Charlie Stein's Photoblog

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming – August 23-25, 2013

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Charlie

Friday: We had wanted to visit the Mud Volcano area south of Canyon, but a lady at the Camper Services building told us that the area was still closed because of fire danger or damage. We had been lucky that the Grand Loop road had reopened on Thursday, enabling us to go to Grand Teton without a great detour. [The Mud Volcano area reopened on August 26, after our trip.]

I was not tired or sore from the 14 mile hike of the day before, but neither Julie nor Yigal were in the mood for any significant hikes. They did agree to a small hike up a hill behind the Grand Prismatic Spring.

There was some confusion over where the trail started; I had recalled signs to a trail from within one of the geyser basins, but we visited the Midway Geyser Basin and didn’t see the trail. We therefore continued on, finding a parking lot one mile south of the basin. The parking lot was full, but we parked nearby and walked back to the parking lot. The parking lot was adjacent to an old steel bridge that crossed the Firehole River, leading to Fountain Freight Road. The bridge and road were now closed to vehicle traffic, and open only to hikers and bikers.

11:25 a.m.: A hot spring besides the road:

Hot Spring

We were now in the right area. We crossed the bridge and walked north along Fountain Freight Road, thinking we would find a trail that would lead us to a nice view of the Grand Prismatic Spring, and that the same trail would also lead us to Fairy Falls, a 200′ waterfall. This was mistaken thinking on our part, and perhaps we were misled by our Moon Yellowstone and Grand Teton, or perhaps we simply misread the book. Reviewing the book now, I realize that it is discussing two separate trails. There are rough unmarked trails that only lead to observation points for the spring, whereas the trailhead for the Fairy Falls hike was farther north on the Fountain Freight Road than we hiked.

11:51 a.m.: We passed two rough trails leading up a hill to our left, but we continued north, reaching a third rough trail that led up a second hill to our left. We realized that we were passing Grand Prismatic Spring, on our right. Therefore, I led the way up the unmarked trail for this second hill, gaining a bit of elevation and indeed enjoying a better perspective of Grand Prismatic Spring:

Grand Prismatic Spring

We saw a man with a camera and tripod on the southern hill that we had just passed, which was higher in elevation. We realized that would present an even better view, and also thought that might be the way to Fairy Falls. We debated descending to Fountain Freight Road, returning south and ascending that first hill, but that would “waste” our efforts of having gained elevation by climbing this second hill. We therefore descended a bit into the valley between the two hills and then began climbing the southern hill. This took us cross-country, but saved us from descending all the way to Fountain Freight Road.

We were in an area affected by the 1988 fire, but I also decided that we were walking on ground that had seen volcanic activity in the much more distant past. At one point I found a nice piece of obsidian, but of course I left it there, per the principal of taking nothing but photographs.

Julie and Yigal made it up the southern hill before me, and Julie snapped my photo with her Nikon D3100. I see that the camera focused on some nearby branches rather than on me, but it’s still an interesting effect. I was wearing my Auburn colors that day:

Climbing a hill

12:15 p.m.: When we reached the top of the southern hill, we had an even nicer view of the Grand Prismatic Spring than we had enjoyed from the hill to the north:

Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring, with Excelsior Geyser in the background:

Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser

We met a young man on the hill, also named Charlie, who was working on a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. I gave him one of my business cards.

We looked for a trail to the west, still thinking that we might find a trail to Fairy Falls. However, we realized that the trail on this hill had only led to the viewpoint for the spring, and we began our descent back to the road.

The trail was distinct, but not especially easy, and we went slowly. It would be nice for the Park Service to make an effort to mark the trail and make it a bit friendlier for hikers.

Back on the Fountain Freight Road, we decided not to search any more for the Fairy Falls trail, and therefore returned to the car.

We didn’t do much else that day, paying another visit to Boiling River on the Montana border. With hindsight being 20/20, I wished we had found the time for one or two other things. One-time CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt had named Beartooth Highway in the park’s northeastern corner the most beautiful roadway in America, and it would have been nice to have been able to drive this road. Most of the Yellowstone that we experienced was relatively flat, but there are tall mountains on the eastern side, and it would have been nice to have seen more of them.

Saturday: Julie left us in the morning, driving back to Jackson for her return flight to Pittsburgh (via Dallas). For Yigal and myself, it was our day of rest, and there was little for us to do. Earlier in the week I had purchased a book, Ranger Confidential, and on Saturday I read half of it, finishing the second half the next day, on the flight home. On most days, the temperatures had been in the 40s (or maybe even the 30s) at night, rising up to the high 70s or low 80s during the day. But Saturday the temperatures probably only rose to the 50s at Canyon, and it was raining (and hailing) on and off through the day, so that at times we had to seek shelter in my tent.

Sunday: As Julie was not available to chauffeur Yigal and me back to the West Yellowstone airport, I had arranged to hire a shuttle service. Yellowstone Roadrunner appeared promptly at 9:00 a.m. at our campsite and dropped us off at the airport at 10:30 a.m.

We then flew back to JFK airport in New York, via Salt Lake City.

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Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming – August 22, 2013

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Charlie

Thursday: We were on the road by about 7:15 a.m., with Julie driving. I was happy to let her do most of the driving on the trip, though she had added me as a driver, so I was able to provide relief at times. Yigal was satisfied to sit in the back seat. The drive south through Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park took us about 2-1/2 hours.

8:59 a.m.: We only stopped once for a couple of minutes, to photograph the Teton Range from across Jackson Lake:

Teton Range across Jackson Lake

9:46 a.m.: We arrived at Jenny Lake, elevation 6783′. Jenny Lake, and Leigh Lake to the north, were named for Richard and Jenny Leigh. He was an Englishman who trapped beavers, and she was a Shoshone Indian. Tragically, Jenny and their six children died of smallpox in 1876.

Before walking to the boat dock, Julie and I stopped at the restroom, only to be called out immediately by Yigal announcing there was a bear outside. I dashed out, and sure enough there was a bear about 50′ away, but by the time I brought my camera up, the bear had turned tail and was heading away from us into the bushes, so I didn’t take the shot. I didn’t have much time to study the bear, but am almost certain it was a small black bear, though Yigal insisted it was a grizzly.

We walked to the boat dock, where a park ranger asked if anyone had seen a bear. We reported our sighting. She asked how many cubs we had seen with the bear (none) or if the bear had a yellow tag in her left ear (we didn’t see that). A board on the dock listed a few recent bear sightings, all of them black bears. We rode the shuttle boat about a mile to the western shore of the lake, which saved us from hiking 2.4 miles around the lake’s perimeter.

The last boat was scheduled to return to the eastern shore at 6:00 p.m. (the schedule changes frequently, depending in part on when sundown is), and we wanted to be sure that we didn’t miss that.

Jenny Lake

9:52 a.m.: Another view of Jenny Lake, as we grew close to the dock below Inspiration Point:

Jenny Lake

10:11 a.m.: We began climbing the trail to Inspiration Point, detouring very slightly to visit Hidden Falls, about 0.5 miles from the lake.

Hidden Falls

Here Yigal and I pose at the falls. Yigal had gotten sunburned the day before and decided that it would help if he wore a garment over his head. It wasn’t very fashionable, but protected his skin. He doesn’t use sunscreen, whereas I didn’t mind applying it in the high-altitude sun:

Posing at Hidden Falls

My Auburn baseball cap had been ignored most of the trip, but this day I ran into a number of Southerners. I saw a family from Vanderbilt who were not at all friendly. I ran into another man wearing an Auburn cap at this point, and greeted him with a “War Eagle” cheer. Shortly afterward I ran into a woman who greeted me and who said that she was a Florida Gator, and then a while after that a man greeted me and said that his party was from Alabama, and that he himself had gone to graduate school at Auburn. [I also exchanged waves one day with people from Clemson, and at the airport on my way out of town, one of the TSA men introduced himself as being an LSU fan, from Baton Rouge.] Yigal was impressed that my Auburn cap drew so much attention.

10:29 a.m.: We continued our climb to Inspiration Point. We noticed hikers stopping to pose in front of a boulder overlooking the hills below, and we stopped to take our own photos there:

On Climb to Inspiration Point

10:31 a.m.: Right afterwards we reached Inspiration Point, which provided a modest view of Jenny Lake. The majority of the hikers stopped at this point, after a one mile hike that gained 400′. We were just getting started, though.

Jenny Lake from Inspiration Point

10:55 a.m.: After leaving Inspiration Point, we entered Cascade Canyon and began our hike to the west. Here’s Julie posing in front of the mountains:

Julie on Cascade Canyon Trail

11:08 a.m.: Hikers told us that they had seen one male and two female moose on the trail, and we finally came to a clearing where the Cascade Creek included a small island on which the two cows were sitting. We didn’t see the bull moose at that time, though we saw him on the return trip.

Moose relaxing on island in Cascade Creek

A close-up of the moose:

Moose relaxing on island in Cascade Creek

A detail of one of the moose:

Detail of Resting Moose

The Cascade Canyon Trail ran due west for 3.6 miles, climbing only 640.’ However, we then reached an intersection which provided the choice of going northwest into North Fork Cascade Canyon, or southwest into South Fork Cascade Canyon. We turned northwest onto the Lake Solitude Trail into North Fork Cascade Canyon, and the trail climbed steeply, gaining about 1300′ over the next 2.4 miles.

12:39 p.m.: A fused High Dynamic Range image of Cascade Creek (or one of its feeder streams) crossing the trail:

Cascade Creek at Lake Solitude Trail

12:53 p.m.: A fused HDR shot of the Cathedral Group from within North Fork Cascade Canyon.

Cathedral Group from North Fork Cascade Canyon

After hiking for 7 miles and gaining 2300′ in elevation, we arrived at our objective: Lake Solitude, at 9035′ elevation. After enjoying the lake for a while, we would return the way we came. The trail did continue, forming a loop through Paintbrush Canyon before returning to Jenny Lake, but that loop would entail something like a 19 to 21 mile hike and 3800′ gain in elevation, as opposed to our 14 mile round-trip hike gaining 2300′ in elevation. Thus, the loop hike was more suited to backpackers doing the hike over the course of two days. I wish that we could have done it, but we didn’t have the equipment or experience for backpacking.

As it was, Yigal had been complaining bitterly for days about our plans to hike 14 miles. I had pointed out to him that he had hiked 8 miles with me on a number of occasions in New York, and he responded that his muscles had been sore for days afterwards. I also mentioned that the 14 mile hike had been Julie’s idea, though she responded that if she hadn’t suggested the hike first, I would have found it on my own–and that’s likely true. In the end, Yigal enjoyed the hike and was probably the strongest of the three of us.

1:32 p.m.: Lake Solitude:

Lake Solitude

Fused HDR image of Lake Solitude:

Lake Solitude

After eating lunch and relaxing at the lake, where Yigal actually went swimming, we began our return hike. This would be an easier 7 miles, as it would be downhill.

3:11 p.m.: This is another shot of the Cathedral Group, taken from roughly the same location as before:

Cathedral Group from North Fork Cascade Canyon

3:18 p.m.: This adorable little creature is a pika, which is related to the rabbit. There are quite a few of them at Glacier National Park, but I don’t believe that I saw one there, so I was very happy to be able to see and photograph one at Grand Teton.

Pika

4:49 p.m.: Passing by the island in the stream, the two moose cows were gone, but other hikers pointed to the bull moose resting nearby:

Bull moose

5:41 p.m.: A raven posed for a photo at the end of our 14-mile hike. We returned to the boat dock shortly before 6 p.m., making either the last boat or next-to-last boat for the day, and thereby saving ourselves from having to walk an extra 2.4 miles around to the western part of the lake.

Raven

The boat brought us back to the eastern shore of the lake, where we walked the short distance to the parking lot. I drove back north toward Yellowstone.

At one point we saw a coyote in a field, but naturally my camera was in the trunk of the car, so that’s yet another photo that I missed.

By the time we returned to Yellowstone it was dark, and at one point we had to wait patiently for bison to get out of our way. Even though we arrived back at camp late, the showers were still open at the Camper Services building, for which I was grateful.

Coming up: A brief hike on Friday above the Grand Prismatic Spring, a day of rest on Saturday, and we bid farewell to the parks.

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming – August 21, 2013

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Charlie

Wednesday: As the fires south of Canyon blocked our direct path to Grand Teton, we postponed our hike there, hoping that we could go on Thursday. Instead, we decided to spend the day investigating the geyser basins in the Old Faithful area. We drove west from Canyon, then turned south at the Norris Junction, stopping first three miles south of the junction, at Artist Paintpots, within the Gibbon Geyser Basin.

9:23 a.m.: A 0.6 mile loop trail led through a series of springs, geysers, fumaroles, and mud pots. The fumaroles were generating a fair amount of water vapor:

Artist Paintpots

The trail included a hill which provided a nice elevated view of the small basin:

Artist Paintpots

Another elevated view of the basin:

Artist Paintpots

This photo provides a good illustration that thermal features may be hidden under a few inches of a thin crust. Therefore, it is imperative to remain on the trail when visiting geothermal features of Yellowstone.

Artist Paintpots

Continuing south, we passed a bison by the side of the road. Many of the bison have retained patches of their winter coats, apparently not caring if they are fashionable or not.

Bison

A detail of the bison’s head:

Bison (detail)

Another bison, grazing alone in a field framed by a river, mountains and sky:

Bison

At the Madison Junction, we continued south, arriving at the Fountain Paint Pot area, within the Lower Geyser Basin.

10:42 a.m.: Overflowing hot springs have killed a stand of trees, and minerals from the water have given the dead trees a “bobby socks” effect:

Fountain Paintpots

This is Celestine Pool:

Celestine Pool

While the hot waters kill off trees and vegetation, some bacteria do grow and thrive in the hot water:

Bacteria mats

Bubbles rise to the surface of a mud pot:

Fountain Paintpots

The Clepsydra Geyser erupts nearly constantly, spitting out 675 gallons per minute, to a height of 10-40′. It was named for an ancient Greek water clock:

Clepsydra Geyser

Leaving the Fountain Paint Pot area, we took a detour from the Grand Loop Road to drive north on the one-way Firehole Lake Drive. However, the Great Fountain Geyser was not showing any sign of life during our brief stop there, and I did not record any memorable photos on the Drive. Returning to the Grand Loop Road, we again turned south.

11:56 a.m.: Our next stop was Midway Geyser Basin, where a pedestrian bridge led us across the Firehole River. Runoff from a hot spring poured into the river:

Hot Spring Runoff into Firehole River

This is Turquoise Pool, about 100′ in diameter, with a temperature of 142-160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Turquoise Pool

This is Opal Pool:

Opal Pool

I’m posing in front of Grand Prismatic Spring, which looks prettier from the hill behind me. We’ll climb up there on Friday for a better look.

Posing in Front of Grand Prismatic Spring

A ground-level panorama of Grand Prismatic Spring:

Grand Prismatic Spring

12:46 p.m.: Returning to the car and continuing south, our next stop was Biscuit Basin, an isolated thermal group that is part of the Upper Geyser Basin. These are Black Diamond and Opal Pools:

Black Diamond and Opal Pools

The runoff seen in the next two photos is low enough in temperature to allow mustard-colored bacteria or algae to flourish:

Biscuit Basin

Sapphire Pool is about 18′ x 30′, with temperatures of 200 degrees Fahrenheit:

Sapphire Pool

Jewel Geyser erupts for about a minute every 5-10 minutes, reaching a height of 10-30′:

Jewel Geyser

2:11 p.m.: We returned to the Upper Geyser Basin, which we had briefly visited the previous day to see Old Faithful. She was still putting on a good show:

Old Faithful

We explored more of the Upper Geyser Basin. This is Beach Spring

Beach Spring

Ear Spring, which is 4′ x 6′, is said to be shaped like a human ear.

Ear Spring

Sawmill Geyser was showing signs of life:

Sawmill Geyser

Belgian Pool:

Belgian Pool

Beauty Pool, 60′ in diameter, has a depth of 25′, with a temperature of 164 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit, which is cool enough to allow bacteria and algae growth:

Beauty Pool

Chromatic Pool:

Chromatic Pool

A pedestrian bridge led across Firehole River:

Firehole River

There were many benches facing Giant Geyser, with people waiting for the next eruption. We joined them for about 1/2 hour, but eventually grew bored and left. The geyser can reach a height of 150-250′, so it would certainly have been nice to see it erupt. The reality is that Old Faithful is probably the only large geyser that erupts with any regularity, so one must be lucky to see other large geysers, or have a lot of patience, or else settle for Old Faithful and a number of the small geysers.

Giant Geyser

Grotto Geyser has an unusual formation that is nearly 8′ high.

Grotto Geyser

A cute chipmunk was kind enough to pose for me, as the geysers were not cooperating:

Chipmunk

3:47 p.m.: This time we saw Old Faithful from a distance, with Old Faithful Lodge behind it:

Old Faithful

Anemone Geyser:

Anemone Geyser

5:20 p.m.: We drove on to the West Thumb Geyser Basin, where we saw a number of elk, including this cow and calf:

Elk Cow and Calf

A boardwalk ran along Yellowstone Lake, but the wind was kicking up and I decided against venturing down there.

Yellowstone Lake

We began retracing our path back to the campsite. On the drive south, we had temporarily skipped Black Sand Basin, another isolated group of the Upper Geyser Basin. We stopped there now.

6:05 p.m.: Cliff Geyser is situated right on the edge of Iron Creek. It can erupt up to 40′ high, and produce a tremendous amount of steam. We were lucky enough to see it in action, at least to a certain extent:

Cliff Geyser

Emerald Pool is 27′ x 38′, with a depth of 25′. Lower temperatures (154 degree Fahrenheit) have allowed yellow bacteria and algae to grow on the lining of the pool:

Emerald Pool

Spouter Geyser erupts almost constantly, with jets shooting to a height of 5-7′.

Spouter Geyser

We then returned to the campsite. While we had not encountered any rain during the day, as we returned to the Canyon area it began to rain. The campsite was muddy in some areas, with the ground saturated enough to leave puddles standing in other areas. My tent was dry, though I had left my duffel bag in the vestibule of the tent formed by the rain fly. The vestibule does not have a floor to it, and water that had run under the vestibule had wet the bottom of my duffel bag. While the duffel bag is plastic coated on the inside, it is not waterproof, and I discovered that one shirt was very wet. Water had gotten into Julie’s tent, and the yoga mats that she used as a sleeping bag cushion were wet.

We went to the Camper Services building, where in addition to showers, we availed ourselves of the laundry facilities. I went through my duffel bag, finding a few other damp items, though nothing else soaked as that one shirt had been. I threw all the wet and damp clothes into a washer, together with the dirty clothes that I had accumulated. The building was also a nice dry place to hang out during the rainstorm.

Afterwards, we returned to the campsite. Julie felt that she could not sleep in her tent, owing to the damp condition, and she instead slept in the car. That would not have worked for my long legs, but she found it to be not terribly uncomfortable. I was happy that my new tent was dry. As for the problem with the floorless vestibule, I used a plastic bag and sandals to elevate my bag off the ground. When we went out during the day, I moved the duffel bag into the tent, so that it would be dry even if it rained heavily.

One good piece of news that we learned upon visiting the Camper Services building was that the road south of Canyon had re-opened, so that we would be able to have a direct drive to Grand Teton in the morning!

Coming up: Thursday we hike 14 miles in Grand Teton National Park.

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming – August 20, 2013

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Charlie

Tuesday: We began driving west from Canyon, and upon reaching the Norris Junction we turned north toward Mammoth Hot Springs.

8:30 a.m.: We stopped when we saw that other vehicles had pulled over. A bison appeared to be dozing in the field, but no one was paying attention to it, instead looking at one or more elk. Some people were perhaps within 50 yards of the elk, and Yigal also took off to get closer. But by the time I got my telephoto lens onto my camera, it seemed that the elk was beginning to move away. Therefore I satisfied myself with using the long lens to close the gap between us. I took this photo at 200mm, and then cropped the image so that the elk would fill the frame:

Elk

Before we left, the bison stood up, and I captured a photo of him, as well:

Bison

8:56 a.m.: Continuing our drive, We stopped briefly to admire and photograph the Gallatin Range of mountains, where unfortunately some other tourists walked into the field to disrupt my photographic efforts. The mountains seen in this photo, about 6 miles to the west, include Antler Peak and Quadrant Mountain:

Gallatin Mountain Range

9:12 a.m.: We continued on to Mammoth Hot Springs. Two tons of calcium carbonate in solution flow through the springs every day, creating travertine deposits and mounds. The parking lot gave us an overview of the springs:

Mammoth Hot Springs

We found the walkway and began exploring.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Some of the geyser basins and other areas had signs identifying each individual feature, but I didn’t see that here. Thus, I’ll just present many of the photos without commentary and without specific identification.

Mammoth Hot Springs

A huge mound of the travertine, a type of limestone:

Mammoth Hot Springs

11:26 a.m.: After touring Mammoth Hot Springs, we continued driving north for a few miles, past the hotel, stores, visitor center, and other buildings at Mammoth. A few miles to the north, we reached the border between Wyoming and Montana. There were parking lots on either side of the road, and we parked and walked east to the Gardner River, following an easy path about 1/2 mile south, where a hot spring called “The Boiling River” feeds into the Gardner. The scalding water of the Boiling River mixes with the cold water of the Gardner to produce a bathtub-warm area enjoyed by bathers:

Boiling River

The hot spring is not quite boiling, but it is close to it:

Boiling River

A lady at the Camper Services building at Canyon had suggested the Blacktail Plateau Drive as a place where we might see animals. This is a one-way dirt road that parallels the loop road between Mammoth and the Tower Junction. Thus, we drove south to Mammoth and then turned east toward Toward. Upon reaching the dirt road, we undertook the bone-jarring drive, which circled 7875′ Crescent Hill, but did not see any animals.

1:47 p.m.: After completing the dirt road drive and returning to the paved loop road, we drove a fraction of a mile to see a petrified tree. At one time there were two petrified trees there, but visitors to the park stole the second tree piece-by-piece. Now, a fence protects the remaining tree.

Petrified Tree

There was pretty scenery near the petrified tree, looking back toward the Blacktail Deer Plateau through which we had just driven:

Blacktail Deer Plateau

2:14 p.m.: We drove west on the loop road, back toward Mammoth, stopping at Undine Falls, a waterfall adjacent to the road. The upper falls is 60′, the lower falls 38′:

Undine Falls

“Alas, poor Yorick!” Someone pointed out a skeleton on the opposite side of Gardner Canyon atop which we were standing. Yigal thinks he can see horns on the skull and concludes it’s a bison, but I am not enough of a naturalist to say conclusively.

Bison skeleton

We then drove south, past the Norris Junction, past the Madison Junction, and on to the Upper Geyser Basin, where we claimed front-row seats on a bench and waited for Old Faithful.

4:50 p.m.: It was about 10 minutes early:

Old Faithful

We returned to our Canyon campground and were planning on waking early to travel to Grand Teton on Wednesday. However, when we visited the Camper Services building for our showers, we saw a sign on the door that explained that as a result of fires in the park, the road we would have taken was blocked seven miles to our south. A very long detour was available by going west and south through Old Faithful and West Thumb, but that would have added a significant delay to our round trip drive. As we had some time constraints associated with the Grand Teton hike (we had to finish the hike by 6:00 p.m. to catch a boat shuttle), we didn’t want to deal with a long detour. We therefore decided to delay the Grand Teton tour until Thursday, at which time we hoped the road would be reopened.

Coming up: Wednesday we visit many more geyser basins.

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming – August 19, 2013

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Charlie

Monday: The first photo below is our campsite, or part of it, showing my new two-man Kelty Gunnison 2.2 tent in the foreground (white and orange), with Julie’s new North Face Meso 2 in the background (green). The third tent is at the campsite next to ours. We also had a fire pit (not shown), which was to the left of the picnic table.

Some campgrounds limit campers to two tents per campsite (for example, some have a dedicated “tent pad,” which can be a flat area outlined by logs on which tents should be placed). There was no such restriction posted on the website for the Canyon campground, though I did not know if that was dispositive, or if perhaps they might still have such a rule. Therefore, I did not know if the three of us could each have his/her own tent or not. That was one factor in deciding to buy the two-man Kelty tent. Of course, I could have phoned the campground to ask if there was such a rule. But I had another reason for getting the two-man tent: my one-man tent does not have much room inside for gear, and it has no vestibule under the rain fly. In contrast, the Kelty’s rain fly provides a generous vestibule outside each door of the tent, under which one can leave boots, a backpack, etc. The tent itself provides 37 square feet of floor space, while each vestibule provides 10 square feet of floor space.

I left my duffel bag with my clothing in the vestibule. In theory we could leave gear in the rental car, which would also be more secure than leaving it in an unprotected tent, a concern as sometimes criminals do visit parks to steal unprotected items (or even tents). However, Yigal and I were staying until Sunday, while Julie was leaving Saturday morning, so we would have to store gear somewhere at least for Friday night through Sunday morning. Also, Hertz had talked Julie into renting a larger car, then gave her a Buick LaCrosse “mid-size” sedan that has a pitifully small trunk of only 13.3 cubic feet, compared to 20 cubic feet for a Ford Taurus. The trunk was mostly full of food we had purchased, leaving no room for my duffel bag.

Campsite, Canyon Campground, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Our campsite

Yellowstone was established as America’s first national park because of the geysers, with a number of basins located adjacent to the roads. We planned to visit all of them, instead of hiking every day. Julie had proposed a 14-mile hike in adjacent Grand Teton National Park for midweek, and I proposed a 6-mile hike to the top of Mt. Washburn and back. This hike was the only one that was especially highlighted in the Moon Guide for Yellowstone, which was how I selected it. We decided to begin our week with the Mt. Washburn hike, reasoning that we could then recover on Tuesday (if any recovery were needed), before visiting Grand Teton on Wednesday.

Thus, we drove a short distance north from Canyon (at 7900′ elevation) to Dunraven Pass, elevation 8859′, the start of the trailhead up Mt. Washburn. As Julie was not wearing a belt, I was tasked with carrying the can of bear spray. We began our hike, appreciating the scenery, though visibility was far from ideal, both because of morning fog and especially because some small fires were burning in Yellowstone, to the south of the Canyon area.

Scenery from Mt. Washburn

We discovered that the trail was wide and typically devoid of rocks, tree roots, etc. It appeared that it had formerly been a road, and in places we saw bits of asphalt.

Climbing Mt. Washburn

Some of the short trees growing on the mountain:

Climbing Mt. Washburn

The surrounding landscape:

View from Mt. Washburn

This rock had both yellow and red lichen:

Rock with yellow and red lichen

The peak of Mt. Washburn, complete with its observation tower, came into view:

Peak of Mt. Washburn

When we had stopped at the grocery store at West Yellowstone on Sunday, Julie had been excited to discover a bota bag for sale. She said that she had wanted one for years, and could not resist making the purchase. I’ll stick with the less-fashionable CamelBak bladder hidden in my backpack.

Julie with a bota bag

We encountered numerous small flying insects that made a tremendous snapping or popping noise in flight. When they landed, they revealed themselves to be small, drab grasshoppers, a wrangler grasshopper (Circotettix rabula), or a similar species. We saw them in other parts of the park, and in Grand Teton as well:

Wrangler grasshopper

As expected, the view improved as we neared the top of the 3 mile trail, though it would have been better without the smoke:

View from Mt. Washburn

We completed the 3 mile, 1400′ climb:

Posing atop Mt. Washburn, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Julie, Yigal and I pose atop Mt. Washburn

In the panorama below, one can see part of the substantial observation tower, which includes restrooms, an enclosed observation deck for park visitors, and a private residence on the top floor for a park ranger.

View from Mt. Washburn

Two other panoramic views from the top of Mt. Washburn:

View from Mt. Washburn

After a while, we began our descent, retracing our steps on the 3-mile path. I believe this little fellow is an Edwards’ Fritillary (Speyeria edwardsii):

Edwards’ Fritillary Butterfly

And this would be a Checkered White (Pontia protodice):

Checkered White butterfly

Another view of the surrounding countryside:

View from Mt. Washburn

After returning to the car, we continued driving to the north, to Tower Fall, where a walkway led to a platform from which we could view the 132′ waterfall.

Tower Fall

We then descended a stairway which led to a small spot about 50′ above the Yellowstone River. A sign there noted that the trail was closed beyond that point, and visitors should continue at their own risk. A steep sandy descent led the remaining 50′ to the river, and a number of people had descended that, but we decided that climbing back up the steep sandy slope might be more trouble than it was worth, so we remained on the trail and had lunch.

Yellowstone River

We then drove south, returning to the Canyon area, where we visited the north side of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. At 24 miles in length, 800-1200′ deep, and ¼-¾ miles in width, the canyon is impressive (though still tiny compared to the real Grand Canyon, carved by the Colorado River). We descended a path, switchbacks and stairs to an observation platform at the point of fall of the Lower Falls:

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

I mentioned that the trunk of our car was primarily filled up with food. While I can survive indefinitely on cold food, Yigal decided it would be nice to have a campfire and bake potatoes, so at the grocery store on Sunday he bought two bags of them, as well as half a watermelon that we never ate. He also bought aluminum foil, lighter fluid and a lighter, and then we chipped in to buy firewood and kindling from the Camp Services store. (The park allows visitors to collect fallen wood, but the campsite only had pine trees, which is not especially suitable for fires.)

So we had a campfire that night and ate a few baked potatoes. Lacking sour cream, I put hummus on mine.

Coming up: Tuesday we tour the Mammoth Hot Springs; visit the Boiling River; and see Old Faithful erupt.

Posted in Hikes, Vacations | Tagged Wyoming, Yellowstone | Leave a comment

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming – August 18, 2013

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Charlie

Sunday: My friend Yigal and I flew from JFK to Salt Lake City, and from there on to the tiny airport at West Yellowstone, Montana. My friend Julie had flown from Pittsburgh into Jackson, Wyoming the day before and rented a car, which she had driven into Yellowstone. She was kind enough to drive to “West” to pick us up from the airport.

We drove two miles from the airport into town to buy groceries, and then continued on another mile to the entrance to the National Park. We then drove over an hour to reach the Canyon area of Yellowstone, where we would be camping for the week. Julie had already checked in earlier in the day and set up her tent, and I set up a two man tent that I had brought for Yigal and myself.

Yellowstone National Park is huge, and in fact the borders of the park were established before the borders of the host states were. Thus, most of the park is in Wyoming, but a small part is in Montana and an even smaller part is in Idaho.

It was only about 4:30 p.m., with sundown not until 8:00, so we drove out for a little sightseeing, selecting the Norris Geyser Basin, which was about a half hour drive. Norris is divided into Porcelain Basin and Back Basin. While most of the Yellowstone geyser basins are alkaline, this one is acidic. This panoramic view shows the barren ground, which abounds with iron and arsenic:

Norris Geyser Basin

This is a tone-mapped shot (a variation of High Dynamic Range imaging) of Ledge Geyser, the largest geyser in Porcelain Basin:

Ledge Geyser, Norris Geyser Basin

Following are a few miscellaneous photos from the Norris Geyser Basin:

Norris Geyser Basin

I mentioned that the ground was acidic. A number of the thermal features at Yellowstone give off sulfur, and it can oxidize on the surface to form sulfuric acid, which kills most of the plant life, leaving a somewhat barren terrain around the thermal features.

Norris Geyser Basin

This is Fearless Geyser:

Fearless Geyser, Norris Geyser Basin

Driftwood in the run-off from a geyser makes for a nice effect:

Norris Geyser Basin

This is Pearl Geyser:

Pearl Geyser, Norris Geyser Basin

Puff’n Stuff Geyser sprays water a few feet into the air:

Puff’n Stuff Geyser, Norris Geyser Basin

The sulfur and iron can leave yellow and orange deposits on the barren ground. This is Echinus Geyser. None of the geysers were especially active in the Norris Basin while we were there.

Echinus Geyser, Norris Geyser Basin

Norris Geyser Basin

Cistern Spring has grown over the years, killing nearby trees. The “bobby socks” effect leaves the lower part of the trees colored white, and the coating of minerals may eventually lead to part of the trees becoming petrified.

Cistern Spring, Norris Geyser Basin

Landscape adjacent to the basin:

Landscape adjacent to Norris Geyser Basin

This is Emerald Spring.

Emerald Spring, Norris Geyser Basin

After Norris, we drove back to the Canyon campground, ate dinner, visited the local Camper Services building for showers, and went to sleep. The campground has a number of small bathroom facilities that have lights and running water, but for showers, one has to walk (or drive) to the Camper Services at the main entrance to the Canyon campground. It is a nice facility, which has a large laundromat in addition to the showers. Another nice surprise was that the price of the campsite included showers, and that the showers included free liquid body wash dispensers. I have been to many other parks where there were no showers, or where there were showers that were coin-operated, with no soap provided.

Coming up: Monday we hike to the top of Mt. Washburn; visit Tower Fall; and visit the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Posted in Vacations | Tagged Wyoming, Yellowstone | 2 Comments

Popolopen Torne & Bear Mountain, Orange County, New York

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Charlie

After weeks of temperatures in the 80s and 90s, I took off from work to benefit from a day with temperatures in the low 70s. I drove to the parking lot of Fort Montgomery State Historic Site, where I began my hike. I did not investigate the historic site, and do not believe there is much to see there, other than earthen redoubts. A companion fort, Fort Clinton, was built a short distance to the south, across Popolopen Gorge, but was later demolished during construction of U.S. Route 9W and the Bear Mountain Bridge.

9:15 a.m.: I began hiking west on the 1777W and 1779 Trails, which quickly passed below the Route 9W bridge over Popolopen Gorge. On October 6, 1777, Sir Henry Clinton commanded troops that attacked Forts Clinton and Montgomery. (The American Fort Clinton was named for its commander, General George Clinton, while his brother, General James Clinton, commanded Fort Montgomery.) The British troops divided at Doodletown, with half traveling west to Fort Montgomery, and half traveling east to Fort Clinton. The 1777W and 1777E Trails commemorate those western and eastern routes from Doodletown to the forts, with the trails roughly tracking the routes taken by the British troops. Don’t ask me why we are commemorating a British attack on American soil–I don’t know the answer to that.

As far as the 1779 Trail, that commemorates the route followed by American troops, led by General Anthony Wayne, on July 15, 1779, on their way to attack the British fort at Stony Point.

9:34 a.m.: After hiking for a few minutes and 0.5 mile on level ground at 100′ elevation, I approached an occasionally wet area near Brooks Lake.

1777W and 1779 trails

I then detoured onto the Brooks Lake trail, circling clockwise 0.9 miles around Brooks Lake:

Brooks Lake

There sure were a lot of Canadian geese:

Canadian geese preening

10:24 a.m.: After circling the lake, I continued to the west on the 1777W/1779 Trails. Here I found an isolated boulder:

Glacial erratic

This was interesting: three trees growing together had grown around a rock a foot off the ground, and a second rock that was two feet off the ground was already well wedged in between the trees.

Triplet trees absorbing rocks

The trails climbed to about 400′ in elevation, running parallel to Popolopen Creek, which I could hear and occasionally hear, 200′ below me. Unfortunately, I could also hear vehicle traffic from the Palisades, which was on the far side of the creek. The trails also crossed a number of roads, including both paved and dirt roads.

After another 0.8 miles, I reached the base of Popolopen Torne, where there was another road with a small parking area. This hill is adjacent to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The 1777W and 1779 Trails were joined here by the end of the Timp-Torne Trail. I had visited The Timp on a previous hike, and today was my day to visit The Torne. The Timp-Torne Trail climbed up one side and down the other. Not knowing any better, I took this trail counterclockwise, climbing up the east side and then down the west side. It turned out that the east path was an easy climb, but west path included scrambles on steeply angled pieces of flat rock. As it was a dry day and safe enough, I did the downward scramble, but if I had known what to expect, I would have scrambled up the west side and then walked down the east side. Of course, if it had been wet, I would have only ascended and descended on the east side, as the flat rock would be very slick when wet.

11:09 a.m.: Climbing the east side, I only remember a bit of a view, which presented itself shortly before reaching the top:

View climbing Popolopen Torne

11:11 a.m.: However, I suddenly reached the top of The Torne, at around 700′ elevation, where I was rewarded with a beautiful view of the Hudson River, Bear Mountain Bridge, and Anthony’s Nose:

Bear Mountain Bridge from Popolopen Torne

The Torne also provided views toward the west:

View from Popolopen Torne

Another view of the Hudson:

Bear Mountain Bridge from Popolopen Torne

Here is a fused High Dynamic Range (HDR) image of Anthony’s Nose, the Hudson River, the Bear Mountain Bridge (and the much smaller bridge where I had begun my hike, where Highway 9W crosses the Popolopen Gorge):

Bear Mountain Bridge from Popolopen Torne

The cadets at West Point maintain a memorial to our armed forces atop Popolopen Torne:

Memorial on Popolopen Torne

I didn’t get many photos of the descent down the flat rock on the west side:

Descending Popolopen Torne

One hiking up the west side would see a number of scenic views on the way, unlike hiking up the east side, where my experience was that I didn’t have a scenic view until I reached the top.

12:11 p.m.: The hike up and down Popolopen Torne added another 1.0 mile to my day’s total. Rejoining the 1777W/1779 Trails back around 400′ of elevation, I crossed Popolopen Creek on this small footbridge:

Bridge across Popolopen Creek

A view of the creek from the bridge:

Popolopen Creek

I noticed red raspberries in a few places:

Raspberries

Most of my hiking this day was within Bear Mountain State Park, though the Fort Montgomery State Historic Site may be its own entity, and parts of Popolopen Torne are owned by Scenic Hudson. Following along an old woods road, I left Bear Mountain State Park and entered Harriman State Park. I was again bothered by traffic noise, as now the trail was following a woods road below the Palisades, and close enough that in one place I passed a wheel cover and some other automotive debris. Popolopen Creek had veered off to enter West Point, but the woods road now followed another creek, drainage from Queensboro Lake.

After 1.2 miles, I reached an intersection where the 1779 trail turned into the woods toward the west, while the 1777W and Timp-Torne Trails turned into the woods toward the southeast. I took the 1777W Trail.

There was also a sign on the old woods road at that point that people should be cautious, as a pistol range was coming up. For 0.2 miles, the 1777W Trail detoured slightly away from the woods road, though once past the pistol range it returned to the woods road. I noticed three workers (sitting enjoying lunch or a break) who were at the range, where it appeared a brand new observation tower was constructed.

I had previously mentioned that Popolopen Torne was adjacent to West Point, but by this point the trails were about 0.2 mile outside the West Point property line. So who uses the pistol range? Perhaps it is for use by the park police?

Once past the pistol range, for another 0.2 miles the trails rejoined what became Queensboro Road, passing by a park facility, and exited onto Seven Lakes Drive. The drive quickly passed over the Palisades, and then the trail immediately left Seven Lakes Drive, re-entering the woods. The 1777W Trail left Harriman State Park and returned to Bear Mountain State Park, where after 0.8 miles it intersected the Appalachian Trail.

2:04 p.m.: I left the 1777W Trail, following the AT north.

Appalachian Trail

2:10 p.m.: The trail climbed again, to 900′ of elevation, at which point the AT ran along an abandoned section of roadway. After 1.0 mile, the AT climbed a stairway and continued to the peak of Bear Mountain at 1284′. Having previously visited the peak, I opted to stay on the abandoned roadway, following the blue-blazed bypass trail:

Appalachian Trail

After 0.2 miles, the blue-blazed bypass trail rejoined the AT as it came down from the peak of Bear Mountain and continued to the north. I followed the AT for another 1.4 miles as the trail descended hundreds of stone steps placed decades ago, then passed by Hessian Lake and through the tiny Bear Mountain zoo, to the base of the Bear Mountain Bridge.

3:08 p.m.: This stitched panorama isn’t perfect: the sky above and below the bridge should be the same brightness level. I should switch to manual exposure when shooting pictures to prepare a panorama, but I never remember, and sometimes the resultant automatic exposures cause problems when I later assemble the photos into a panorama.

Bear Mountain Bridge

I then followed the blue-blazes Twin Forts Trail the 0.4 miles between the two forts. In the foreground of this photo, one sees a pedestrian bridge over Popolopen Gorge, while in the background one sees the U.S. Route 9W bridge over the gorge:

Twin Forts Bridge and Highway 9W Bridge

The pedestrian bridge over Popolopen Gorge:

Twin Forts Bridge

From the Twin Forts Bridge, looking east toward the Bear Mountain Bridge (and just above river level, the railroad bridge):

Bear Mountain Bridge and Railroad Bridge

I returned to my car at the Fort Montgomery parking area at 3:15, completing the 8.7 mile hike in a leisurely six hours of hiking.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged Appalachian Trail, Bear Mountain, Harriman, New York, Orange County | Leave a comment

Harriman State Park, Rockland County, New York

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Charlie

Jon, Nachi and I drove to the Lake Sebago boat dock in Harriman. We were supposed to be joined there by another man, which would give us two cars with which we could do a shuttle hike beginning at the park’s southwest corner and leading back to Lake Sebago.

Unfortunately, the other man was confused about where to meet us, and the absence of cell phone service meant that we were not able to get a message to each other. After waiting 45 minutes, the three of us decided to do a loop hike from Lake Sebago, and we later learned that our missing friend had gone to the Visitor’s Center, and ended up doing a solo hike from there.

10:54 a.m.: We began hiking south on the blue-blazed Seven Hills trail, which climbed 400′ in the first 1/3 mile. At 0.6 miles into the hike we crossed Diamond Creek, at which point the Seven Hills trail joined an old woods road, shown on the map as Woodtown Road. After another 0.1 miles we turned right, departing from the woods road but remaining on the blue trail. This intersection is shown on the map as having a point of interest, “Monitor Rock.” I did not look too closely, but do not remember anything too exciting there.

11:19 a.m.: However, soon after we made the right turn off the woods road, we walked past this unnamed glacial erratic, the first of a number of large boulders deposited by glaciers that we would see on this hike:

Glacial erratic

After another 0.6 miles we came to a very nice scenic view to the north. We passed the area again at the end of the day, and that photo is better, so I’ll present it toward the end of this post.

Then 0.1 mile past the scenic view we turned left onto the yellow-blazed Diamond Mountain Tower Trail.

12:08 p.m.: After 0.45 miles we hiked past a rather ugly concrete structure that Jon climbed onto; I have since seen it described in other blogs as a septic tank. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps was active in Harriman, constructing Pine Meadow Lake and intending to construct cabins and campsites around it. This work included constructing a water system and presumably a wastewater system. In the end, few of the camps were built and none remain. I speculate that this abandoned structure relates to that CCC project.

Abandoned septic tank

12:23 p.m.: In another 0.3 miles we had turned right onto the red-blazed Pine Meadow Trail, crossed Pine Meadow Brook, and arrived at the Pine Meadow Lake:

Pine Meadow Lake

12:47 p.m.: We hiked clockwise around the perimeter of the lake, here encountering a ruin on the northern shore:

Ruin at Pine Meadow Lake

The interior of the ruin:

Interior of ruin at Pine Meadow Lake

1:40 p.m.: After 0.7 miles (and a lunch break), we reached the eastern end of the lake. The red trail continued toward the east, but we turned off it, and for just 0.1 mile followed the white-blazed Conklin’s Crossing Trail, which led uncomfortably over a pile of large rocks:

Hiking across large rocks

1:45 p.m.: We then followed an unmaintained trail that hugged the southern shoreline of the lake for 0.6 mile. There were many of these concrete box structures around the lake, associated with the abandoned (waste)water system.

Abandoned water works at Pine Meadow Lake

1:52 p.m.: In many places the abandoned pipes were visible above ground, as in this case:

Abandoned water works at Pine Meadow Lake

Abandoned (and broken) pipe:

Old water pipe

I guess there’s no budget to remove these abandoned structures, which I generally felt were an eyesore. We also saw an immense amount of trash around the lake — it is disgraceful that people come to visit a park and then leave it trashed!

The unmaintained trail ended at an old woods road, the Torne Valley Road. We followed this about 0.15 miles north toward the lake, where I hoped to find and visit the Conklin Cemetery. The map shows the cemetery about 0.1-0.2 miles from the woods road, and I followed unblazed footpaths in that direction.

2:04 p.m.: I found another nice glacial erratic:

Glacial erratic

2:08 p.m.: I also found an impressive chimney that was engraved “CAMP-18 / CCC Co 201 / PINE MEADOW”:

Civilian Conservation Corps campsite fireplace

We did not find the cemetery, though Dan Balough has photos available on his blog.

2:12 p.m.: It then began to rain. While we had brought raingear, Jon suggested a better solution, as he had discovered a shelter near the lake:

Inside a shelter

After a few minutes, the rain subsided, and we were able to leave the shelter. It may have sprinkled once or twice after that, and the wet leaves continued dripping on us, but we managed without raingear.

We backtracked south the short distance on the Torne Valley Road, then continued another 0.2 miles until it intersected another old woods road, Pine Meadow Road West. We followed that around the west end of the lake for 0.4 miles, arriving back at where we had first encountered the lake. We crossed Pine Meadow Brook once again, turning left on the red-blazed trail that paralleled the brook.

3:18 p.m.: After 0.6 miles we reached a spot on the brook adjacent to Go-Nus-Quah Rock, where Jon demonstrated how to cool off in the brook.

Cooling off in Pine Meadow Brook

One website states that Go-Nus-Quah Rock is named for a man-eating giant of Seneca folklore.

Admiring Go-Nus-Quah Rock

Another view:

Side view of Go-Nus-Quah Rock

3:38 p.m.: Not too far away was another boulder that offered a shelter underneath it, though perhaps one appealing more to a bear than a human!

Boulder

We continued west on the red trail for another 1/4 mile, until it reached a bridge over the brook. At this point we stayed on the northern bank of the brook, following the white-blazed Kakiat Trail for 0.35 miles to the intersection with the orange-blazed Hillburn-Torne-Sebago Trail, onto which we turned right (northeast).

4:14 p.m.: We soon encountered a scenic view, of which I have prepared a fused HDR image:

Scenic view on Halfway Mountain

There were a number of nice boulders on the orange trail:

Boulders on Halfway Mountain

Glacial erratic

This wood frog was probably alarmed by our presence:

Wood frog

4:34 p.m.: Another fused HDR image, of a short scramble on the orange trail:

Scramble on the Hillburn-Torne-Sebago Trail

After 1.1 miles on the orange trail, we returned to the blue-blazed Seven Hills Trail with which we had began our hike.

4:59 p.m.: After 0.2 miles we returned to the scenic view that we had enjoyed earlier in the day. As promised, here is the photo from that viewpoint, using High Dynamic Range imaging:

Scenic view on Seven Hills Trail

As we returned to Lake Sebago, we passed by two eastern salamanders, which I find to be very hard to photograph. They are also called red efts, though they look orange to me. A salamander begins as a tadpole, then as a juvenile is a land-based eft as seen here, then as an adult is back to being an aquatic creature.

Red eft

We returned to the parking area at 5:45 p.m., after a hike of 8.2 miles.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged Harriman, New York, Rockland County | Leave a comment

Sterling Forest to Bellvale Mountain, Orange County, New York

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Charlie

Six of us met on Route 17A near the Mt. Peter Ski Area, then shuttled in an SUV 3.7 miles east on Route 17A, to a parking area inside Sterling Forest. There, around 11:00 a.m., we began hiking northeast on the Highlands Trail.

I have complained in the past that many of the trails in Sterling Forest are routed over old woods roads, which I do not like very much. This section of the Highlands Trail was for the most part a footpath, though it crossed a few roads. For the first mile and a half, the path ran parallel to Route 17A, and at a distance close enough to hear the traffic, which we did not appreciate. The path and road then diverged, as the road turned east while the Highlands Trail continued to the northeast.

11:48 a.m.: A small scenic view, not even noted on the map:

View from the Highlands Trail

11:58 a.m.: We walked through a small area that was blanketed with pine needles, which I thought was very nice.

Pine Forest

Mountain laurel was blooming! The sky was blue, coming just a couple of days after strong thunderstorms, and the temperature was warm, in the 80s at times.

Mountain laurel

12:47 p.m.: We intended to travel 3 miles on the Highlands Trail and then 5 miles on the Appalachian Trail. About 2.5 miles into the hike, we reached a small clearing that provided another scenic view.

View from the Highlands Trail

Another view:

View from the Highlands Trail

For a few minutes we followed yellow ribbons designating a new trail, but without any idea where it went, we backtracked to the clearing where we had the scenic view. We then somehow unintentionally began retracing our way southwest on the Highlands Trail, until after 1/3 to 1/2 mile I realized that we were going the wrong way — oops. We turned northeast again, and returned to the clearing and this time continued north on the Highlands Trail instead of being led astray by the yellow ribbons.

1:54 p.m.: This brought us to one final scenic view from the Highlands Trail.

View from the Highlands Trail

Soon afterwards, we reached the intersection with the Appalachian Trail, where we stopped for lunch. We saw four men pass through on longer hikes, though at 5 to 10 minute intervals. Three of them were hiking from Georgia to Maine, while one was “only” hiking about 100 miles. The first man mentioned that others would be along, so it’s possible that they were hiking “together,” if not that close together.

2:34 p.m.: After lunch, we turned left onto the southbound AT (which at this point meant we were traveling west).

Appalachian Trail

2:46 p.m.: We reached a spot where two trees had fallen, almost seeming to clasp a tree in the middle that was still standing. The footpath was oriented toward the tree in the middle, and then turned sharply to the right to pass under the fallen tree on the right. It was a nice effect.

Fallen trees

Jon could not resist the temptation to climb the fallen tree:

Climbing a fallen tree

2:51 p.m.: I spotted a stone wall:

Stone wall

We were heading northwest toward Fitzgerald Falls, and the Appalachian Trail was joined by a nice stream. I thought it was odd that the map did not show the stream, which appeared substantial to me. The map showed Trout Brook that feeds the falls, but that enters the falls from the north, while we were heading to the falls from the southeast.

3:03 p.m.: Here, we had to cross the stream, and each of us picked a different route:

Crossing a stream

3:10 p.m.: About 1.25 miles from our lunch break, we reached the top of Fitzgerald Falls, where we saw a large trail crew working on the trail. This was the Jolly Rovers, an all-volunteer group that does heavy stone work. They were building a stone stairway on what had been a steep ascent/descent beside Fitzgerald Falls, creating a safer passage for hikers. Here’s a view from the bottom of the staircase showing some of their work, and their banner.

Stairway under construction

Here is Fitzgerald Falls:

Fitzgerald Falls

We lingered at the falls for a while, having our photos taken individually and as a group. The slow shutter speed blurred my waving right hand, but otherwise it’s not a bad photo:

Posing at Fitzgerald Falls

A closer shot of me:

Posing at Fitzgerald Falls

The group of six. A couple of people asked us what group we were, and we explained that we were not a group. I think if there are three or four hikers, or even five, no one asks if you are a group. Maybe six is the magic number that people begin to wonder if it’s an organized group.

The “Not a Group” Group at Fitzgerald Falls

We left Fitzgerald Falls and continued northwest. The AT soon crossed Lakes Road and returned to the woods on the west side. After another 0.5 mile (including an ascent of about 500′), the AT turned southwest.

4:27 p.m.: We had earlier heard cicadas without seeing them, but now finally got to see many of them, both flying around and also resting on trees. This is “Brood II” of the 17-year cicadas. Some think they are beautiful, others think they are hideous.

17-year locusts

4:32 p.m.: Ascending Cat Rocks:

Cat Rocks

Enjoying the view from the top of Cat Rocks:

Cat Rocks

On top of Cat Rocks:

Cat Rocks

4:54 p.m.: Ascending Eastern Pinnacles:

Eastern Pinnacles

The scenic view from Eastern Pinnacles, looking east toward Sterling Forest:

View from Eastern Pinnacles

We returned to where two of us had left our cars. I drove Rachel the 3.7 miles back to where she had left her SUV at the starting point of our hike.

Because of unintentionally backtracking a bit on the Highlands Trail, our planned 8 mile hike was probably closer to 9 miles. I didn’t think the scenic views were all that great, and the route (twice) crossed over a buried gas pipeline (with a wide cleared right-of-way) and also (twice) crossed under an electric line (with a wide cleared right-of-way). But Fitzgerald Falls was nice, and the company was nice, and everyone had fun. No one had ever been on this part of the Highlands Trail or Appalachian Trail before, and it’s especially nice to be able to see new sights, which was enabled in large part by being able to do the car shuttle and hike from point A to point B, instead of having to do a loop.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged Appalachian Trail, New York, Orange County, Sterling Forest | Leave a comment

Long Pond Ironworks State Park, Passaic County, New Jersey

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Charlie

This was a solo hike, and I decided to check out trails in Tranquility Ridge County Park, Long Pond Ironworks State Park, and the southwestern part of Sterling Forest.

11:30 a.m.: I parked at the Monksville Reservoir boat launch on Beech Road, and then walked north. The NY-NJ Trail Conference map #100 for Sterling Forest shows that a green-blazed trail parallels Beech Road, but the map does not show any access to the parking lot, and I did not see any access while I was there. Thus, I began my hike by walking 0.3 miles north on Beech Road, past the dead end, to where a gate barred any further vehicles. At this point I entered Tranquility Ridge County Park and was able to pick up the green trail, though it ended almost immediately at a point on the yellow-blazed Hasenclever Iron Trail.

From this point, one could take the yellow trail straight (northwest), or take a sharp right into the woods (northeast). I continued straight on the yellow trail, and within minutes came to Beech Brook, a tributary of the Wanaque River. [In 1987, the Wanaque River and Beech Brook were impounded to form Monksville Reservoir.] It might have been challenging to find stepping stones to cross Beech Brook, but luckily there was a very substantial bridge there.

This bridge actually struck me as being quite odd, because it is obviously not a pedestrian bridge, but rather a very substantial vehicular bridge of concrete, steel, and asphalt, complete with guard rails. In addition, the east side of this short bridge had about a 3′ vertical difference between the ground and the bridge deck. There had apparently been vehicle traffic here serving Beech Farms into the 1960s, and the bridge was a relic from those days. At one point there must have been an approach to the bridge on the eastern side that had compensated for the 3′ vertical difference, and even with vehicles no longer using the bridge, I was surprised that no one had arranged steps of wood or stone to assist hikers in climbing to or from the bridge. The bridge design itself provided for a step at about the halfway point, but a 1.5′ step is almost three times the height of an average 8″ step.

Bridge over Beech Brook

A view of Beech Brook, from the bridge:

Beech Brook

Almost immediately after crossing the bridge I came to an intersection of the yellow trail and a prominent old woods road. A sign explained that the woods road led to the former site of the Beech Farms, where people had lived until the 1960s. That woods road and others are shown on my map, but I continued west on the yellow trail. At this point I had only traveled about 0.3 miles from the gate at the end of Beech Road.

Intersection of Hasenclever Iron Trail and woods road to Beech Farms

The yellow trail left Tranquility Ridge County Park and entered Long Pond Ironworks State Park.

11:52 a.m.: After another 0.5 miles, the yellow trail skirted the Monksville Reservoir, which I could see peeking through the foliage:

Monksville Reservoir

This tree did not seem to have fallen, but it sure was leaning:

Leaning tree

Wild flowers:

Wild flowers

After another 0.5 miles, the yellow trail ended at an intersection with the teal-blazed Highlands Trail (which in this area was also blazed blue as the Sterling Ridge Trail). I also saw orange ribbons tied to trees at this intersection; orange ribbons may indicate the intent to blaze a new trail. I followed these ribbons about 50′ to the west, where they ended at the Wanaque River. I am not sure what the orange ribbons were trying to point out, though I noticed that they were passing over small quantities of coal and slag glass left from the iron works projects.

12:31 p.m.: I returned to the Highlands Trail and first followed it south for about 100 yards, arriving at the Wanaque River at what had once been a bridge crossing:

Wanaque River

I had known prior to my hike that this bridge was missing. It had been destroyed by Hurricane Irene in August 2011, and is slated for replacement in Fall 2013. The Wanaque River is no little stream or brook that can be crossed by stepping stones: that is deep water!

I noticed that on the west side of the Wanaque River there are a number of old structures associated with the Long Pond Ironworks. It might be interesting to visit someday, but with the bridge out, there was “no way to get there from here.”

I turned around and followed the Highlands Trail to the north. I previously complained about the trails in Sterling Forest, noting that many of them ran over old woods roads, which I found to be rocky and otherwise subject to erosion and flooding. I had been complimentary to the Highlands Trail, which was a footpath. However, I learned on this day’s hike that the Highlands Trail is also routed over old woods roads in some areas, and it seemed that a significant portion of the hike involved stumbling over rocks and either slogging through an ancient muddy road or detouring around mud puddles. At least these were historic woods roads, with some of them dating back to the mid-1700s.

The Highlands Trail intersected another woods road, and I stayed on the Highlands Trail. Here, the path crosses a tiny stream:

Highlands Trail at stream crossing

The map showed that I was leaving Long Pond Ironworks State Park and re-entering Tranquility Ridge County Park. I encountered many fallen trees that had yet to be cleared from the trails. In some cases I went around them; in other cases I climbed up and over them, as here:

Climbing over fallen tree

More fallen trees:

Fallen trees

The hike had started at around 500′ in elevation and had remained relatively flat on the way to the Wanaque River, at most gaining 100′. Now, however, there was a bit of a workout, as the trail climbed Big Beech Mountain, which peaks out at 1199′.

1:57 p.m.: Here the trail climbed past boulders:

Boulders on the Highlands Trail

2:04 p.m.: I reached the one and only scenic view of the day, from Big Beech Mountain, looking toward the southeast:

Scenic view from Big Beech Mountain

2:30 p.m.: The trail crossed the border into New York, entering Sterling Forest:

Highlands Trail, at New York/New Jersey border

2:37 p.m.: About 2.2 miles from the Wanaque River, I reached an intersection with the east-west Lake-to-Lake trail, which is blazed white (with a red stripe). I turned west onto that trail, which was an old woods road, quite eroded and full of puddles.

2:42 p.m.: One of the visitors to the website said that I should recognize these puddles as vernal pools, important for many critters, such as these cute tadpoles:

Tadpoles

Is this Eastern American Toad, Bufo a. americanus, one of the parents?

Eastern American Toad

2:52 p.m.: Another puddle, er, vernal pool, and I met this wood frog, Rana sylvaticus. He blended very well with the leaves, and perhaps thought that I didn’t see him.

Wood Frog

This is an example of the erosion on the woods road used for the Lake-to-Lake Trail.

Eroded Lake-to-Lake Trail

2:59 p.m.: The Lake-to-Lake Trail dipped below the border into New Jersey for a short distance, cutting through both Tranquility Ridge County Park and Long Pond Ironworks State Park, before turning north into New York again.

Lake-to-Lake Trail at the New York/New Jersey border

3:06 p.m.: This is Jennings Creek, one of the tributaries of the Wanaque River. The trail had a bridge across the creek.

Jennings Creek

3:15 p.m.: After 1.1 miles on the Lake-to-Lake Trail, I came to a woods road that the map showed I wanted. I turned south and followed that for 0.2 miles, back into New Jersey. That brought me to the northern end of the yellow-blazed Jennings Hollow trail. [The northern end of the trail is an elliptical loop; I followed the eastern side of the ellipse to the south, and then at the southern end of the ellipse continued on a linear part of the trail.]

3:22 p.m.: I’ve seen plenty of twinned trees before, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen triplets before. This was pretty cool.

Triplet trees

I had to again cross Jennings Creek, but this time without a bridge. This looks like fun!

Crossing Jennings Creek

But first, I took a photo of beautiful fungus growing at the base of a shattered tree:

Colorful fungus

Okay, I survived Jennings Creek without any trouble. While I was able to walk across the stepping stones without falling into the creek, it was very nice to be able to hold onto the ropes while making the crossing. Thanks to whoever left those ropes there for hikers!

4:02 p.m.: By now I was on the linear part at the southern end of the Jennings Hollow Trail. Here’s an oak tree with a huge burl in the middle of the trunk:

Burl in oak tree trunk

4:05 p.m.: Downed trees. I was probably due west of where all the downed trees had been on the Highlands Trail.

Downed trees

4:14 p.m.: After 1.5 miles, the Jennings Hollow Trail reached its southern end, intersecting with the Highlands Trail, which I followed to the south.

4:25 p.m.: The Highlands Trail passed under this arch of a fallen tree:

Highlands Trail passes under a fallen tree

4:28 p.m.: After 0.6 miles, the Highlands Trail reached the intersection with the yellow-blazed Hasenclever Iron Trail, and I turned onto that, heading the 1.6 miles back toward my car.

4:56 p.m.: Here the trail passes under vines:

Vines

I returned to my car around 5:15 p.m. I estimate the hike at 9 miles, and it took me 5-3/4 hours. As I noted, there wasn’t much elevation gain: one climb from 500′ to around 1100′ or 1200′, and otherwise it was flat or downhill.

Posted in Hikes | Tagged New Jersey, Passaic County, Sterling Forest | Leave a comment

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