West Coast Road Trip: Days 4 & 5

Days 4-5:

Start: Red Lodge, MT
Finish: Federal Way, WA
Miles: 968
States: MT, WY, ID, WA

Like I said before, day 5 was going to be a whole bunch of becoming one with nature and it did not disappoint. First thing on the menu was the Beartooth Scenic Highway and they definitely meant scenic.

On the way up.

Near the top, there were 4-5 people standing out on a snow cornice and I thought we were going to see one fall to their death but it turned out that they were scientists and probably knew what they were doing. As you can see, the summit was still covered by a ton of snow.

This picture is deceiving but still plenty of snow.

Making it up another 5,000 ft climb to the summit though, New Hotness has definitely earned a few car washes for her efforts. 

A much less rigorous descent on the back side.

This route led directly into Yellowstone National Park and the first attraction was Tower Falls. It was a cool water fall only until I saw what was coming later.

Mt. Washburn is the highest point in Yellowstone and I had my sights set on hiking my way to the top even after I found out the trail was closed because it had 3-4 feet of snow on it. The snow pack was hard enough that I could walk on it so I headed up. 

The marker is where I stopped.

As you can see above, the trail has a few switch backs and I decided to cut down on time by heading straight up the mountain instead of taking the "trail." I would have kept going but the snow became a bit soft to keep going vertically and following the trail was too much of a time commitment. The real deal breaker was sinking in the snow up to my hip with one step and taking 20 seconds to get out. There were people hiking the service road on the other side but I was literally the only idiot on the trail so I used common sense for once. 

No more going up.

I was also shirtless at this point and wearing only running shoes and basketball shorts. Not the best snow hiking attire. Right after I took the above picture, I dropped my camera case and as you can imagine, the mountain consumed it with a helpful dose of gravity.

RIP camera case. 2019-Too Soon.

Taking the trail back down was not an option and I wanted to attempt to find my camera case so I "skiid" down the route above on my shoes. I thought about recording a video on Snapchat to prove that I actually did this but I didn't want to lose my phone too. Once back at the bottom, I fully expected to find a Park Ranger waiting for me but I ended up getting lucky I guess.

The Upper/Lower falls were next and this place is what made the previous water fall look like childs play. This area was also referred to as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Other than stopping to take random pictures of animals, the only other main attraction was seeing Old Faithful erupt. 

Not a whole lot to mention there. We waited 30 minutes to watch a 2 minute "eruption" that people actually clapped for afterwards. If you've ever taken a garden hose and sprayed it in the air, you've experienced Old Faithful. 

After leaving the park, it was just driving overnight to Seattle. The only exciting things were coming across a dead snake on the road which led to the quote of the day and seeing an overturned semi hauling hay bails.

"Don't open your door, it'll strike at you." Debbie

We made it to Seattle at about 10am yesterday and just took a quick drive through downtown to check out the site of the miracle below and to see the Space Needle.

Upcoming: Olympic National Park and whatever comes with it.