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| Us. |
Some hikes kick your butt much more than other hikes. This one kicked our butts. We hiked a total distance of 20 miles and an elevation gain of 5,700 feet. We started before the sun was up (around 5 a.m.) and got back to the vehicles 15 hours later. It was absolutely stunning.
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| Sunrise. |
The first half was an old dirt road that was closed to vehicle traffic. (It would have been so nice if the road had been opened up!) We watched the sun come up and brighten the mountains surrounding the northern entrance into Yellowstone National Park.
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| Wildflowers. |
After we got to the end of the road, we had to cut across a beautiful display of Golden Aster and Lupine to follow along the ridgeline to the mountainside of Electric Peak. The ridgeline had a rather undistinguished trail that was hard to tell which path was the real trail and which path was a game trail. Eventually, we made it to the tree line and paused to get our rain/windbreakers on since the wind tends to be unrelenting once you get to this point.
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| Epic. |
We moved up the steep mountainside to arrive at the rocky (aka skree) peak that we had to traverse across to get to the actual peak. This is where the group got split up (and after a rock smushed Graham’s finger and he threw a temper tantrum) – Graham decided to turn back and I didn’t want to take the dangerous path by myself. When Josiah, Berlynn and Cody got to the saddle (right before the actual peak) a group of Big Horn sheep crossed the snow right in front of them. The other half of the group, Sam, Hannah, Graham and myself took a nap on the sunny mountainside to rest for the 10 miles back down.
Total Summer Mileage: 201.5
