Entry to Yellowstone

Robert and Mark drove Cory and I back to Big Sky so we could keep heading south. We hiked up to Ramshorn Lake in the evening, waiting out a storm under thick trees for a while. Beautiful sunset from our camp above the lake, which we wanted to avoid because bears had been a problem there, possibly after leftover grain from horse packers who often camp there.

In the morning, we set off to traverse "Sky Rim," the far northwest boundary of Yellowstone park. Up and down for hours, we admired views south into Wyoming.

Around five in the evening, we were down from the ridge, dehydrated and rather shattered from the work. We drank from the stream and I found a detour deeper into the park that would save some climbing. We then tunneled down valley to a broad trunk valley from which we went back up to the east.

The next day, we passed a herd of pack llamas resting in a field...

We climbed up to a high pass, coming into Wyoming along the way. At the top, Cory saw a herd of bison grazing on top of a nearby mountain at 10k feet.

Now down from the pass towards Mammoth. We chatted with a hiker about where we might be able to sleep near town. He described some possible stealth camping opportunities. Soon we were strolling through the steam vents and the bad smells!

We ate at the cafe, which closes at seven and only serves microwave food, still damaged from the floods the year before. And the campground was closed. Finally we hitched a ride down to Gardiner with a young pair of park workers from Ecuador. We got a hotel room, did laundry and prepared to get out permits to walk across the park the next day...