Yellowstone Adventure: Mystic Falls

The wireless at the dorm has finally been fixed so I can blog again!

Last Friday was opening day at the campground.  I worked the 1:00-10:00 p.m. shift and we were so busy their entire time.  Grant campground is huge, it has 429 spots so on opening day we brought in 300+ rigs.  Today the rest of those spots will fill up and then we’ll be full for the rest of the summer.  Last year the campground’s occupancy was 99%. 

We are severely understaffed in the office so we all have to pull long shifts.  Right now I'm working 10 days straight with one day off before the next round starts.  They’re in the process of hiring a couple extra people so hopefully it won’t be like this for too long.  Saturday was my day off so after sleeping in and lazing around until it got up to 40 degrees  I headed out to Biscuit Basin for a hike to Mystic Falls.  Now, I know better than to hike by myself in bear country so I lingered around until I found other people headed the same direction.  It’s always nice knowing you’re headed in the right direction.

 

Here’s the people I was tailing.  They’re all bundled up like it’s winter or something.  I started with a fleece and a jacket, but I quickly shed the jacket and when the uphill climb started I shed the fleece too.  Before long it started raining and then the rain turned into snow so the fleece went back on.

 

Mystic falls is right in an area that was affected by the 1988 fire.  As you can see the Park Service does not do anything with the burnt trees, they let nature take its course.  A bit of trivia…this area is so arid that these trees decompose at a rate of about 1% per year.  So it will take 100 years for these trees to decompose.  As you can see nature rebounds and new tree growth is taking place.

 

Another sign that I’m still headed in the correct direction.  My goal was to do the entire loop and I read that taking the clockwise route was less of a climb.

 

Before long I got a glimpse of the falls. There is a tremendous amount of water flowing because of the snow melt in the high country.
 

 

After admiring the view for a while I had to make like a mountain goat to make the climb up the hill.

Pretty soon I was way above the falls.  This is where my previously non-existent fear of heights kicked in, but I no choice except to continue upwards.

Then I came to a vantage point where I could see Old Faithful village.

Another sign that I was going in the correct direction.  I knew I was going to intersect with the Fairy Falls trail and I wanted to make sure I didn’t accidentally get off on the wrong trail.

Then I came to a water obstacle.  Now most people could just jump on those logs and walk across.  Me, I get so nervous that I would undoubtedly fall off.  I did manage to make it across though without getting wet.

 

 

Then I came to the Biscuit Basin overlook.  Beautiful!

 

Then I had to make like a mountain goat again to get back down the hill.  My trail book was correct, this was definitely a steeper climb than I had made going the other direction (always good to do your research).  I passed a family from Japan and another from Australia who asked me “how much further”.  I lied and told them they were almost at the top.

 

I took a few shots of the geyser pools at Biscuit Basin.

 
This is one of my favorities.  It gurgles and bubbles and sometimes spits a little.

Then I sat down and watched the fly fishers for a little while.

I was entertained by this giant RV who ignored the “RVs Prohibited” sign as they tried to make the corner in the parking lot and had to do a lot of maneuvering to get out.

I then headed over to Old Faithful where I was going to find a spot to eat my peanut butter sandwich and watch the geyser before heading home.  I couldn’t find a parking spot anywhere so I ran into the General Store to grab a huckleberry lemonade before heading to Kepler Cascades where I had no problem finding a parking spot.

 

 

 

A fun day and I didn’t get eaten by a grizzly even though I was by myself.  Sad news in the park over the weekend as a hiker who had gone off by himself had fallen and didn’t survive.  I could just sit in my campsite and not enjoy the park on my days off, but life is too short to not go exploring.

Live life to the fullest!