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Published: July 27th 2009
Yellowstone NP
Mamouth Hot SpringsDay 135 - Yellowstone NP, WY - Butte, MT
We woke up and headed to Mamouth Hot Springs in the north of the park. It was one of the nicest geo-thermal areas of the park. We carried on north through the park into Montana and headed for Chico Hot Springs. We paid $4 for our swim and they had two pools; one of which was really hot and another which was too hot! They also sold beer for $1 a can so some of us just floated around with a few beers which was nice!
We then had a short 4 hour ride in the van before we got to Butte, a run-down old mining town.
After setting up camp and having a slightly unsuccessful curry for dinner we headed into town. I can safely say it was one of the most depressingly run-down crap holes that we have been to anywhere. After we walked through the many derelict houses of the suburbs we eventually got to the main town which had quite a few watering holes for the local population to drown their sorrows. We stopped and had a few drinks in a couple of the pubs as we
felt we should experience these local pubs. It then started tipping down with rain so half of us got taxis back to camp and some of the others stayed out.
Sarah got woken up at 3am by Chris who was so drunk he couldn't find his tent. He drunkenly stumbled into a tent where two of the girls were asleep and then starting shouting to wake people up and find his tent - I manged to sleep through it all as usual!
Day 136 - Butte, MT - Glacier NP, MT
We woke up to very very wet tents and as always ours seemed to be wetter than everyone else’s (and I am not just saying that!). Rob had a bit of a run-in with the Chris, the Aussie, because we were apparently holding up the whole group by putting our tent out to dry until the last minute. For some reason he insisted that the tent needed to go in first and Rob lost his temper - the whole group was in shock as I don’t think they though Rob was capable of shouting! It all passed over eventually.
We had a very “cruisy” day today.
It was a pretty boring drive as there is not much going on in Montana! We did stop at a random town for lunch but that was about the only highlight.
We arrived at the campsite just outside Glacier NP in the late afternoon and set up camp before heading to the visitors information centre to look at hiking options for the next day.
In the evening some of us went to a park ranger talk at one of the campsites in the park. It was called “Thinking Like a Bear” and although it was quite interesting it just made me more scarred about a bear encounter the following day, especially as the ranger asked who had pepper spray and just about everyone except us had bought it! Everyone says you must go to at least one ranger talk while visiting the national parks in America so at least we ticked off that box.
We got an early night in preparation for the early start the next day.
Day 137 - Glacier NP, MT
We were up in good time and on the trail by 8am up to Iceberg Lake. Sarah was extremely worried about the possibility
Glacier NP
Iceberg Lake of a Grizzly Bear enconter even though we walked in a group of 8 and made lots of noise. Once we were near the end of a trail a guy was coming back down and said he had just seen a bear off in the distance on the slopes above us and had turned round incase it intersected the path. We fortunately (or u7nfortunately depending on who you are!) didn't see this bear and made it up to the lake which was covered in snow and ice. We stopped here to have a break and to take it all in. On the way down we thought we saw a Grizzly up on a snow field but after 5 minutes of excitement we realised it was a mountain goat!
We arrived back down into the valley and decided to go on a second walk around Lake Josephine. We still did not manage to see any bears but there were lots of ridiculous Americans packing lots of bear spray. We met up with everyone back at the trail-heads and started to drive out of the park when we spotted a rangers van. We stopped and about 50m off the side of the
road were two Grizzly's strolling along. We saw them for about 5 seconds before they ran away (not enogh time for a photo!). It was amazing to see them in the wild though!
We arrived back at camp in the late afternoon and spent the rest of the day in the hot-tub accompanied by a few beers, which was nice and relaxing. We all got an early night as there wasn't too much to do and it was quite cold.
Day 138 - Glacier NP, MT - Black Diamond Ranch, MT
We had another early wake-up as we wanted to take another walk in the park before heading off but we awoke to find the van battery dead. It would not even start when it was hooked up to another van! We packed camp up and waited while Tim tried to sort it out and luckily he got it going about one hour later.
We set off back into the park and stopped off for a really nice 4 mile walk to St. Mary’s Falls with really good views of a huge turquoise lake. Once we were all back at the van we began our long drive
to the ranch. It took most of the day with a quick stop for lunch. I slept most of the way but my neck suffered the consequences!
We arrived at the Montana ranch in the late afternoon and the owners gave us a welcome talk before we unpacked the trailer. We were all staying in permanent tents which were more than basic - I think our tents were more comfortable! However, they had a games room for us all to use in the evening which was really cool. It had table tennis, table-football, pool etc so we had some fun playing each other and it was very nice to have somewhere under shelter for the evening, especially as it was raining again!
After I had a freezing cold shower (I did not realise until afterwards that cold was actually hot and vice-versa) we all sat down to the famous American rib dinner. I wasn’t a fan - the ribs were really fatty and corn bread is disgusting! Luckily the “cowboy” beans were tasty so Rob and I feasted on these! We spent the whole evening in the games room and had a fun evening playing games such as Jenga.
Day 139 - Black Diamond Ranch, MT - Mount Rainier NP, WA
It was a very long day in the van. After a group photo at the ranch and optional pancakes we set off at about 9.30am to Mount Rainier NP. There is not much to say except that we drove all day with a brief stop for lunch and we did not arrive at our campsite in the park until 8.00pm (it would have been 6.00pm but the road we needed to take into the park was closed due to the excessive rain they had recently experienced). Yet again we seemed to drive away from the sun and into very threatening clouds - no wander they call it RAINier!
The campsite was probably the worst yet so I was very pleased that it was our last evening by a soggy campfire and out last night in a wet tent! Tim cooked us up a really good beef stroganoff for our last campsite dinner and we all retreated fairly early as it was so wet.
Day 140 - Mount Rainier NP, WA - Seattle, WA
We packed up our gear for the last time (which was nice).
Mount Rainier NP
Last Group Photo We also had to list anything wrong with the gear so when our leader went back to the office he could sort it out - this took a while!
After packing up we went for a nice walk up through the woods to a waterfall. Unfortunately the weather was so bad, as it often is round those parts, and we didn't actually see any of Mount Rainier due to the low cloud.
We set off to Seattle around lunchtime and went straight into town for a little explore before checking into our hotel. We then got ready and went out for dinner with our trek group at a really nice fish restaurant. A few people were flying back that night so we said our goodbyes and the rest of us stayed out in Seattle. We all got quite drunk and it was quite an eventful evening involving some police intervention after our tour leader got ejected from the club!
Day 141 - Seattle, WA
We were going to have a fairly relaxing wake up but Rob did not quite master turning his alarm off as it went off 4 times which meant that I was well and truly
Seattle
The classic skyline awake by 8am. It was a blessing in disguise as we could watch wimbledon in bed - luxuary compared to the last 20 nights in a tent. We watched the first few sets of Murray's first round match before giving Chris a call to get the ball rolling on our day in Seattle.
We got the bus into town and got off at Pike Place Market on the waterfront. We took a look around the stalls before stopping for lunch at one of the restaurants in the market. We all had a tasty burger with a good view looking out to the islands off Seattle. After lunch we went shopping...well it was more like Chris went shopping but Rob and I looked out for bargains that could be had in New York. We also went in every chocolate/fudge shop we saw in search of free tasters!
Once Chris had found all he was looking for we walked up to Seattle Centre whcih is where the Space Needle and museums are. We stopped for a drink and had a wander around before heading back along the waterfront to the market. Here, we stopped by at the first ever Starbucks to buy
Seattle
The last night of Trek America our souvenir mugs.
We got the bus back from town and managed to fit in a quick swim in the evening before Chris had to catch his plane.
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