trip because they were such a great deal and we knew we were going out west.  Anyway, after landing in SLC we stocked up at Costco on the way to Missoula, MT.  It was a seven hour drive but it was SO BEAUTIFUL.  We drove through Utah, Idaho, and Montana.  By the time we got to Missoula we were starving because there was NO FOOD {literally} on the way (we had to munch on the trail mix and beef jerky we bought from Costco for our hikes).  Once we got to Missoula, we went to The Good Food Store and bought a rotisserie chicken, quinoa salad, and kale salad and dug in at the store (it is kind of like a Whole Foods so there was a place to sit down and eat).  I felt really weird cutting up and picking at a whole rotisserie chicken but I was to the point where I didn’t care!  After eating we went to the hotel and crashed.

Day 1 – Drive up from Missoula, MT & Lower Quartz Lake (7 miles, 1,100′)

Sunday morning we woke up and headed out for Hungry Horse, MT where we were staying in a VRBO cabin.  The drive to Hungry Horse was absolutely breathtaking too!  We drove through Flathead Valley & by the lake.  After arriving at our cabin we quickly unpacked and headed to Glacier National Park for a quick “warm up” hike since we didn’t have enough time for the hike we had scheduled.  We did Lower Quartz Lake which I honestly wasn’t impressed with.  I actually ended up jogging (with a full backpack on) down most of the trail on the way back to try and get off the mountain faster!  However, the drive to the hike was definitely something to talk about!  It was a vary narrow (basically one way road), but with cars going each direction, for miles up a mountain.  Everyone had been telling us to go to the Polebridge Mercantile and get some of their baked goods. We didn’t really know what to expect…I mean, a bakery is a bakery, right?! WRONG! OMG!  We got a few of their huckleberry bars which were to die for.  It was a great choice for a “quick carb” after hiking!

Day 2 – Highline to Swiftcurrent Lookout and Pass (19.6 miles, 3,500′)

Monday was one of our big hikes.  It started out as Highline to Swiftcurrent Pass.  Highline was beautiful but also pretty flat for the most part which gets boring to me.  It was also very crowded at the beginning of the trail.  We took Highline up to the Chalet, which was absolutely stunning. The entire time we could see the Chalet in the distance I kept saying it looked like we were in a Christmas card!  When we got to the Chalet we had a few people tell us that we should hike the overlook too. We had already hiked 7.5 miles so we thought why not just do an additional 1.2 miles?!?!  It turns out that 1.2 miles is an elevation gain of 2,400 feet!  Yes, 2,400 feet in 1.2 miles! We hiked up to the staffed fire lookout where we noticed storm clouds rolling in.  We very quickly made our way off the lookout trail and onto the trail to Swiftcurrent Pass. It started sprinkling on us once we got down but nothing too serious.  Then it really started raining.  We put our rain gear on and trudged forward.  As we were walking down the mountain we spotted a moose.  I was so excited because we didn’t get to see a moose in Colorado when we went last year and I have always had a fascination with them!  After a few miles of getting down off the mountain (in the pouring rain), a very pretty and flat trail started.

This is a picture of the chalet off in the distance that we hiked to.

Below is a picture looking up from the trail to the overlook – I still can’t believe we thought that was a good idea…

After this hike we actually had a cabin reserved in the park so that we didn’t have to drive 2 hours back to our normal cabin. I felt like I was back at camp when I was a kid – the cabin didn’t have a bathroom inside, only a shared bathroom that you had to walk to.  Thankfully we were only there for one night and we were too tired to care!

Day 3 – Grinnell Glacier (12 miles, 1,800′)

We woke up on the 3rd day to tackle Grinnell Glacier.  My feet were hurting me by now.  I made the mistake of not wearing hiking socks on the first day so I had blisters all over my feet but I didn’t want to miss anything so I wrapped them and kept going.  This hike 12 miles and you basically hike into a glacier.  It was stunning but very cold!  It also started raining on us again but we were able to see a moose (up close) & bighorn sheep!

Day 4 – Pitamakin-Dawson Loop (19 miles, 3,500′)

Yes, 19 miles. Everyone we met on the trail were amazed that we were doing this as a day hike.  This hike was my favorite hike in Glacier.  It was absolutely beautiful at the top.  We went counter-clockwise (we did the Pitamakin side first).  After getting through the forest the climb started.  It was basically straight up and very difficult.  There was one section where it was straight up, without any switchbacks.  I told Scott that I was not going to stop – I wanted to climb the whole way without stopping.  I did it – climbed for 8 minutes (probably a 20% incline) without stopping until we made it to the top!  I didn’t think that Glacier National Park could get any prettier but it took our breath away!  It was unbelievable.  We spent a few minutes taking it all in and then continued our trek around and back down.  Part of this portion of the hike was pretty scary considering some of the ledges you walk on are very narrow with just a huge cliff on the other side! On the way down we saw a black bear, about 75 feet away from us.  We both had bear spray (geez…expensive stuff!) and I really wanted to see a black bear and grizzly bear but once we stumbled upon him I was kind of scared!  He was just eating plants and didn’t seem very interested in us!  After finishing this hike we headed back to our cabin to back up and head out to Yellowstone after our final hike in Glacier the next morning.

Day 5 – Avalanche Lake (4.8 miles, 700′)

We only had half a day to finish up any hiking before leaving Glacier and heading to Yellowstone.  Scott had a short hike that he wanted to do so that he could get some good pictures.  We started at the Trail of the Cedars, which was very pretty but crowded because it’s easy.  We finish up that trail and then, of course, Scott wants to add to our hike so we trek on up to Avalanche Lake. Once we got about a mile from the car it started pouring so we were sprinting to the car since we didn’t have our rain gear with us for this short hike.  We left Glacier for Gardiner, MT!

I came across this picture of the AMAZING huckleberry pie we had from Luna's Restaurant outside of Glacier.

Items Packed:

• Protein Bars
• Rice Cakes
• Peanut Butter
• Beef Jerky
• Acai Energy – Energy boost (taken with the Daily Essentials Kit)
• Champion Blend Plus – Energy boost & BCAAs to help with recovery

– Whitney

Appalachian Trail - Grayson Highlands State Park | NC Hikes

Trip Date: May 2013

We didn’t even know if this trip was going to take place or not because we both felt awful last week.  The weather didn’t look too promising either but we went ahead and decided to take the trip.  We have been hiking in Boone before but this time we were going to also be driving to VA to hike with my dad (he is hiking the Appalachian Trail).  We hiked a total of 28 miles on this trip!

Thursday:

We woke up early and drove to Boone (approx 4.5 hours from us). Scott played golf at the Boone Golf Club and I walked the course with him and made up my own workout based off what he was doing - it was really kind of silly but fun! Walking 18 holes was a workout itself!

Friday:

We didn’t have any hiking planned for Friday because the forecast was to be very windy and cold. We slept in for the first time in a long time and then we went to the gym. I had amazing energy which led to an awesome workout! We were at the gym for an hour and a half (I normally try to keep my workouts to one hour) but I let my HRM go for 2 hours just to see the difference (total 836 calories)! I love after burn! If you are interested in this heart rate monitor you can find similar ones here.

After we ate lunch (and I got that awesome fortune cookie) it started to clear up outside so we decided to go on a short local hike. We did Elk Knob which is a 4 mile hike. We did it in 1 hour and 20 minutes…including taking a break to eat. I let my HRM go until I got in the shower for a total of 590 calories! It was a really pretty hike that we will add to our trip each time we go to Boone.

Saturday:

My dad was in Damascus, VA for Trail Days and got food poisoning…which was actually a blessing in disguise because we were able to know exactly where he was and pick him up in Damascus. I can’t even describe the feeling. It was the first time in 2 months that I had seen him! I cried for 2 minutes straight and wouldn’t let him go!  We hiked with him 10 miles in Grayson Highlands State Park. It was an amazing hike. We saw wild ponies and the landscape was gorgeous! It was hard to say goodbye again but he stayed to camp overnight to continue his hike again the next day.

Scott & I hiked another 4 miles back to our car to head to back to Boone. Once we got to the hotel and showered, we decided that we would walk to the restaurant so we walked another 4 miles after hiking 14 on the AT.  

Below are a few photo collages of our adventures:

Sunday:

We checked out on Sunday but still wanted to do something active so we did a short hike/trail run at Julian Price Lake Loop off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a fun and quick little hike!

I talked to my dad on Monday and he told me that us coming up to hike with him was one of the best 5 days of his life.  I’m assuming the other 4 days…when he got married, when my sister was born, when I was born, and when he joined the Marines.  I’m so proud of him!