Monday morning rolled around, and Brian and I did as much laundry as we could, unpacked from Lifest, and repacked for the mountains. It took us about 18 hours to get to the mountain, so we drove the first half on Monday and stopped in Mitchell, SD for the night.
Once we entered Wyoming, on Tuesday, we had to take our kayaks through the watercraft checkpoints.
It was a pain since I was anxious to get there, but it is for a very good reason, and they gave us an awesome keychain…
The closer we got, the more different things looked. Permanent snow drift fences and hills, then bigger hills, then mountains.
We took turns driving, which helped a lot!
I was so excited to get to the mountain and meet our friends, John and Carmel. They had an awesome campsite set up and we spent the week with them and John’s three boys.
When I stepped out of my tent, this was the view. Insane.
I loved seeing all the mule deer! So cute.
Carmel and I went for a few runs up there. There’s nothing like attempting to run five miles at 9,000 feet to humble a person.
We did a lot of fun things- one of my favorites was visiting Porcupine Falls. We hiked down to the water, then climbed up on the rock cliff and jumped in the pool! It was a balmy 53 degrees.
We took a day and drove down to Yellowstone. Kayaking Yellowstone Lake has been on my bucket list for a while, so I was just thrilled to get to play down there. I have also read a lot about Yellowstone as I’ve gotten more involved with TU, so it was exciting to go visit on my own. We had to get watercraft licenses for the park and go through another inspection, then we were happily paddling away. 🙂
We even found a couple little caves to check out.
It was a fun day on the water, but we saw a storm rolling in, so we headed back.
We’d bought fishing licenses, but when the storm came, we weren’t sure if we’d have time. I grabbed my rod anyway, strung it up, and popped over to the closest fishable stream.
Three casts in, and I heard the first clap of thunder, so I packed up. It started to rain, so we headed back, but stopped for a couple photos. Picture it: I had B drive, so I could jump out of the car and shoot, then it started raining harder, so I rolled down the window and shot through the opening, then it started hailing. I still wanted to play outside!
It was an incredible day. Neither of us had been there before, and one day wasn’t nearly enough time! We are already planning a longer trip back next time. For those of you who have been to Yellowstone, what would you recommend?
It took us almost four hours to get back to camp, and we were about four miles away when my brakes started making that signature grinding… That sound that means, “Ooh, girl… You should have checked your brakes before taking a long road trip to the mountains!”
So. This happened. Adventure in a photo?
John took Brian into town (Sheridan) the next day to pick up brake pads and rotors, and B installed them right there on top of the mountain.
I’ll leave you with a sneaky picture B grabbed of me doing yoga in the morning. Any inversion was made infinitely more awesome by seeing the upside down mountains in my view.
Part II of my adventure will share all my fishing fun. 🙂
Please come back for more! As always, thanks for reading, friends.
Miles this year: 352.25
artist & athlete | a glimpse into real life, Heidi style 