BIKES AND HIKES AND BEARS… (Oh my!)

Week three in Yellowstone… There is a statistic that less than 1% of the visitors to Yellowstone ever leave the paved roads. Considering how little of the park is paved… they are missing a whole lot-o-amazing!

Temperatures at night are below freezing but the days are warm and sunny.  We are acclimatizing to the higher elevation.  The trails are calling and we answer.  Every day we check out our Nat Geo Map of Yellowstone and look for new paths to explore.  (Dave and Dimples Recommendation: The National Geographic Parks Map App for iPad and iPhone, with park maps in HD!)

Fairy Falls

Natural Bridge

Most of the trails in the park are for foot traffic only, but there are a few that allow bikes and we unfold the Montegues and hit the dirt (or gravel as the case may be.)  The bicycle trail to the Natural Bridge is a little over a mile, an easy uphill jaunt and a short hike up and around a natural stone bridge surrounded by forest and meadows.

Three and a half miles of the Fairy Falls Trail is a gravel road through sweeping meadows and is open to bikes.  The ride is slightly up hill and against the wind. The last few miles are foot traffic only.  We are pleasantly surprised to find a bike rack at the junction where bikes are no longer allowed.  At this point, the trail narrows and winds up through pine forest and over a small creek to finally arrive at the falls. The Falls are pretty; the hiking pleasant, and the return ride with the wind at our backs is fast and fun.

Mid week we plan a hike around the Southern Yellowstone Canyon area.  We park in the Artist’s Point parking lot.  The place is packed with tour busses and tons of tourists.  (Oh… I forgot to mention… the lull immediately after labor day, that we were so pleased about, was short lived and this week the park is full of tour busses and visitors who, like us, thought that this time of year would be less crowded.) After photographing Artist’s Point we head over to the Sublime Point Trailhead. There we recognize a Park Ranger from a hike we did last week.  She invites us hear her talk about bears before proceeding.  We have read the literature and we have bear spray, but it never hurts to have more information so we stick around.  Half way through the dissertation she looks over our heads, excuses herself, and walks a few feet up the trail.  We turn around to see a young male grizzly bear, newly on his own, and approximately three hundred and fifty pounds of wild, ambling across the trail about thirty feet up the hill.  Within a few minutes two Park Rangers armed to the max appear.  They are loaded with guns, ammo and bear spray. They question the first ranger and head up the trailhead after the bear.

We learn that there are two types of Park Rangers, there are the customer service, information, education, warm and fuzzy – rangers; they give the talks and teach the visitors about the park and the wildlife. Then, there are the police, animal control, and public safety, Rangers.  They issue speeding citations, herd bison off the roads, warn visitors when they are getting too close to wildlife and in this case try to teach a young bear that hanging out too close to humans is not a good idea. 

Within a few minutes we hear two loud firecracker type pops and a shotgun blast.  Another PR type Ranger arrives and after speaking with our first Ranger, heads up the trail.  He returns and reports that the Rangers are only “hazing” the bear. They are pelting him with beanbags, setting off firecrackers and discharging the shotgun to encourage him to move on to a less populated location.  A second set of firecracker pops and a shotgun blast reverberates through the forest.  The bear takes off and the trail is temporarily closed, until the Rangers feel sure that the bear has decided not to return to the area. 

Lamar Valley

OK… plan “B”… We head up to the Mt. Washburn Trail.  This is another bike trail.  It climbs from 8,750 to 10,243 feet in 2.5 miles. This one is a bit beyond our comfort zone, so we opt to hike rather than bike up the steep terrain. From this trail we can look down into the Lamar Valley, look across to where the Cygnet fire continues to burn and revel in the vastness of the YNP wilderness.

Palette Spring

The boardwalks around Mammoth Hot Springs are not much of a challenge, the inactive springs are a bit dull and tough to photograph, but the few active springs are lovely.

Yellowstone River

At the end of the week, we check at the Visitor Center and are informed that the Sublime Point Trail has been reopened. They did warn us that the bear had to be hazed two days in a row before he finally left the area and to be alert.  Armed with our bear spay, we head up to Artist’s Point.  The first leg of our hike is along the canyon rim to Point Sublime. We can peer over the edge and see the Yellowstone River way, way, way far down below. The views take our breath away – and the heights make that “funny feeling.”  We then back track and turn off toward the Clear Lake - Ribbon Lake Trail.  This trail takes us through forests, past a serene Lilly pond, through a steam spouting, mud pot boiling thermal area, back into forest past the turquoise spring fed Clear Lake and up over meadows at the east end of the Hayden Valley, where a little mud spot shoots a geyser upon our arrival. There is no sign of the grizzly, (who we call Boo-Boo Bear.)  We continue around past the upper falls where a fairly fresh pinecone laden bear scat sits right off the trail.   We have no way of knowing who left this… but we stay alert.  Our hike continues along the canyon rim past lower falls back to our starting point without any incident.  Of all the hikes so far, this one encompasses all of the features that Yellowstone is famous for and rates amongst our favorites… We hope that Boo-Boo Bear finds a better area to forage during this last month before hibernation for his own safety.