Hiking Mt. Washburn

Brian hiked Mt. Washburn 20 years ago and wanted to do it again with us - so we set out early to the trail head on Tuesday morning.  As we were getting our things for the hike, a buffalo came around the corner walking down the road.  This might be my favorite buffalo picture.  I swear he stopped right in front of us, made eye contact and then kept on walking towards the motor home on the road. We had a moment.  Finally he got off the road and wandered up a hill.  I love it!

Here are some fun facts - Mt. Washburn was named after an army scout who was in charge of finding the fastest route to Yellowstone Lake.  He climbed to the top of what is now Mt. Washburn to survey the land.  The trail is an old 3 mile road that tourists used to take horse carriages up, and later model T cars.  They had to drive the model t's backwards the whole way up since fuel pumps weren't invented yet.  Now THAT is crazy.

I have never seen so many wildflowers as I did on this hike.  It was just beautiful.


Grant passed his grumpy baton to Haley mid-hike.  This picture below perfectly captures how Haley felt the second half of the hike.  Haha.  This is her reaction to when she saw how far away the fire tower is in the background (where the trail ends.) 
  But once we made it to the top, ate some snacks and chilled out for a bit we were all smiles again.  Yay!


 This is the final stretch of the trail.  The trail starts at 8000 feet and finished at over 10,000 feet over  3 miles.  


 We found snow!
  And mountain goats!








 This is the fire tower and observation deck.  The top floor is where a ranger lives from April to October full time.  There are 3 stationed fire towers in Yellowstone.  Supplies are brought in to you.  You've gotta really like being alone half the year for that job!







 We made it!  Here we are after 6 miles of hiking.  Our legs were pretty useless at this point.  I am so glad we did it.  I am not one to seek out big hikes like this, but Brian is and I'm glad.  It pushes me (and all of us) out of our comfort zone and you see the park in a totally different way than you would otherwise.  I love how he takes us off the beaten path, even if it's hard.  It is always worth it.   We headed to a nice picnic spot and ate our packed lunch to celebrate.
That night we ate out at the Bar N ranch that was close to our cabin.  It was super yummy and decorated so cool.  Brian had ribs that must have come off a dinosaur they were so big and I had buffalo meat loaf.

Comments

Jennifer's Kitchen said…
Yellowstone is one of my very favorite places. I need to go back again! I love the west. The Buffalo encounter was amazing!! And how cool you got to see Mountain Goats as well.
July 15, 2015 at 11:12 AM
Anonymous said…
You guys are inspiring. All that hiking. Way to go!!
July 15, 2015 at 3:35 PM
Amy said…
Pretty wildflowers!
July 19, 2015 at 7:15 PM
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