Jack and I decided to hike a trail called Daly Creek. It is outside of the park but still inside Yellowstone, if that makes sense to you. After yesterday's snow Jack and I were kind of worried about the weather for hiking. We discussed it over breakfast and decided to head out about 9AM. Bob wanted dropped off at West Yellowstone to search for a winter job when his time here at the store is over. So we said we would drop him off and then call him when we were coming back through to pick him up. He said that was fine and understood it may be 4 to 6 hours later.
After breakfast Jack, Bob and I headed to West Yellowstone. The temperature was 48 degrees when we left the dorm. In West Yellowstone, which is a 1,000 feet lower in elevation, it was 36 degrees. Go figure. We dropped Bob off and wished him luck with finding a winter job, then headed to the trail. The trail is about 20 miles outside of West Yellowstone on the highway to Bozeman. As we were driving the temperature never got above 36 degrees, so Jack and I were in for a rather cool start to the hike. As we drove we kept a sharp eye out for any animals, but never saw anything we wanted to pull over and look at. We arrived at the trail around 10:30 and broke out our backpacks and hiking sticks. I want to remind you that Jack is around 83 years old. So I let him set the pace and lead the hike, but in a short time Jack stopped and told me that I just needed to head up the trail at my own pace and he would hike as far as he felt he could go and then have lunch, as the EDR both made us sandwiches. I gave him the truck keys and told him that if he wanted to go back to the truck and take a break then he could just do it without waiting on my. He took the keys and I headed off at my own pace. I planned on hiking in around 3 to 4 miles and then have lunch and hike back down the trail, but those plans would soon change. You see the trail we were on is used by hikers and also by horseback trail rides. It seems that the horses were already there this morning and since the snow and rain came, the trail was pretty muddy. The horse poop and the fact that they turned the trail to mud in several areas made the going difficult. After a mile it felt like I have 2 pounds of mud on my hiking shoes, but I plodded on. Eventually the sun came out and I switch from a toboggan hat to my hiking hat and I removed my gloves. The Sun really can heat up a person quickly at that altitude. The views of the mountains around me were great but there were no animals in sight. I saw plenty of poop but no animals. I also saw a coyote or a wolf track on my trail. I saw deer or elk poop and a ton of horse poop, but no live animals at all. Which was a disappointment to both Jack and I. We were hoping to at least see some bear from a distance. The hike was relatively easy in the there were no great elevation changes unless I purposely went off the trail to inspect the creek for animals. Then I would descend to the creek and have to climb back up using the hiking sticks to get a good foot hold. After close to 2.5 miles in I came to part of the trail that seemed to be about a foot or more below the ground level. It would be OK except that the snow and rail found the path of least resistance and that was to flow down the path for quite some time. I was slogging through 2 to 3 inches of water when I decided that the hike into now should be a hike out of the area, as my hiking boots were water resistant and not water proof. I did not want to have to deal with wet socks for another 3 miles of hiking. So I headed back. But instead of going back following the trail. I explored the creek that was flowing through the valley. The trail followed the creek so I just hiked next to the creek and eventually I met up with the trail. I was never in danger of getting lost, but this allowed me to see if any animals were near the water. I did not see any animals but the creek hike was rather pleasant. I met Jack about 2 miles back as he was sitting on the ground eating his lunch. I stayed with him for awhile and then I told him I was hiking back to the truck and would meet him at the truck, as I would eat my lunch there. On the way back I explored more area off the trail and took some pictures, but still no wild life. I got back to the truck and had a great PBnJ sandwich and watch a cold front come in toward me over the mountains. Soon it began to sleet and snow a little. I was a great lunch. About a half an hours later Jack comes down the trail. We get out boots cleaned off and the truck warmed up and we headed to West Yellowstone to pick up Bob. It snow on us a few times back to West Yellowstone but nothing major. The mountains are whitening up and they look great. Not much else to report as we made it back to the dorm and according to my watch I did 15,342 steps and 5 miles of hiking. Nap time for me. :) Take care and enjoy the pictures.
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| If animal poop was animals, we would have been surrounded. |
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| I think it was a Coyote but it could have been a wolf |
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| The only animal I saw on the hike. A hawk sitting on the direction sign |
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| When the sun came out the area was beautiful |
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