Sunday, August 23, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Drove back up to Yellowstone today after leaving the Tetons. Had my first failed hike when I attempted a backcountry trip. Having never done one before and being by myself, I ended up packing way too much for my level of fitness and about 1000 feet into the hike my legs were completely shot from the weight of my pack. If I get another backcountry opportunity, I will take way less stuff and hopefully be a little more successful. There is a big difference between hiking up a climb with a Camelbak and a full backpack - live and learn.

Decided to just do an easy hike today, so I headed out toward Cascade and Grebe lakes. Very pretty little lakes out in the pasture and surrounded by what were forests until the fires of 1988 and 94 . You can see the stands of dead trees to the left behind the lake. What sounds terrible, the fires provided an opportunity for grasses, flowers and other plants to take over the floor of what before would have been only pine needles.



Along the path, I encountered this lone buffalo I nicknamed "Bob" since he was out hiking by himself. Since Bob and I were going in the same direction, he was a little tough to get around and everytime I got close, he'd turn and give me a look such as the one in the picture to the right letting me know who the dominant male (I think) was on that trail. You can see from all the fallen trees that passing him off the trail was a bit of an adventure as well. Eventually, two other hikers came along and lead me on a path around Bob.

This is a picture from Grebe Lake, the second one along the trail. I turned around at this point.

Millions upon millions of dead trees from the fires all over Yellowstone. Amazing that after twenty years, the products of the fires are still so evident. You can see though that the pine trees are slowly coming back in. I learned that many of the pine trees have built-in ways to deal with fires - their pine cones only release seeds when the temperature exceeds 400 degrees, such as during a fire. Pretty amazing ability to have evolved in that way, but fires are a way of life.

On the way back, I figured I would run into Bob again and sure enough after rounding a curve, I found Bob laying down and taking a bit of a breather. I started him and he jumped up for this picture. At this point, I was really glad he was Bob the Buffalo instead of Bob the Bear.

You can't really see them well in this picture, but the wildflowers that grow in these high alpine prairies are just amazing.