Yellowstone Trip 2008 Part I

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Originally uploaded by zenhikers

At the beginning of August, we headed out of town to spend some time in Yellowstone National Park, near the part of the country we visited last year on the Backpacker CDT Project. This year, rather than meeting up with a cranky trip leader, we met up with our friend Fine Dining (Andrew) from the Bay Area. We're old friends from our PCT hike in 2002, so travel together was anticipated to be a fun reunion. After a quick stop in Salt Lake City to retrieve Andrew, we hit the road for Idaho and beyond. I don't really recommend stopping at the Tasty Treet in Pocatello, but if you want to encounter a completely enigmatic menu you can order a burger (or something) make a guess at the unique combination of condiments you may receive and sit outside in a nice yard on the main drag. After a few more miles on the road and the integration of our various iPods, satellite radio channel preferences, and CDs, we made it to Idaho Falls and the warm welcome of Tom Bodett. There was a lot of anticipation to GET TO YELLOWSTONE, but because we hadn't set up a campsite reservation until Saturday we decided to drive into the park through Grand Teton and camp out one night a lake there.

The drive out of Idaho Falls involved a search for suitable caffiene, a drive through rural Idaho (beautiful) and some yuppie-viewing in Jackson Hole. We also made our first stop to clean the bugs off the windshield...this would be a point of contention during our travels, since some people literally can't see the road for the bugs, and some fail to let a few arthropod carcasses get in the way of their driving. Others were just plain compulsive and did a great job cleaning the thing. Hey! Pocky appreciates that kind of effort.

Almost immediately after leaving Idaho Falls we starting seeing wildlife, and the bison (a most impressive animal) really woke us up as we entered Grand Teton. We got to Lizard Lake campground in the early afternoon and had a relaxing time setting up camp, chatting and cooking a meal on the Cobb Cooker. Most of the time in camp (and this is a theme through the whole trip) I spent practicing the myriad of knots involved in fly-fishing. I started practicing at home with some alpine cord, but using real fishing line and leader was a whole different ball game. Frustration ensued. I took breaks to go see the awesome campfire programs that the National Parks put on for bored campers, families, and nature nerds like me. At Lizard Lake the program was on the pronghorn antelope and I learned a lot about this very funny looking animal. We went to bed pretty early because we were REALLY EXCITED to GET TO YELLOWSTONE in the morning.