Heading South-East

Squamish was wonderful as always.  The climbing is amazing and the weather perfect.  We spent a lot of time in the smoke bluffs area this visit.  There's a climbing website called Mountain Project and we wanted to climb the top 50 routes under 5.10 listed in the smoke bluffs.  It was fun, although a bit of a long day.  We only had to do about 10 pitches as most of them we had done before.  Most of them where awesome while many seemed like just another pitch.  It seems like rating climbs has almost more to do with how you are feeling that day, rather than some objective measure of a routes worth. Also some just suck.  But really good climbs are both good movement, exposure, etc, combined with you just having a good day emotionally. Along with the smoke bluffs we also climbed a fun multi pitch called Rock On.  My first 10a trad in Squamish! woot.  I'm getting better at trad.  Still a bit scared, but better.

Our last day we tried to climb on the malamute formation.  While getting ready we where asked to move our car by a film crew who were moving into the lot the next day to setup for filming.  This same film crew is now making news by cutting down live trees, roping off climbing areas, using metal brushes to clean rock, and in general being terrible custodians of the Canadian Provincial Parks. Apparently they are filming for a Star Wars sequel.  I'll be watching for a bunch of big rocks in a jungle in the next films I guess.  In any case the malamute was insanely windy as it generally is, so we left.  

We found some lizards in love on the path!  Alligator Lizards ( Elgaria Coerulea ) I think.  The female has lost her tail.

The first step to lovemaking as a lizard: grab your mate by the face with your mouth and drag her across a path! 

Windy! (do gifs work on blogger?!?)

From Squamish we headed towards Mount Rainier. It was a lot wetter than I thought it would be, although it's also spring it makes sense.

Moss and waterfalls!

We decided to do a nice day hike in Mt. Rainier NP which turned out to be a bit longer than we thought.  Starting from the White River Campground we headed towards Glacier Basin, summited Burroughs Mountain  ( I think ), then returned by hiking past shadow lake.  I think it was about 9 miles.  Lots of wildflowers and moss.

Another Aquilegia Formosa! We last saw these while hiking the narrows.

Seirra, Jeffrey's, or Tall Mountain Shooting Star ( Dodecatheon Jeffreyi ).  All the same plant. 

I like meadows a lot.  The hike took us much higher in elevation than we expected.

Top of Burroughs Mountain I think.  Watching tiny climbers starting up Mt. Rainier in the distance.

"Day Hike"

A Glacier Lily ( Erythronium Grandiflorum )

I like when the forest floor is so diverse.  So many different plants that it makes a nice pattern.

After Mt. Rainier we headed down to Yellowstone.  Athena hasn't been since she was little and I have fond memories so we thought it would be fun.  Coming in from the north entrance there were bison and elk everywhere - along with the usual hoards of tourists.  I've just learned that bison, and not buffalo, is the correct term... although I think the park used to call them both when I was a kid.

Hello friend! Bison ( Bison Bison ) are a 'type species'.  Like the red fox ( Vulpes Vuples ) or the moose ( Alces Alces ) they have the same genus and species...  many times due to them being characteristic species of the whole genus ( the 'nominal species' ).   All genera ( not geni or genuses ) should have a type species, although many don't.  

After an extraordinarily expensive campsite the first night we planned on spending the next couple nights in the back country.  Although many of the long trails were closed as it was still early season and the creeks were too high to cross, the tails looping Lake Shoshone were open.  Starting at the Lone Star trailhead (because thats what I remember as a kid) it's about 37 miles round trip.  We took three days, two nights, so averaged about 12-13 miles a day.  Sort of brutal for not hiking with a full pack that much recently.

I found this little guy as we started the hike.

Hiking in you pass by Lone Star Geyser.  We didn't know its expected eruption time when we left but we heard it rumbling so jogged a bit and caught it going off.  There is a notebook on a podium by the geyser where people record the time and duration of eruptions ( I assume so the park can keep track ).  A nice lady was presiding over it, telling everyone who was close enough what the book was for.  She was so pleased with her knowledge that she just had to let everyone know.  Another nice lady was walking around asking people if they had seen other geysers in the park... and of course letting them know that they should go see such and such geyser because she thought it was sooooo cool.  This whole time of course she was ignoring the geyser going off behind her.  Just a nest of people trying to let other people know how much they know.

Athena watches lone star! The sleeping pad on her back is one I've had as long as I can remember.  I think it may have been my mom or dads.

Camp the first night.  This is eating breakfast in the morning.  The lake was so clear and the bottom so shallow that I was watching a fish feeding the whole time I was cooking and eating.  Breakfast with a fish.

More symbiotic/parasitic plants? Sort of like the ones we saw in King Canyon NP I think.  Frustratingly hard to identify these. 

The first night we stayed right beside the lake.  After a chilly stream crossing the next day, we hiked up away from the water and stayed next to another stream in the woods.  Lots of up and down, with very little elevation gain overall. Athena was not amused.

The lake! Seems like a really long way around.  This is just one branch of it.

Athena walking through some marshes.

Hiking out we passed through a marsh where the trail disappears for a while.  After trying our best to stay dry we eventually gave up and just stepped in. It was about mid shin and quite muddy.  There were tons of dragon flies about.  This unfortunately meant that the water was probably full of dragonfly larva which are particularly large and terrible looking I think.  In a couple places there were small bridges, although their purpose seemed a bit lost as you had to walk through the water to get to them.

Found these guys growing next to a geyser.

Eventually the mashes end and the Shoshone Geyser Basin begins.  Shortly after this you complete the loop and start the hike back out.  While hiking out we saw a mother black bear and her two cubs.  We sat for a while watching them play while the mom stripped bark from trees and licked at the sap. One of the cubs tried to climb a tree... and then tumbled down.  He did not think his decisions through.  Eventually they wandered away from the trail, so we wandered on.

The Shoshone Geyser Basin was nice.  I'm not sure I've ever visited it before.

Deep deep pools of near boiling water.

All the campsites in Yellowstone were full the night we hiked out. Thankfully a helpful ranger (who we were reporting the bear sighting to) let us know of free camping areas near Grand Teton NP so we made a short drive down and slept in the car next to another lake.

A now familiar flower.

The next day we looked around Grand Teton a bit, then headed for Vedauwoo.