Flowers, Fires, and Freezing

Laughing in the Flowers. Photo by Rachel Boge. 7/10/16.

After two nights of taking pictures in fields of flowers last week, I decided it was time to switch gears. On Monday night, I stayed outside of Gardiner at the Tom Miner Campground. The site is 10 miles up a dirt road into some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Driving past farmhouses that sit in front of huge mountains was incredibly peaceful. We stopped a couple times to take pictures because it was so idilic. 

Farmhouse near Gardiner, MT. 7/11/16.

We got to the campground and started to build a fire. Since it had rained all day and snowed that morning, everything was soaking wet. We wouldn't have needed a fire so badly if we hadn't decided to cook over it, so we were starving also. We tried for two hours before finally giving up and driving back to town to buy firewood and lighter fluid. After so much frustration, we finally got to eat dinner at almost 10 pm, then went to bed almost immediately. 

The next day, one of my friends and I hiked two miles into the Rescue Creek Trail and camped at site 1A2. The trail goes through, so we hiked the other 5 miles to the end, and hitchhiked back to our trailhead. We got picked up by one of the tourbus drivers who had an empty bus, and he drove us to Mammoth. From there, we ran into a couple of our coworkers from Canyon, and they drove us to the trailhead. We hiked the 2 miles in again to our site, and build a fire, which miraculously lit and stayed lit through a misty rainstorm. 

Perfect Pinecone. Rescue Creek Trail. 7/12/16.

This Tree Nose What You're Thinking. Rescue Creek Trail. 7/12/16.

We went to bed early, but barely slept since we were so cold. We finally decided at 6 am that we were too cold to stay any longer, so we packed up the tent and hiked out. 

Tavin on the Frigid 6 am Hike Out. 7/13/16.

Wednesday evening, a group of us went to Bozeman for the afternoon which was a lot of fun. We ended up playing in a park for a while and appeasing our inner children. 

Patrick at the Park. 7/13/16.

I'm now working half mornings and half evenings, and I love it. I get to sleep in two mornings a week, and then I have three evenings to do whatever hiking I want once I'm off work. Tomorrow I'm hiking Avalanche Peak after work. It's 2,000 feet of elevation change in 2 miles, so I might die on the way up, but I've heard the view from the top is one of the best in the park. Expect pictures soon.

-Morgan