gardiner | 4 Radical Roadschoolers and a Fat Cat

Posts Tagged With: gardiner

Yellowstone: Hiking Mt. Washburn

Posted on September 4, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

On our last day in Gardiner, we hiked Mt. Washburn. I heard great things about this “must-do” hike from a couple of different bloggers including this one: The Best Hike in Yellowstone. I’m glad we took his advice. It was a beautiful hike! It is a little over 3 miles to the summit making it a little over 6 miles round trip. The uphill climb was hard work, but the views were so amazing it was worth it!

0813161100a_Burst14

A ranger lives at the top during the summer in the fire watchtower. Below the ranger’s living quarters is a type of small visitor center that you can go in and look at maps and information about what you are seeing off in the distance. You can even see Grand Teton from up there on a clear day!

We got a very early start that morning to make sure we could find parking at the trailhead. The beginning of the hike is through meadows and you’ll see lots of wildflowers.

0813160925_HDR

As you get closer to the top it becomes more rocky and barren. In the picture below you can see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

0813161141_HDR

This is the view from the watchtower. So beautiful!

0813161106a_HDR

I actually thought hiking back down was even more stunning, probably because on the way up I forgot to occasionally look behind me at where we had been. When I remember to do that, I realize sometimes the view behind us is even better! Since this was an up and down hike, hiking back down I saw all the views I missed on the way up.

0813161137_HDR

0813161151b_HDR

0813161133a_HDR

This certainly was one of the “best hikes in Yellowstone”! I have one more post from our time in Yellowstone about our visit to the Fishing Bridge section on the east side. Stay tuned!

Categories: Montana, National Parks, Wyoming | Tags: ditching suburbia, full time rv'ing, fulltime families, gardiner, Montana, mt. washburn, Wyoming, yellowstone national park | 4 Comments

Yellowstone: Mammoth Hot Springs

Posted on August 28, 2016 by Heather Gebbia

If you are following along and missed my first 2 posts about Yellowstone, you can find them here: Yellowstone: Geysers and Hot Springs and Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

After our stay in West Yellowstone, we moved up to the little town of Gardiner, Montana which is at the north entrance to Yellowstone. Yellowstone is a huge park and it seemed to work out best for us to move to different sections of the park rather than driving for several hours each day.

My parents were still with us for the first couple of days in Gardiner. We stayed at Rocky Mountain RV Park. They had a cute little mini golf course that the kids enjoyed playing with Gramma and Grampa.

0808161601a_HDR

Gardiner was a really cute town just like West Yellowstone. We enjoyed walking around town, checking out souvenir shops and eating great pizza.

0807162014_HDR

The Roosevelt Arch was cool.

0807162021b_HDR

Also the beautiful Yellowstone River runs through town.

0807162050_HDR

Gardiner is very close to the Mammoth Hot Springs section of Yellowstone. We enjoyed visiting there with Mom and Dad. We walked through the lower and upper terraces. These terraces are so interesting and unique. It’s hard to see in the picture, but there is hot water running down this terrace. It’s amazing to see this and wonder how these steps/terraces were formed. It was so pretty!

0808160944_HDR

0808160947_Burst08 (2)

This section looked like snow! But it wasn’t snow; it actually had very hot water running down it.

0808161000_HDR

My cute parents enjoying their last day at Yellowstone. We had so much fun with them visiting with us! I sure wish they would sell their house and join us on the road. 🙂

0808161001c_HDR

0808161011a_HDR

0808161010_HDR

0808161024a_HDR

I can’t even explain how amazing this place is. You just have to see it for yourself. I mean here we are in the middle of all these mountains, and smack in the middle of it all is this small section of hot springs creating the most unusual landscape.

0808161033b_HDR

No, that is not snow. It sure looks like it, but it’s actually very hot!

0808161045_HDR

0808161047_HDR

During the week after Mom and Dad left we visited the Boiling River. That was really fun! You can sit in this river where the water is cold and hot at the same time. Boiling water from the hot springs flows down into the cold Yellowstone River. It felt really weird. Sometimes I would feel a rush of cold river water and the next steaming hot spring water. You had to be careful not to get too close to the hot spring water because it really was boiling.

0810161748_HDR

Another evening we drove down to Lamar Valley to try to see some wildlife. We were surprised that so far we haven’t seen very much wildlife around Yellowstone besides lots of elk. We heard Lamar Valley would be the place to see some bison and that was the truth! They were everywhere, even in the road! I was so excited to be first in line at this bison traffic stop. What a show!

0811161918a_HDR