Groundhog Day

For those who have seen the movie, Groundhog Day, you will know where Punxsutawney is and what is Gobbler's Knob. We are spending our last night on the road here in the home of Punxy Phil, the weather-predicting groundhog. TJ has always wanted to visit as Groundhog Day is one of his favorite movies. I have watched it quite a few times. So here we are, in town for a night. To be frank, there is really nothing exciting here except for the one day a year, Feb 2nd, where Punxy Phil gets all the attention and predicts whether its going to be 6 more weeks of winter. Otherwise, Gobbler's Knob is a field with overgrown grass and weeds.

Looking for Punxy Phil

Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse - South Dakota

We added this part of the trip specifically at my request. Ever since watching the movie, Richie Rich, I have wanted to see the face sculptures.
We stayed at a BnB called Dakota Dream in Custer. The drive to Mt Rushmore takes less than an hour, through the Custer State Forest.

The 5th face

There is also another sculpture in progress of Crazy Horse. It is the world's largest mountain carving. The project started in 1948 and is due to be completed by ......….
There is a model of the finished sculpture at the viewing veranda.

Progress since 1948

The 1/34th scale model

Driggs

We can now add Idaho to our list of states visited. We left Yellowstone and drove to our next destination, Driggs. Its a small Mormon town. After all our outdoor adventure, we are now on a food adventure. Idaho is not only known for its potatoes but also huckleberry. We don't know if its only in Idaho or in other parts of US but the first we have heard and could get them is in Idaho.

First was in the town called Victor. We had a huckleberry milkshake. In Driggs, we found places selling huckleberry sauce, soda, martini etc. It taste and looks like blueberry. For dinner tonight, I had salted caramel, bacon and pretzel sundae. Its salted caramel ice cream with bacon bits and pretzels. I quite liked it but TJ is undecided.

We went to the Warbird Cafe for lunch. Its an interesting place as its located in the airport and we were seated right next to the runway. The airport is for small light planes and we saw them taking off and landing right next to us! We also saw a couple of gliders and one landed on the runway. Another interesting experience.

Less than halfway pose

We decided to try hiking up the Table Mountain about 30 mins drive to the trailhead. It was a steep uphill all the way for about 4km. At about halfway, I decided to stop. We have also started to hit more snow, which we expected. TJ continued up to try to get a view of the Grand Teton from the top of the mountain. He did get the view.

Kayak Day 4

It was time to leave the lake and back to civilization. We woke up early and again the lake was clear and glassy. We enjoyed the morning with a cuppa, taking in the view for the last time.

 It was going to be a few hours of paddling back to the boat ramp. The wind wasn't in our favor, unfortunately. We headed straight into it in both lakes. We finally got onshore around 1pm and unloaded. That's the end of our trip and it really has been perfect, particularly the weather.

Ducks along the channel

Kayak Day 3

Calm morning

There was a passing thunderstorm in the night. In the morning, we woke up to glassy water. It was remarkable footage to see calm, clear glassy lake.

After a breakfast of scrambled egg and hash burritos, we paddled a few km to the Shoshone Lake Geyser Basins. It was an area of largest geo thermal concentration. The area is remote, accessible only by the lake or a couple of days by foot. No mass tourists.

Landing at the basin

Hot spring

We spent a couple of hours exploring the hot springs, geysers and steam vents.

Kayak Day 2

Sunset from our camp

Our own beach

What do you do when you are in a remote area, with no one around, a clear lake and a warm sunny day? Skinny dipping! That's what we did when we got to our 2nd camp site, 8R2 on day 2. Having paddled for a couple of hours, we got to the camp site lunch time and it was perfect for a quick dip. The water is chilly under 10C, so it was really just a few seconds in the water. Enough to give you the pins and needles. Our camp spot was better than the first, high up with a view of the lake.

Our bear hang

Kayak Day 1

Map of the lakes

We embarked on our 4-day trip across Shoshone Lake in Yellowstone. Met our guide, Kevin at Lewis Lake, the starting point. It took us more than an hour to load up 2 kayaks, with TJ and I taking a tandem. It is surprising how much you can fit into a kayak. We had 4 days worth of personal stuff plus food and cooking utensils including a stove.

Paddling hard in the channel

Lunch stop pose

The day started cold but soon warmed up shortly after we left the ramp. It was good timing after the past week of snow and rain. We paddled out to Lewis Lake and through the channel to Shoshone Lake. Paddling in the channel was hard work as the current was against us. It got a bit easier once we hit the lake. Our first camp spot was 8Q9 at about 4pm, after about 4 hours including a lunch stop.

Artist Potholes

Bubbling mudpots

Mud spring

 It snowed today, right from breakfast to lunch. We took the day easy with bacon-wrapped egg and cheese sandwich, our trademark breakkie and headed out to Artist Potholes. Its an area with boiling/bubbling mud patches, geysers and springs. Then its off to shower, laundry and prepare for our 4-day kayaking trip.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Palette Spring

It was rain on and off day. We decided to head to a big tourist village called Mammoth to check out the thermal basins. Although it was popular, the basin was worth checking out. We took the opportunity to do our backcountry briefing from the park's office, which is required if you camp backcountry. We had to do it for our kayaking trip in 2 days.

Mound Terrace

The weather cleared up a bit and we took our bikes out to Osprey Falls. It was a 4 mile ride out to the trailhead and then a steep 1.4 mile down to the fall.

Osprey Falls

Old Faithful Geyser

Old Faithful Geyser erupting

This is a legend in Yellowstone. However, it is a tourist trap with hundreds of dozens people. It is a good place to go if you want to see a geyser erupting. This geyser is reliable and erupts every 60 - 90 minutes. The rangers will provide the time of next eruption almost to the +/- 10 mins. We did end up watching it go off at 1.52pm. The forecast was 1.41pm. The only reason we ended up here was to have a shower before we headed back to base camp.

The main plan today was to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. We did not see that from the boardwalk but climbed the hill to get above the spring. After hitting the peak of the first mountain, our hiking companion, Jen continued and went up a higher peak. It was not a trail but we found a way up. It was magic. It was well worth the day. We could see the colours from above and the sun cooperated.

Grand Prismatic Spring

The day went downhill from thereon. On our way to Fairy Falls, the cloud set in and rained. It wasn't really passing as yesterday. We could see that its going to be rainy for the rest of the day. We parted ways with Jen and headed to Old Faithful, looking for shower and a bite to eat.

Fairy Falls

On our way back to Norris, we stopped by Biscuit Basin and the Grand Prismatic Spring view points. We stuck to the boardwalks. The Sapphire Pool was worth a look but the highlight of the day has been the climb to the highest peak to view the Grand Prismatic Spring.

South Canyon Trail

We met up with our friend, Jen from Grand Tetons who was also in Yellowstone and hiked the South Canyon area. Went to the two waterfalls, upper and lower falls. We got near to experience the massive water flow and hear the thundering roar. It has been a long winter with lots of melting snow.

It was a scenic hike with waterfalls, rivers, creek, thermal springs, meadows and lakes. We had to deviate from our trail due to a herd of bisons. I think we spooked two of them when we saw them charging out from the woods. Bisons are more dangerous than bears as they can charge at you anytime, while bears just stay out of your way. They only attack when you are too near to their cubs or food. In one of our detours, we found a bubbling mud pot. It was just boiling mud, filling the air with smelly sulfuric acid. We found other hot springs and  then all vents. It was great to be able to explore the area without restrictions as many areas here. Although its at our own risk.

Norris Geyser Basins

We explored the Norris geo-thermal basins near our campground after setting up our tent and tarp. We went to Porcelain Basin and then the Back Basin. There were geysers, steam vents, hot springs, fumaroles etc. All had to do with hot water, rocks and volcanic stuff.

We saw a few geysers going off but just small ones. Interesting and colourful hot thermal pools and springs. On our walk back, we saw a herd of bisons grazing. By now, I am no longer excited about bisons. They are everywhere.

Yellowstone

Our first day in the oldest national park in America. It is a big place with 4 or maybe 5 entries into the park and over 3 states. We left Cody before 7am to ensure that we get to Norris campground by 9 to get a site. We got a good spot. On the way, we had snow!

Snowy camp

Bison shedding its winter coat

Yellowstone is known for its wildlife and of course, geysers and thermal pools. Along the roads, we saw a bison walking on the road with us and two other cars following him. We passed when he got off to the side. We also saw a big horn sheep walking along as we passed. It was the first time I have seen one and it was a close up too.

Big horn sheep

Cody

Cody town is founded by William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody, who is supposedly a legend in the wild west. Its a typical cowboy town with the rodeo and all western stuff.

After 7 days of camping, we are in a b&b called Robin's Nest for a bit of r&r and housekeeping before embarking on our next 10 days.

In town, we went to see the rodeo. Cody is known as the capital of rodeo and it was way better than the one we went to in Texas. They have real competitors riding bulls, horses and roping.

Lupine Meadow Trailhead

The trail up

We started from Lupine Meadow TH, which leads to a few places. Our direction was to Surprise Lake or Amphitheater Lake. We know we might not get to the lakes due to snow conditions. We turned back after some fun walking on the snow.

Walking on snow

We did, however, get a good view of Bradley Lake and Taggart Lake from above. Also saw a few female elks out and about and plenty of fat marmots. We did miss a black bear, which someone in front of us spotted.

Elks

Bradley Lake & Taggart Lake

Death Canyon/Taggart Lake

Phelps Lake

We had planned to do the trails from Lupine Meadow but changed our plan after an invite from a fellow camper. Jen is ex-military and currently with search and rescue in Grand Canyon. We did the Death Canyon, passing Phelps Lake. We saw more marmots, which I can now confirm from my previous post its not a gopher. The hike was really scenic, offering fantastic view of the lake, then the snow-capped mountains and waterfalls. We covered good ground with Jen setting the pace. We turned back after hitting a big patch of snow up a steep trail. Although with proper footwear and hiking poles could get us over, we decided to not proceed.

Walk up Death Canyon

On the way back, we brewed up a cuppa having brought the brew gear. Our companion was amused that she could get a cup of tea hiking and can't wait to tell her friends! All she had were popcorn, skittles, starburst and cans of V8 and Monster. Here, we had chicken noodle cup-a-soup dipped with bread and tea!

Fat marmot

Snow & waterfall in Death Canyon

On the way back, we stopped at Taggart Lake for a quick look since its only a short 3 mile walk.

Lunch with a view

The main Grand Teton