Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Backpacking Yellowstone—Northeast: Lamar River; Miller Creek; Hoodoo Basin (Part 1 of 3)


It takes a lot of walking to reach the Hoodoo Basin. From the hikers' Soda Butte trailhead in the Lamar Valley, it's around 17 miles of gently uphill hiking along the Lamar River and Miller Creek, and then a 2,000 foot climb over an additional six miles or so to reach the actual Hoodoos. It's beautiful country, and not seen by many people.

Footbridge over Soda Butte Creek, very near the trailhead.

Bison blocking the route, requiring a detour . . .

. . . up and over this sandy rise.

Pronghorn.

As I was trudging through the sand, a few more bison moseyed over to congregate near the trail.

Scratch, scratch, scratch

Glug, glug, glug

Whoomp, whoomp . . .

whoomp

Uinta ground squirrel.

Glad this wasn't my campsite.

Lamar River.

Fording Miller Creek to reach campsite 3M1.

Easy crossing.

First camp.

View from camp toward Saddle Mountain.

Morning of Day 2.  Red-naped sapsucker, I think. This is the best view I got of it.

Columbia spotted frog in Miller Creek.

Cow moose across the creek.

Mid-morningtime to bed down.


1 comment:

  1. cool animal pictures. loved the frog and sapsucker - any pileated woodpeckers that far north?

    ReplyDelete