Follow me on the CDT #11: Yellowstone
After the lack of trail prior to Dubois, I stood in amazement at my option of 6 parallel trails. I mean… why? How? Since leaving Dubois only the day before we’ve seen a total of one person in the backcountry. What could have possibly have made one trail, let alone six? Horses. We were on the horse highway though none were in sight. It did reassure me that at some point there are/were numerous people in this backcountry. Throughout most of the current morning I found myself stepping around bear scat and pointing out prints. At one point there was a tree with large tufts of grizz fur still stuck in the bark from a vigorous back scratching session. Despite being with another person, I felt alone out here with nothing but bears.
From Dubois it was 50 miles to the southern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is roughly the size of Connecticut and 2nd largest park in the southern 48 states. It receives millions of visitors annually yet less than 45,000 of those leave the roads and boardwalks for the backcountry. My vision remained though, once we cross into the southern boundary of the park we will have other backpackers to chat with and mingle.
Right off the bat, I realized that my expectation was laughable. The trail leading into the park was overgrown, to put it mildly. The best comparison is a car wash. Willows as tall as my head pushed into the trail with wet leaves that soaked me and my clothes. Good-bye horse highway, it seems we are even more alone!
The trail entered Yellowstone close the southeast corner and then headed northwest (more west than north) to exit along the western border. Right away the willows ended as we started to follow the Snake River through a canyon. Before I get too excited for a clear trail, I came to first river crossing and realized the park does not bother to build bridges so far from a trailhead. Well, at least my shoes were already wet.
As the afternoon passed, the canyon landscape shifted to surprisingly thick forests of thin trees. I started to worry I was going to be disillusioned with Yellowstone. Nothing I’d seen during the day so far hinted at the majesty of the national park. The river, the canyon, the forests could be anywhere. At this point, I’ve walked down hundreds of canyons following a river. It was not until we got to our first camp spot on Heart Lake that the awe came back in a HUGE wave.
Yellowstone requires backcountry permits for camping. Your permit specifies which assigned designated site so we cannot choose our tent space as we please like normal. We called the park office back in Dubois to arrange our permits since we knew there would be no cell service. Our permit request was centered on mileage with no consideration to the landscape surrounding the spot so I was pleasantly blown away to walk on a sandy lakeshore to our lakeside campsite.
The CDT around the northern shore of Heart Lake
I couldn’t be more in love with our campsite. We enjoyed a lakeside dinner, washed our legs like a real bath, and fell asleep listening to the light waves. Hands down my favorite camp spot of the trail thus far! In the morning I loved it even more because not only was it a gorgeous spot but we made it through the night without any incident. No sudden storm to punish us for camping on an exposed ridge, no creaking trees, no freezing temperatures, etc. All good and no bad.
Our second day in the park would be the longest at 28 miles between our assigned campsites. We started right at sunlight, around 6:20am, to take full advantage of the day. Not even a mile down trail did I spot steam rising in steady clouds from a geothermal vent. This really is Yellowstone now!
The day was a blur of standard, “boring” trail mixed with a variety bag of new exciting terrains. By early afternoon we had already walked on the shore of two more lakes to reach a bog. I was struggling with foot discomfort from prolonged wearing of wet shoes/socks and there was no way through the bog with dry feet. The only option was to walk barefoot. The bog section only lasted about a quarter mile and was knee deep at worst. The most amazing thing was that there was only one leech between the two of us!
The decision to cross the bog was strategic. I noted that were was a higher route available, but the trail through the bog immediately led into a backcountry geyser basin. Besides seeing stacks of steam rising from the ground, there had not been any other geothermal spectacles yet.
Boy was it worth it! As I led the way into the geyser basin it was clear that this was a different ecosystem. The ground was white and brittle. In stark contrast there were large clearings without plant life or trees. I rounded a corner on the trail and came face-to-face with a small geyser shooting water a few feet into the air. This was a private tour of Yellowstone!
Minute Man Geyser
As evening started, we neared the closest trailhead (about 8 miles out) and began to see people. While we still camped alone we at least knew there were two other backpacking groups around…somewhere. This recent isolation made the following morning a cacophony to the senses - Old Faithful. My fascination with Old Faithful was not the natural wonder, but the lodge across the parking lot was offering an all-you-can-eat-breakfast. It was not a push to wake up at 5am, to eat first breakfast, and get on the trail at first light. I was so “in the zone” that when I heard a stick break to my left, I glanced over, saw a black bear 15 ft away, said “oh its a bear”, and didn’t break stride toward the lodge. I wish had a picture now because it was posed perfectly in side profile on a fallen tree.
After a filling and satisfying breakfast we started out to finish the remaining 15 miles inside the park. We did not have permits to camp in Yellowstone that night and needed to make it to the park boundary at minimum. Just before the park boundary was another milestone- the Idaho border. This would mark our 3rd state completed! Before I could get too excited, the water situation became apparent. There was a lake a few miles ahead of the border and that would be our single water source for the next 35 miles. This would be the longest carry yet. My carrying capacity is 4 liters so that was the maximum I could fill up. My back groaned in protest as I hefted my 10lb heavier pack over my shoulders.
Luckily we could lighten the load at the Idaho crossing by drinking our celebration shooters and soda. Ironically, Idaho would be our completely dry state.
At the park boundary was where we start on the next adventure of the Big Sky Alternate. This is the largest alternate of the CDT, veering away from 500 miles of red line to ultimately cut 250ish miles.
The redline continues west to follow the Idaho/Montana border, but from here we were cutting due north straight into Montana just 20 miles away. Idaho will forever be to me, dusty dirt roads without a drop of water. Let’s hope Montana is better!
