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Blog Entry 40 of 50 Alpenglow
I am a former community journalist at YourHub.com who lived in Vail for two years before moving to Cody, Wyo., where I live now. I mostly use YourHub.com to keep in touch with my former colleagues at YourHub.com World Headquarters in Denver, but I also like photography and post a lot of photos. "You know that every time I try to go where I really want to be it's already where I am." - System of a Down, "Sugar"

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~VailJoel

Yellowstone: Elephant Back Trail, Mud Volcano area

Contributed by: Joel Hunt   on 7/1/2008

Ingrid and I went up to Yellowstone on June 28 and did the Elephant Back Trail. I wanted to do the Natural Bridge Trail, but it was still closed.

Elephant Back was good, though. The trail starts and ends in the forest. It's really cool because there are thousands of tall lodgepole pines but no underbrush, which gives it a magical, mystical feel. There also were dozens of bear tracks along the trail, but none pronounced enough to get a good photo of.

The middle of the trail is a loop that goes up small mountain, past and overlook of the park and the lake and down the mountain again before meeting up with the fork in the forest.

From the National Park Service Yellowstone Web site:

Elephant Back Mountain Trail

This trail climbs 800 ft (244 km) in 1-1/2 miles (2.4 km) through a dense lodgepole pine forest. After a mile, the trail splits into a loop. The left fork is the shortest and least steep route to the top. The overlook provides a sweeping panoramic view of Yellowstone Lake and the surrounding area.

Trailhead: Pullout 1 mile (1.5 km) south of Fishing Bridge Junction

Distance: 3 mile (5 km) loop

Level of Difficulty: Moderately strenuous

After the hike, we drove to Canyon Village, stopping along the way at Le Hardy Rapids, where cutthroat trout were swimming upstream to spawn; and Mud Volcano and Sulpher Cauldron, two thermal sites with several different features.

At the canyon, we saw the smaller Upper Falls (109 feet) and hiked down Uncle Tom's Trail to get a great view of the Lower Falls (308 feet).

Uncle Tom's Trail drops 500 feet, has more 300 stairs and is at 8,000 feet,so getting back up is a workout.

I'm hoping to get up to the park again soon and do a ranger-guided hike up Avalanche Peak in the eastern part of the park and Seven Mile Hole Trail, the only trail that goes all the way to the bottom of the canyon.

Did you know? On a nice day, you can see the Tetons pretty clearly from several spots in Yellowstone, most notably the east entrance road west of Sylvan Pass and the Lake Butte Overlook.

Coming soon: Cody Stampede Rodeo and Fourth of July.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Joel Hunt

Cody , WY

Joel Hunt has posted 50 blog entries and 80 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. Joel Hunt's average blog rating is 5.
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