6/1/17 Idaho, Wyoming, Montana

Woke up early this morning and drove along the backside of the Tetons in Idaho to get to the west entrance of Yellowstone. Said my goodbyes to the Teton mountains for now. 

Drove through Yellowstone for the morning. We saw:

 Gibbon falls:

Upper falls:

Lower falls:

And Yellowstone Grand Canyon:

Then we headed into the northern part of the park and wanted to do Mount Washburn hike. 

This was the trail and trail head. 

We did it anyway. 

There were patches of dry land, snowy areas on flat trails, but there were also some areas of steep snow on the side of a sheer cliff. It was the first time on a hike I had to tell myself on occasion not to look down. 

But overall it was a good hike and a great workout. We did we think about 7.5 miles total and it took us about 4.5 hours as some parts were slow and tedious. 

In the end, all worth it for the view!

It was very windy and cold up top but they have a rangers station for you to warm up in. We were wondering how there were several people up top completely dry and mud free until we realized there was an easy plowed road they climbed up that the rangers take from a different part of the park. Oh well, our way was more adventurous. 

I don't know if I got better at snow climbing or the snow was just more slushy but the hike down was much easier. A rapidly approaching storm started coming about halfway down the mountain. We balanced between not wanting to full out run in wooded areas and attract grizzly's, treading carefully on snow, and running during open areas. We jogged the lower half of the mountain and climbed into the camper right as it started raining harder. I thank God for safety and for us not being on the steep snowy part when the rain hit. 

We kept the family tradition going and forgot to pack food when we hadn't eaten lunch yet. We got back about 430 and drove to the nearest restaurant. 

Saw some nice elk on the way. Go figure I left my good camera in the camper by accident. The phone does terrible for distance shots. 

We drove out of northern Yellowstone and made it about 45 minutes into Montana. We found a great dispersed camping spot in Gallatin National Forest. We drove back in on big creek road about 6-8 miles and right at the end found our perfect spot secluded and by a creek. It even had a fire pit from a previous user.