Dunanda Falls

Thirty-plus years in eastern Idaho and western Wyoming, and I'd never gone backpacking in the  Bechler Meadows region of Yellowstone National Park. About twenty years ago I went dayhiking there to do some fishing. That trip didn't work out very well; after a two hour drive from home and a two hour hike in to where I wanted to fish, I found that I had left my fly reel back in the truck. Oops... Back in the parking lot, I met a former park employee who had just spent a couple of nights near Dunanda Falls and couldn't stop crowing about the best fishing he'd ever had, not to mention the hot springs that fed some wonderful soaking pools at the base of the falls. Um, not exactly what I needed to hear right then, but I did file Dunanda Falls away for future reference.

The southwest corner of the park is home to some very flat areas (hence the Meadows), and also some lovely rivers, waterfalls and hot springs. The meadows are very boggy, often knee-deep in water through much of the summer; the Bechler region is very much a fall trip after the meadows have dried out and the brutal hordes of mosquitoes have met a frosty death. The classic Bechler backpacking trip is to spend four or five days on the 30 miles between Old Faithful and the Bechler Ranger Station at the southwest corner of the park. 

We had a good weather forecast and a few days of uncommitted time; Jill suggested backpacking into the Bechler. She had never been there, so it would be essentially new territory for both of us. We planned a two-night trip, enough to get a taste of the place. The morning we planned to leave, we woke up to the sound of a thunderstorm and steady rain. We decided against hiking in that weather, and scaled back to an overnight trip leaving the next day.

At the ranger station, we were fortunate to find our first choice of campsites was still available -- Boundary Creek site 9A2, about 6.5 miles from the trailhead, and 1.5 miles from Dunanda Falls. We took the shorter of two routes: the Boundary Creek trail rather than the Bechler Meadows trail. This route is a half-mile shorter, at the expense of two additional stream crossings. Both crossings (Bartlett Slough and Boundary Creek) were easy knee-deep crossings in water that wasn't as cold as I had expected.

After a third stream crossing (this one unavoidable), we reached our campsite, set up camp, lightened our packs, and hiked on to Dunanda Falls. The maintained trail stays high, above the top of the falls. There is a very steep trail down to the base of the falls, it would be dangerous when wet and muddy. The falls are indeed very scenic. We found a couple of hot pools on the edge of the creek, and one of them was just about perfect for a soak. We had the place to ourselves, and stayed there until it was a race against sunset to hike back to camp and prepare dinner.

After a chilly night (29 degrees inside the tent at 8am), we cooked breakfast and waited for the sun to bake the frost off of our tent. We decided to hike out via the slightly longer route through Bechler Meadows, mostly to see more new territory but also to skip two of the stream crossings. Bechler Meadows is a surprising expanse of flat terrain, quite a contrast to the elevation changes we're accustomed to when hiking in the Tetons.

 The Bechler Meadows trail has a suspension bridge across Boundary Creek.

I didn't take fishing gear on this trip; I was lazy and didn't want to carry the extra weight, and also didn't think I'd have enough time to really do it justice. But I do want to go back equipped with a fly rod and more time...

Packsaddle Loop

Today we finally got around to doing a classic mountain bike loop ride over on the Idaho side -- Packsaddle Loop. It's a 15 mile ride in the Big Holes, west of Driggs. The riding is on easy forest service roads, with some gravel county roads down on the flats to close the loop. 

Janet and Lisa were already planning to do this ride, so Jill and I tagged along. We had some gorgeous views east to the Tetons, no traffic to speak of, and perfect weather.

Muddy water in the Big Ditch

Jill and I were fortunate enough to get invited on a Colorado River trip through the Grand Canyon, which might be our favorite adventure. Sixteen of us launched from Lees Ferry on August 17, and we took out at Pearce Ferry on August 31. It was a fast-paced trip; we floated 280 miles in 15 days. I was at the oars on an 18-foot raft. Jill kayaked a few days and shared some time on the oars as well. She had hoped to spend more time kayaking, but the water turned out to be so muddy that kayaking wasn't very pleasant.

For the first week of the trip, Arizona was experiencing unusually wet weather. Some monsoonal flow with afternoon storms is typical in August, but what we got was way over the top. We had rain six out of the first seven days, including some long steady rainstorms that are unusual for the desert. Two significant tributaries to the Colorado -- the Paria River and the Little Colorado River -- experienced extended flash flood conditions for days at a time, dumping huge amounts of muddy water into the main Colorado. Here are the flow graphs for the Paria and the Little Colorado... over ten times their typical flows!

The exceptionally muddy water made it difficult to read some of the rapids; instead of frothy whitewater to highlight rocks and pourovers, the waves were the same brown color as the rest of the river. The waves also tend to be slightly smaller, because the water is denser due to the entrained silt and mud.

We had six rafts in our group, four 18-footers and two 16-footers. One raft flipped in House Rock Rapid, and two rafts flipped in Hermit Rapid. Only the 16-foot rafts flipped, hmmm... I managed to keep my raft right side up, though in Hermit I thought we were going over for sure; the waves were the biggest I'd ever run. Hit it square and hope for the best! The waves in Hermit get largest when the river flow is 17-19000 cfs; it was about 19000 when we ran it. The daily releases from Glen Canyon dam cycled between 9000 and 17000 cfs. Other rapids get easier at these flows, notably Horn Creek and Bedrock. We all ran Lava Falls (nominally the most difficult rapid in the Canyon) on the classic right-hand line without incident.

And what would a Grand Canyon trip be without costumes? Big thanks to Shane for inviting us...

My Google+ photo album for Grand Canyon 2012

Sneaking up on Red Peak

Every time I go hiking in the Snake River range, I think to myself "one of these days I need to go up to Red Peak". Not because it's anything spectacular, but hey, because it's there. On Tuesday I was looking for a off-the-beaten-path hike, not wanting to deal with the peak of summer crowds in the Tetons. I settled on Red Creek, down in the Snake River canyon.

The Red Creek trail gets very little use; the first two miles had many sections that were almost overgrown with waist- to head-high vegetation. Riding a mountain bike would not be an enjoyable proposition here. When you could see, the views were impressive.

After about 1.5 miles, the trail veers northeast up a side canyon, and eventually gains a ridge after about two miles. Getting up into the grass and sage was a welcome relief after the dense vegetation  down in the canyon bottom. The scenery also improved considerably.

In Rebecca Woods' book Jackson Hole Hikes, her commentary on this trail says that the map shows a trail heading north toward Red Peak at the 3.1 mile mark, but she didn't see any sign of it on the ground. I didn't either, some 15 years later, and blithely followed the obvious trail that kept heading east toward Dry Fork Canyon. The views were gorgeous, but the trail wasn't taking me where I wanted to go. 

By the time I realized that there wasn't a junction with a trail up to Red Peak, I was about a kilometer northeast of where the junction should have been. No matter though, there was another gentle ridge that headed toward Red Peak, and the terrain was a mix of grass and low sage that made for easy walking. The weather was warm, winds were almost calm, and in some places the wildflowers were a spectacular carpet of color.

After about a kilometer of easy off-trail travel I gained the main ridge leading up to Red Peak, and found the trail at that point. 

I started fairly late; didn't leave the trailhead until 1:45 pm. I figured that 6pm was going to be my turn-around time so that I wouldn't be hiking out in the dark. Even with taking the long way around, I made it to the summit about 5:30pm.

The summit of Red Peak is 9736', which is a respectable hike from the trailhead at 5800'. The temperature was in the upper 70s, the winds were almost calm; the only minor issue was the smoky haze that spoiled the gorgeous 360-degree views here. I didn't see another person for the entire hike, although there was a band of sheep being herded along the next ridge to the northwest. The plume of dust in this picture (looking northwest) is from the sheep.

The views were spectacular in every direction. This is looking west to Deadhorse Peak; the map shows a trail that loops over to Deadhorse Peak and then back down Little Red Creek. I could see the trail on the ridge heading west, but I decided to save that adventure for another day when I wasn't short on daylight. 

Looking to the north, the Tetons were just barely visible through the haze. I took a picture but they aren't visible in it. Oh well..

I spent about 15 minutes on top of the peak, had a snack and savored the views. Then it was time to head down. I followed the trail down the ridgeline -- it was easy to follow in some places, and totally obscured in others. Eventually I came to the cross trail that I had ascended on, right at an unusual rock where I had stopped for a short break on the way up. The trail up the ridge was totally invisible at that point, no wonder I'd missed it. So, if you're headed to Red Peak and you crest a low ridge and see these unusual rocks, turn left!

It was about six miles back to the car, and I covered it in about two hours; it was of course much easier going downhill! All in all, it took me just over six hours for the round trip. I didn't see another soul the entire route, the weather was perfect, the views were spectacular... wow. 

Gates of Lodore

Two river trips in the same month, yeah!  My friend Mike hit the lottery for a river trip permit on the Green River through Dinosaur National Monument. Unfortunately, Mike's wife suddenly developed a serious health problem just 9 days before we were scheduled to launch. Mike had to cancel; I was able to pick up the cancellation launch date and the trip proceeded as otherwise planned. (The best news, Mike's wife is recovering well).

Thirteen of us, in four rafts and three kayaks, spent four days on the water. We had picked the same campsites as we used in our 2010 trip. This year we had great weather, no flipped boats, no injuries, and no mosquitoes at all! Just like in 2010, a skunk was prowling the campsites at Jones Hole.

My PicasaWeb photo album for Gates of Lodore

Middle Fork of the Salmon!

We're home and unpacked after a 7-day trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon, through the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho. When we launched on June 30, the gauge at Middle Fork lodge was at 3.56 feet; seven days later it was at 3.14. This was a really enjoyable level, the rapids were fun, the rock gardens not intimidating like at low water.

The weather was just about perfect. On our last night, we got a few raindrops from some menacing clouds during dinner -- just enough to convince Jill and I to set up a tent. Naturally, that was the only rain we had.

We did a layover day at Lost Oak Camp; some of our group ferried across the river to soak at Sunflower Flat hot springs, others went hiking. The fishing was very good, there were lots of golden stoneflies out and the cutthroat trout were happy to feed on the imitation versions.

This was the first multi-day river trip in the new raft that Jill and I bought last summer; we really like the new setup. It carries gear like a dream and rows very nicely; although I had terrible sloppy runs through a couple of the rapids, it wasn't the raft's fault!

Permits to run the Middle Fork are hard to get; the lottery odds for prime dates can be 100:1 or worse. Thanks to everyone in our group for a great trip, and special thanks to Alice for inviting us!

My Middle Fork photo album on PicasaWeb

Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim

We're back home and mostly unpacked after a 4-day backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon. Our friends Whitney & Jeff had a permit and invited us, along with their friends Jim and Kiryn. We started at the North Rim (8200') down the North Kaibab Trail to the Colorado River (2450'), and then up to the South Rim (6860'). 14 miles down, 9.5 miles up. Then we caught a shuttle bus back to our vehicles at the trailhead on the North Rim. We camped at the bottom of the canyon, and at midpoints on each side; that made for fairly easy hiking days.

Yes, it was hot! But we managed by hiking early in the morning, soaking our shirts in the creek when we could, and relaxing in the shade during the heat of the day. At Phantom Ranch (the bottom of the canyon) it was 107F in the shade! Maybe that's why I forgot to take any pictures there...

My Picasa web album for the backpacking trip