Skiing the Park

This past weekend my beautiful wife took me down to the Park (Yellowstone, that is) for a couple days of cross-country skiing before my birthday. We stayed in the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel on Saturday night and had a great time!

We got a late start getting to the Park on Saturday, so we decided that for that day we would just ski the loop around the Upper Terrace and see the hot springs and other thermal features there. We would save our big ski for Sunday when we had a full day to enjoy.

The snow was great although it had not really dumped a whole lot recently. However, the skies were darkening and promising a little more. It even snowed on us a little as we skied.

That evening we had a delightful dinner of appetizers at the hotel lounge, complete with the requisite wine and an early birthday dram of some Laphroig single malt scotch. Mmmm.

In the morning we got up early for breakfast and then caught our snowcoach shuttle which would take us into the interior of the park near the Indian Creek campground on the Mammoth-Norris road. Our plan was to take the Sheepeater Trail to the Bunsen Peak trail, and then maybe around Bunsen Peak to see Osprey Falls and then back out to the road. This would be at least 8-10 miles of skiing through the Yellowstone backcountry!

Here I am riding in the Bombardier - check out that awesome ride!

Soon enough the driver left, leaving us alone at the trailhead as we started our adventure. And I mean ALL ALONE!

We leisurely made our way along the trail the 5 miles towards Bunsen Peak. The tracks next to Marilyn here are from a snowshoe hare. We saw alot of these, as well as coyote tracks (the two go together!).

Along the way we spied a lone elk realxing in the snow.

Eventually we popped out into another large meadow, where we had to ski past 3 bison that were laying in the snow. They looked tired, like they were ready for winter to be over. Soon, bison, soon!

They weren't too bothered by our presence, and we moved on towards the base of Bunsen Peak. As we did so the views became even more expansive. This is looking back the way we came, towards the Gallatin Range and Bighorn and Fawn Passes.

Eventually we reached the Bunsen Peak Trail junction. Time to check the map!

Since we were running a little short on time, we decided to forego Osprey Falls (we'll have to hike back there in the spring, as they were highly recommended to us by photographer Tom Murphy!) and ski back towards the road, still some 2 more miles. Along the way we were able to do some backcountry turns on the lower slopes of Bunsen Peak. The snow was great! In front of me here you can make out some more rabbit and coyote tracks in the snow...must have been a good chase!

When we reached the road, we decided to go ahead and ski back down to the Upper Terraces (another 3 miles or so) rather than wait for the snowcoach. It was mostly downhill so it was a nice run.


We stopped for this self portrait at the area known as the Golden Gate.

About that time it really started to snow, but it was nice. We made it back in good shape and made the drive home to Bozeman in time for yet another 40-point blowout loss in the City basketball league. On the up side, we found out that the playoffs are double elimination so there is still one more loss to come!

Beaver Creek Cabin XC Ski

Last weekend my awesome wife and I went on another weekend ski trip to a Forest Service cabin, this time to the Beaver Creek Cabin in the southern Madison Range down by Hebgen and Quake Lakes. We parked at the Refuge Point parking area and packed up for the 3.5 mile ski into the cabin. Scott joined us for the ski in to the cabin, of course taking his own more difficult route off the the trail.

Here I am packed and ready, including my new backpacker guitar courtesy of my rockin' brother Dave:

Marilyn skis down towards the turnoff to Beaver Creek:

Once on the trail we proceeded to ski up the canyon. The scenery was great, although the trail was a little bit chewed up by snowmobiles. Marilyn on the trail:

There was a ton of fresh snow, as it had been snowing all week. With temps in the 20's and a good breeze it was great skiing weather. Here I am along the trail, looking up the West Fork Beaver Creek drainage. There are some sweet lakes up there awaiting a summer backpack trip.

After a long ski, we finally reached the Beaver Creek Cabin. Scott was already in there with the fire going. Check out the outhouse on the right - close the door carefully!

After Scott left, it was time to set about to some relaxin' and drinking some fine single malt Laphroig scotch and jammin some tunes:
There is a loft in the cabin, which is where we slept at night since hot air rises. Outside it was below zero at night but we were toasty warm inside the cabin with the wood stove going. In the morning it was time to melt some snow and make espresso!

We packed up our stuff and decided to go for a ski up behind the cabin. After a short climb through the forest it opens up into an awesome series of meadows that were full of knee-deep fresh snow, great for some backcountry turns!

Alas, and then it was time to go so I could make it home in time for our basketball team to get blown out again in another league game. But, the cabin was awesome and the skiing was great. Now we are on our way to Yellowstone Park for another ski weekend!