We woke up and took some time to pack up camp as this was move-out day. We were basically just going to head out the Northeast entrance to the park stopping for whatever we found along the way.
First find, ignoring the road side bison that we shot some pics of along the way, was a pile of people in one of the pull-offs (#7) watching a black bear who was foraging and (briefly) taking a swim in the river. We stayed there taking pictures for a little while. It was amazing how much camera equipment was on the ridge. I felt very under-cameraed… but most of these people were shooting pictures with the hopes of selling them.
Second stop was to see another black bear – this one cinnamon colored. We didn’t get nearly as good of views of this one as it was back in the woods a bit.
We were told that the pass had just opened that day, so we headed back south. We stopped briefly along the drive to go to Tower Falls. There was a hike to the bottom, so we descended only to find that you couldn’t see anything from down there – completely useless. The upper overlook was decent.
We continued on to Mt. Washburn (#8) since it was the first day it was officially accessible. The path up is divided into two sections – one is a dirt road up to the parking lot and the other is the standard hike. The gate was closed at the main road, so we just parked there, loaded our packs and headed up. I think, with the drive closed it was supposed to be a 3.4 mile hike up assuming we had followed the trail. There was a woman there who was apparently doing the same thing, but we passed her after a while and didn’t see her again, so she must have turned back.
[Not a valid template]There were sections of the trail that were still well buried in snow where we had to kind of guess our way through (surprise, it was the direction that went up). Toward the top, we quit sticking to the trail and instead ended up on some elk path across the mountain, then crossing a large snowy expanse and finally hiking up the ridge to the peak. We saw one other person hiking above us, but he had snowshoes. We’re pretty sure we were the first ones to hike the mountain this year without snowshoes.
At the top there is a small ranger outpost, with living quarters for one person. There was no one stationed there for the season yet, but the visitor area was opened so we got to go in and rest for a while out of the breeze.
We descended uneventfully other than seeing a small herd of elk and headed out of the park when we got back to the car.
Roadside bison - a bit blurry
Black Bear
Black Bear
Black Bear
The line of lenses all pointed at the lone black bear. It was fun listening to the shutters every time its head popped up.
Black Bear
Black Bear
Black Bear
Black Bear
Cinnamon Bear
Cinnamon Bear
Saw this guy along the road just trotting around
Bighorn on a hill, spotted above Tower Falls.
Tower Falls from the upper overlook. Note there are no pictures form the lower overlook, because you couldn't see the falls from there. It failed at being an overlook.
Right after we hit the major snowy section - there was some question at this point whether we should push onward.
The last stretch up after the snow. This was not the official route.
Log book with the animals
Mt. Washburn sign, occupied by animals. Just over 10k feet.
The radio station / visitor center / ranger quarters at the top of the mountain.
The descent - we crossed the snow somewhere beyond the little yellow sign you can see in the distance.
Snowy crossing - for the most part we didn't punch through except on the very edges where the snow cover was thin and soft.
The 'elk trail' which from the descent direction actually had a sign telling us to stay off. You can see the snowy trail in the distance - we had to go up around the snow and trees jutting up to the right, I'm not sure where the wildlife trail went to.
Some guys heading up as we headed down. I doubt they made it - they were wearing flip-flops.
Red trail = us, yellow trail = proper. The proper trail may have actually had more switchbacks near the top, who knows.
Not sure if this was a coyote or wolf print. I doubt it was dog because of the rather low number of people who had been up the road, much less the trail at this point.
The snow banks leading up to the parking lot area half way up Mt. Washburn.
The little elk herd we passed on our way down the mountain.
We drove through this storm on the way to the Badlands.
