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howdy from Yellowstone

I'm having an amazing summer so far, and it's nearly half over now. We've done so many amazing hikes and climbs and such. I've been keeping records, and I've hiked over 100 miles already. I've been trying to hike, rockclimb, or otherwise get a workout every day after work, and we try to do a big trip every weekend.

This past weekend we hiked from outside the southern border of the Park about 8 miles north back in to Union Falls and Scout Pool. Union Falls are known as the best waterfall/swimming hike in Yellowstone...and that's saying a lot when there are over 300 different waterfall hikes to choose from! It was a pleasant and easy hike (except most of the others had a lot of problems with mosquitos, though they didn't bother me much) with a reasonable distance and only about 600 feet of elevation change. We were worried about the Falls River ford, which was supposed to be 3+ feet deep and difficult to cross, but most of the glacial runoff is already past. All day it looked like it was going to rain (it's pretty likely that at some point every day it will rain no matter where you are in the park), but it cleared up just as we arrived at Scout Pool. The pool is right below a small waterfall in a creek where there is a 5-foot-deep sandy-bottomed pool which has a thermal feature pumping up in the middle. The underwater geyser made the creek (which is fed farther upstream by runoff from snow) about 70 degrees, so it was AMAZING to swim in.
After about an hour and half of swimming, we headed up to Union Falls, which is named because the falls are made of two creeks which join together as they cascade down. With about a 250 foot drop, it's the second highest waterfall in the park (second to the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone), and far more beautiful than any other falls I've seen. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls, and most everybody got completely soaked (except for me because of my new Marmot Precip jacket = AWESOME). On the way down, one of those freak hailstorms that are typical to alpine travel completely soaked the dry clothes that everyone had changed into, and I suddenly became the expert on staying dry and warm. I handed out my unused dry socks, extra clothing layers, and hand warmers, and no one got hypothermia on the last 7 miles of the trail (thank God!) Half the group had to work yesterday, so they went ahead, but 5 of us camped out just above the Falls River ford for the night.

It's weird, before I came here, I always felt like I didn't know enough about outdoors to be the expert, but out here everybody seems to look up to me. Sometimes, it's a lot of pressure. I plan most of the hikes, explain the terrain/wildlife/foliage, and pack extra equipment/food/supplies/clothing that I know people will forget. Some of the girls on the ACMNP team call me Mr. Wilderness... which is kind of intimidating, but ultimately cool. Anyways, it's sort of fun being the expert this time...

Yesterday, though I had planned to go back and hang out at the dorms, I ended up driving down to the Tetons with my buddy Jefferis. We checked out a new climbing spot we found out about called Boulder Town. It turned out to be the coolest bouldering spot I've been to. Basically, it's a boulder field filled with hundreds of rocks and 10 or so that are big enough to top-rope from, and all of it is overshadowed by the area called the Cathedral Group (Teewinot, the Grand, Owen, St. John, Rockchuck, and Moran) which made for one of the most impressive views of the Tetons. After we climbed around a bit, we climbed up a big rock, rolled out our sleeping pads, and took a nice nap in the sun. It's was amazing. Then we drove south of Jackson Hole to a play hole in the Snake River, and I watched Jefferis kayak. There were two other guys there who were experts, and it was really cool to see them do tricks off of the big wave. Jefferis had a concert to go to (which I didn't want to pay $30 for), so I ate a big mexican dinner and walked around the town in Jackson. By the time the concert was over, it was late, and we were tired, so when it started raining on the drive, we decided it wasn't smart to finish the 2 hour drive home, and we ended up setting up my tent and camping out for another night. We got woke up ridiculously early and got back here at about 7:45......and I had to be at work at 8am. It made for a long day at work, but afterward I took a huge nap, so it's all good.

I wish I had time to write more about all the crazy awesome stuff that's going on, but I have to get off now because a guest needs to use the courtesy line... more later, hopefully.