On Monday morning, a snow-coach was waiting to take us over the winter land of Yellowstone to its very heart, the Old Faithful area.
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The park service adjusts its vehicles to make them snow-compatible during the winter and packs them with luggage and people.
The trip was considered a tour, so we had a guide who was telling us various wisdom about the park. We were making couple of stops along the way to see wildlife or waterfalls or thermal features.
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Our plan was to stay in the area for two or three days and then make an overnight trip. We could not decide where to go for the trip and our inquiries at the information office and ranger station were not helping us. It took talking to one of the snow-coach drivers to learn about the best backcountry places to visit in winter. We finally decided. We will stay in a cabin in Old Faithful till Thursday morning, then pack and go for a two-day trip to Shoshone Lake returning to Old Faithful on Friday noon to catch a coach back to Mammoth Hot Springs at 2pm.
Monday afternoon, we made an easy stroll along the geysers to Biscuit
Basin and Mystic Falls and back, total about 8 miles. The cloudy sky cleared towards the
evening, promising a good weather for the next days.
For Tuesday we planed a longer, 14-mile trip. We took a ride to Fairy
Falls trail head. The fog was sitting in the valley, but where it cleared, sun was happily
shining on us. In the thermal areas, trees were covered with frozen steam, creating
incredibly beautiful scenery.
The trail to Fairy Falls lead through flat landscape in a burned forest.
The falls were half-frozen, a truly charming place. The proposed route for this trip
suggests that after returning from the Fairy falls,
one follows a "power line trail"winding along the road. We picked a parallel
route going further into the hills and to the Mallard Lake. It turned out to be a mistake.
Mallard Creek trail is a continuation of an easy and well-traveled Mallard
Lake ski trail. However, the "creek" extension to Fairy Falls junction turned
out to be steep, used only occasionally and exclusively traveled in the opposite direction
(from Mallard Lake to Fairy Falls). It is rated as a trail for experienced skiers only.
This all simply meant that the steeply ascending trail did not have enough base, since the
trail was broken only in the downhill direction. Climbing up in a deep powder snow was a
real pain. Short descends, similarly, did not have enough place to turn and slow down. We
had to climb some 800 feet, which was pretty exhaustive. We were really happy to finally
reach the Mallard Lake. It was almost getting dark, we were only half as quick as we
anticipated. Luckily, the three miles downhill from the lake to Old Faithful (the Mallard
Lake trail) was an easy and fun route. Well broken, with enough space to break and turn.
We finally got our dose of enjoyment.
However, we were exhausted. Thus, the ruling for the next day, Wednesday, seemed obvious - no long trips, just an easy skiing in the basin to enjoy the geysers and pools and relax before the overnight trip.
As we said, we did. First thing in the morning we secured a permit for our
overnight trip. It took almost an hour to fill out all the forms, watch a video about
winter camping and associated dangers, then filling out more paperwork and listen to the
same instructions again - this time from the ranger. It certainly looks like there is room
for improvement in the permitting process.
Having secured the backcountry permit, we took our skis and headed to the boardwalks leading through the geyser area. We used skis to make us faster if needed, even though at places we had to take them off as the snow melted over areas warmed by the geothermal outlets. We have seen plenty of geyser eruptions -- we were lucky as usual. The weather was still beautiful, despite bad forecast.
In the evening, we managed to arrange a lift to DeLacy Creek trail head for next morning, where we wanted to start our trip. DeLacy Creek is some 3 miles behind usual drop-off point (and over the continental divide). Fortunately, the staff was friendly and helpful. We were ready to go.
Map of ski trails around Old Faithful [JPG, 115kB]
