Meadow Hot Springs & Kolob Canyons Aug 22-23

Morning found us in Montana, evening found us driving towards menacing thunderstorms in Utah. The plan was to camp at Meadow Hot Springs on our very last night, a comfortable distance from home to make the last day's driving not too painful. We kept careful watch on the weather radar as muddy farm roads would be no place for the Prius. The storm seemed to be just to the south by miles and moving away from us so we decided to give it a shot.

Meadow Hot Springs is a fascinating group of springs and an incredible rarity: undeveloped springs on private property with no apparent restriction on access or camping. Just keep it cleaner than you found it. We found them to be in relatively good shape. We drove first to the fish pond pool (shallowest, coolest, dock for entry), then drove on to the figure-8 shaped pool where we set up camp. The later was warmer and had an interesting deep end going down about 10ft. We had a great show of dramatic skies, strong winds, lightning, and rainbows from the nearby storm. We had a pleasant soak and played around with our goggles and dive light in the depths.

        The figure-8 pool

        The fish pond pool

It was not until the morning that we explored a bit further and found the northernmost pool to be the main soaking and SCUBA diving pool. At 95 degrees (and devoid of fish) it was certainly the warmest and most comfortable of the three main pools. Though modest in size at the surface, the pool bells out into a wider chamber below. Lowering my dive light down on a line suggested about 25ft depths. I have not been to many hot springs with such large travertine- lined vents, and was an interesting analogy for Homestead Crater, not too far away. After a peaceful morning soak, we reluctantly hit the road for our final day of the road trip.

        The perfect pool

I found out Sara had never been to the isolated but surprisingly accessible Kolob Canyons portion of Zion National Park so we took a 25 minute detour from I-15 to drive the scenic road and say goodbye to the Navajo Sandstone for a while. It was just long enough to snap a couple pictures before hitting the road again. The rest of the drive was familiar and without incident. We arrived at home with mixed feelings. Home is home, but open road and broad landscapes have endless appeal. Thanks to Sara for being my partner in adventure.

Bear Trap Canyon Packraft & Norris HS Aug 21

We drove a solid five hours from West Glacier, back through Cardwell, to Norris to meet up with friends Jesse and Kristina for a shuttled 9mi packraft in the Lee Metcalf Wilderness. Sara and I were a little disorganized but eventually piled our gear into Jesse's truck, left the Prius at the take-out, and drove the circuitous route along Ennis Lake to just below the hydroscheme where we hit the river. As we pushed off we met a kayaking couple that we would maybe help shuttle, but were fated to have quite a different day than us.

The Madison River had much more of a big river feel than the other (late season, not dam controlled) rivers we had been on this trip. This one had some kick to it with hydraulics that would make you work a little. A little over a mile of riffles and minor rapids led us to White Horse, a Class III rapid that Jess said was worth scouting. This rapid was rather long and intimidating when viewed from the scout. Running it was pure fun- much more straightforward and with less bite than appearances suggested.

        Scouting White Horse Rapid (III)

We continued on through improving scenery and more splashy rapids. A protruding cliff on river left and a distinct horizon line signaled our second scout, Kitchen Sink (Class IV). This rapid impressed me. Long and with several imposing features and no-go terrain, this was certainly a step up. Jesse had been wanting to give it a try (rather than portage as on previous trips) and my enthusiasm seemed to convince us both we might be able to handle it. We carefully talked ourselves through each obstacle from bottom to top and then memorized our desired line from top to bottom.

I went first with more than a little adrenaline pumping as I eased in the quickening waters at the top and positioned myself for the first obstacle. The rest was mostly unconscious instinct as I identified the next target, made the critical few paddle strokes to position, and braced or powered through the impact. Towards the end a moment of panic and a last minute decision prompted me to take a slightly different route than planned, but it worked perfectly. About six distinct obstacles surmounted and I was through, still upright to boot! I got in position with throw rope for Jesse. He took a slightly differently line than me but emerged equally unscathed. Certainly one of the more fun rapids I'd run in awhile.

        Me at the start of the Kitchen Sink (photo by Jesse)

        Jesse's first Class IV rapid in a packraft (Kitchen Sink)

With the crux out of the way, we didn't even both scouting the next Class III Green Wave, and all sailed through cleanly. After this the river demonstrably flattened out and we had to paddle to maintain our good timing. Eventually the take out was reached and we piled the mountain of gear into the crowded Prius. Just as we were about to leave the group of two kayakers approached us for a ride. We said you bet, just let us drop Kristina and Sara off at Norris Hot Springs and we'll be right back.

We dropped the girls off and headed back the few miles to the takeout. A long line of non-moving cars- it was clear an accident had happened! And a bad one! We assessed the situation, tried to see if there was any hope of getting through, and had to admit defeat. We spun around and went to complete our car shuttle, then dinner at soaking at the hot springs while a local musician played. Lots of people but a very pleasant atmosphere and a nice soaking tub. Right at the end of the night we spotted the two kayakers! Turns out they were the first to respond to the very bloody bike-car collision and had a very intense evening. They determined the accident must have occurred about a minute after we left! Anyway our karma was redeemed by letting them know we tried to get to them but couldn't. Sara and I camped at the hot springs and had a nice morning soak in the pool, all to ourselves. Then we started the long drive home. Montana, Idaho, then ended the day in Utah. Although it was a quick trip, it was great to meet up with some friends on their home turf for nice day of adventure.

Glacier NP Aug 20

Sara stopped into the field camp to pick me up at noon so that we could drive ~5 hours up to Glacier National Park country. To fit Glacier into our schedule we would have to drive about 10 hours for only one full day in the park. This seemed excessively gluttonous but with all the park's glaciers forecast to be gone in fifteen years, time seemed to be of the essence so we would take what we could get. We were challenged to make the most of a one-day run through the national park. We quickly wished we had several more!

We took the direct route through the surprisingly unmetropolitan state capitol Helena, and much grassland east of the Rockies. We stayed the night on the plains outside of Browning in a canvas tipi. It was quite spacious and I can better appreciate the design after a clear and cold night in one. I think it was partly low quality wood but I struggled to get a fire going without smoking us out too much. The whole experience certainly had novelty value and thankfully was tactfully done.

I managed to convince Sara to mobilize for a reasonably early start, getting us into the Many Glaciers entrance just after 8am. We hit a deflating snag when we pulled up to the small ranger station to find a posting saying that the trail to Iceberg Lake was "closed due to bear activity." Ugh national parks...With the little research I had time to do on Glacier, this seemed like the best way to spend it. Now suddenly denied that option we poured over the park map in search of a plan B. Though the map showed the terminus lake at Grinnell Glacier to be small than Iceberg, I suspected that the dying glacier would also have some interesting icebergs. We parked a little before 9am at an already nearly full trailhead parking lot and packed for adventure.

The hike was pretty, if clogged with slow, plodding tourists, including a ranger-led group of about 20 people (what hell). A young couple carrying little more than water were the only others that could keep pace and we repeatedly crossed paths from our different choices of photo and water breaks. After the first two motorboat accessible lakes things finally started to feel a little more remote. The trail switchbacked briefly above Grinnell Lake past lush green slopes and meadows and then traversed the Archean rocks into Grinnell's cirque. The trail crossed briefly over very young moraine deposits to reach a view of the lake and glacier. I was delighted (if somewhat saddened) to see the glacier had retreated considerably since the USGS topographic map was made, revealing a much larger Upper Grinnell Lake full of hundreds of icebergs. Here the lakeshore was crowded with people enjoying a mid-morning snack, and a few out of boredom that stripped down to take a two-second plunge in the icy lake. Here we unfurled and inflated our secret weapons, our trusty Alpackas. After a quick snack we pushed off away from the mortals and began paddling through the intricate maze of icebergs.

What great fun! We got to enjoy the many sculpted shapes of the icebergs as we weaved through the narrow gaps between them. I enjoyed some of the metamorphic textures and cave-like alcoves. In some cases I had to push or prod man-sized icebergs out of the way to allow us passage. The icebergs glistened with melt from the already warming day. The wind was strong enough to push the icebergs around which was highly disorienting as the geometry and pattern of recognizable landmarks would change. With the tourists relegated to the role of tiny ants on the furthest shore, it was like we had the whole lake and glacier to ourselves. Paddling around the icebergs was an easy highlight of the whole road trip. It was quite unlike anything I had done before.

After many photos and Ooos and Ahhs, we paddled over to the collapsing face of the glacier. In just a few minutes we saw several large boulders collapse off the melting front and splash into the lake. It was amazing to see how active it was in the modest sun, and easy to picture the glacier being gone in fifteen years as forecast. To the side of this collapsing cliff face was a considerably more stable looking ramp that we could beach our packrafts on and explore the glacier. Since the side of the glacier nearest the trail is heavily crevassed, here again we had a distinct advantage of being able to access the easiest approach across the glacier, and once again we had the glacier 100% to ourselves. We walked up the ramp and across a few deep but narrow crevasses to the wind-sculpted shadows of the accumulation zone. Here we took turns butt-sliding down the steep but bumpy slopes. Sara seemed particularly entertained, and was entertaining to watch. The view down the glacier and across the iceberged lake was quite agreeable.

        View from near the top of the Grinnell Glacier

Once back at the boats we found the icebergs to have drifted across the lake, effectively cutting off the way we had approached the glacier and forcing us to forge a new route through. We found a mostly clear route along the base of Salamander Falls, though I did have to use force to move a couple very large icebergs blocking our path. Once through we explored the icebergs a little more, if only to delay our return to the crowded shore with families and smokers. We saw a bald eagle swoop overhead and perch itself on a ledge of the cliff- we were pretty sure we were the only ones that saw it. Now early afternoon time was catching up with us. We beached, quickly deflated boats, and took off. 

With Sara leading the charge we made excellent time back down the trail, passing countless people walking at painfully slow paces. Several seemed to have looked on at us kayaking across the lake with more than a ping of jealousy. I would be too- kayaking the lake and walking across the glacier was the best possible way to spend this portion of the day. Kudos to Glacier NP for having one of the most unrestrictive and logical policies on packrafting of any national park.

After a quick stop in St Mary we drove back into the park along Saint Mary Lake and drove west on the famous Going-To-The-Sun Road. It was certainly quite impressive and must have been quite the feat of engineering and sweat at the time. Although I could easily spend a week or more in Glacier's backcountry if given the chance, I felt satisfied that we had made the most of the one day we were able to spend before heading back for home. We drove through the park on dusk and stayed at a nice enough campground in West Glacier. Thanks to Sara for a memorable day.

Field Education Workshop Aug 16-19

The whole motivation for the road trip was attending a workshop put on by UNAVCO on how to introduce high resolution topography (terrestrial laser scanning and structure from motion) into undergraduate field courses. The workshop was held at the University of Indiana's geology field camp in Montana's Tobacco Root Mountains where many students take summer field. The field camp has been a pioneer in introducing the techniques to undergraduates so it was the perfect venue to hold the workshop. Overall it was an excellent balance of visiting field sites to practice techniques, processing software in a lab setting, and discussing pedagogy with peers. Another highlight was an impressive thunderstorm with marble sized hail that pelted everything in sight...including my clothes drying on the clothesline. It was certainly one of the better workshops I've attended and now feel like I have the tools and background to implement these techniques in teaching. Thanks to those that helped put it on!

        Some sort of technological circus?

Yellowstone NP Aug 14-16

As a geologist who had never been to Yellowstone, we had some major ground to cover in 2.5 days. That also meant we'd have time to only hit the tourist areas and not really any backcountry exploration. We started at the south entrance, drove north, west, and north for our first night at Madison Campground, drove east, north, east to exit the park's northeast entrance for night two along the Beartooth Highway, then drove west and north to finally exit the parks north entrance. Between the tourists, low speed limit, and vast expanses this amounted to a lot of driving.

Our first stop was the West Thumb Geyser Basin on the shores of Yellowstone Lake where we got our first taste of overflowing parking lots. Once we found a spot, the boardwalked trail was nice enough. Several interesting geothermal features juxtaposed against the expansive backdrop of Yellowstone Lake. I quickly became fascinated by the small-scale colors and textures of the different pools.

Next up was the world famous Upper Geyser Basin. We arrived shortly before Old Faithful was set to erupt so we grabbed an ice cream from the lodge and joined the throngs in the bleachers. We watched the first half of the impeccably timed eruption before peeling off from the crowds. We walked the full boardwalk loop over to Morning Glory Pool and back, enjoying the varied colors and textures as we went. Storm clouds loomed on the horizon and thunder boomed in the distance. Somehow it seemed fitting to the landscape. When we were set to leave (pumping gas actually!) we could see Castle Geyser erupting and so ran over to watch that one. The voluminous spray blasted all those on the walking path with warm sulfurous mist.

        Old Faithful Geyser

        Morning Glory Pool

        Castle Geyser

We drove on to Midway Geyser Basin, home of the Grand Prismatic Pool and an even more dire parking situation. The viewpoint trail we wanted was closed but we walked the boardwalk along the pool anyway. Certainly not as impressive at ground level!

        Grand Prismatic Pool

We continued on to Firehole Lake Drive where we managed to arrive about ten minutes before Great Fountain Geyser was likely to erupt. This one had a slightly different eruption pattern where it had a stalled eruption, paused for a further ten minutes, then erupted spectacularly. It was neat seeing a hot river instantly appear. Three major geyser eruptions in a day without trying seemed pretty good!

        Great Fountain Geyser

We took a short detour along Firehole Canyon Drive, enjoying the steep gorge, impressive falls, and drooling over packraft options. A short distance further and we were at Madison Campground, a sardine-packed, stripped forest with over 270 sites! Despite being in the park and the most expensive, it was easily the most undesirable camp we stayed on our whole trip. The location was convenient though and we slept just as well.

Day 2 we set out to cover the northeast section of the park, stopping at the roadside Beryl Spring and then a short walk to the Artists Paint Pots, a colorful name for the gray bubbling mud pools. Next we drove on to Artists Point to see the famous Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone view. It was certainly fascinating to see such a youthful, colorful, and highly active gorge, the more so with steaming hot springs pouring out at river level far below. The Uncle Tom's trailhead was completely full so we decided to head down the Hayden Valley in the interim. The Mud Volcano area was neat with even more varied geothermal features including a cave-like vent that belched waves of hot water and steam. It was particularly neat to see enormous bison lounging around the geothermal features like they were no big deal.

        Artists Paint Pots

        Artists Point

Returning to the canyon area we found parking and hike Uncle Tom's Trail. I was pleasantly surprised, not expecting a Half Dome or Angel's Landing sketchiness of trail. Essentially a metal walkway has been bolted along a steep gully to provide access to the misty promontory immediately in front of Lower Yellowstone Falls. On the return we made a loop of it by swinging past the upper falls.

        Uncle Tom's Trail

We drove the tree-covered stretch from Canyon Village to Roosevelt which was not too interesting other than a stop at Tower Fall. From Roosevelt we escaped east out the Lamar Valley, stopping a couple times to marvel at the hot spots and flare-ups visible in one of the fires to the north of us.

We drove through thickening storms and fires along the Beartooth Highway. We had initially planned to go on a short overnight backpack from Island Lake into the wilderness but our later than expected arrival paired with the uncertain weather was more conducive to a simpler evening. A quick look at the Beartooth Lake Campground, quite OK, nothing special and we continued on. The Island Lake Campground was surprisingly nice and unpopulated and we were sold on a spot among the rocks and trees to pitch our Prius. Once claimed, we decided to use the remainder of the daylight to drive east along the switchbacked part of the highway which climbs up to 11000ft and traverses across about 15 miles of alpine tundra and meadows. I was expecting good scenery, but wow, this area certainly gave Yellowstone a run for its money! The worst of the weather passed to give us some nice views on our drive back and a stellar sunset and Island Lake. A very beautiful area of Wyoming and Montana I would certainly return to.

        Island Lake sunset

Day 3. More driving! We retraced our tracks from the previous day, driving in through the northeast entrance to Yellowstone but this time continuing west through Roosevelt. We stopped briefly at the Petrified Tree, then on to Mammoth Hot Spring which I had been looking forward to. We walked nearly the full boardwalked area of the travertine mound. Again I found interest in colors and small-scale textures. It's a fascinating area considering the spring has been active for an excessively long time but the active sources move around the mounds on all timescales. What an incredible amount of calcite and what an incredible amount of flowing fluid to precipitate it all!

 

Our last stop in the park was Boiling River where a significant amount of painfully scalding water enters the frigid Gardner River and a delicate and tenuous balance can be sought between the two. The erratic current meant the sweet spot between blistering and hypothermia was a narrow moving target. Once we found a more stable place to sit it was highly relaxing, even if we had to share it with many others. It reminded me a little of Hot Creek in CA but with probably thirty times the amount of hot water. From the north entrance relatively uneventful driving brought me to Indiana's geology field camp where Sara dropped me off and we parted ways for a few days. I felt like we managed to have a pretty good run of Yellowstone for 2.5 days. I'd certainly come back for the backcountry...and if they ever made packrafting legal.