Camping (finally!!)

The past two weeks have been insane. I haven't worked anything less than a 10 hour shift since the first week of June, which is seriously hampering my ability to be able to hike after work. I guess it helps that I start at 5:30 am, because I tend to be off by 3:30 or 4 and can still fit in a short hike.

A few days after we went to the Tetons, a group of us hiked Hellroaring Creek after work. The trail goes down a steep hill into the valley along the Yellowstone River. We hiked about 2.5 miles in and sat by the creek for a bit. The cloud patterns on the way out were insane, and we saw three black bears (a mom and two cubs across the canyon from us). The cubs were wrestling, which was adorable, but they were too far away to get good pictures of.

Clouds over Hellroaring Creek, 6/17/17. 

Last "weekend", Haileigh and I hiked in to a campsite that is about 3 miles in from the Ice Lake trailhead. It took us an hour to get the fire started, because everything was still damp from the rain a few days before. The whole time, we were being devoured by mosquitos. The sunset across the meadow was amazing though. At around 10:30, three more people hiked in, and then the last two got there around 11:15. We all sat around the fire until around 3 am. It was my first night sleeping in my new tent, which takes a grand total of 3 minutes to set up alone. The whole group slept in until 10:30 am, which was awesome except that we all woke up because we were insanely hot with the sun directly over our tents. We packed up and hiked out, then got burgers at the General Store at Canyon. That afternoon, I drove to West Yellowstone to get internet because it had been out for 5 days in Canyon, and I needed to finish FAFSA. Naturally, while I was there, I went to Taco Bus. You can take the girl out of Arizona, but you can't take the Arizona out of the girl!

Sunset from Norris Meadows Campsite, 6/20/17. 

The Crew at Norris Meadows Campsite, 6/21/17. 

Mosquitos are mean, 6/21/17. 

On both Saturday and Sunday, two different groups of us hiked up Gneiss Creek. The hike goes along the Madison River, then through a burn zone from last years fire, then up to a giant meadow. It was a pretty Gneiss hike (ahh rock puns). Both times, we hiked up a huge hill and laid in the grass (yes, I did have to check for ticks after both times, but it was totally worth it). The second time, we hiked back down, and Daniel fished in the Madison while the rest of us chilled by the river. I found a perfect log to lay down on, and I laid there and attempted to mediate, but it was a challenge with people talking and cars going by. It was still a lovely way to end the day.

Gneiss Creek Trail burn zone, 6/24/17. 

Flowers on Gneiss Creek Trail, 6/24/17.

Friends and hats, 6/24/17. 

Yesterday, I got roped into working a double, because there really was no one else to cover the closing shift. Let me tell you, working from 5:30 am to 10 pm is hard. But I luckily worked with good people all day, so that made it infinitely more manageable. Giant paycheck, here we come!

I finally have two days off in a row (yay!!). The weather is supposed to be bad, so we're not camping tonight, but we will most likely to a long day hike tomorrow.

My animal count is now up to 6 grizzlies (two female, two male, and two cubs), fifteen black bears (three separate moms with two cubs each, one adult in the distance, four separate yearlings, and the cinnamon one), 7 bighorn sheep (one male, six females), a bull moose, two swans, two ospreys with hatchlings, and two bald eagles.