We trudged up the trail past several other hikers who "had to turn around." Maybe we should have turned around, but we saw at least one other couple make it up the pass and disappear into the mountain. We could certainly do it too and did.

I came away with two important lessons from this hike. First, the current weather is not a good predictor of the conditions around the corner or a few minutes into the future. Second, distances are always longer than what they appear. (Did you spot the hiker turning the lower switchback in the second picture above? He's the black dot on the curve.) The tunnel is only 250 feet long, but the conditions on each side were near polar opposites. It was snowy on both sides, but the sun greeted us when we exited the tunnel on the other side. As with Sky Pond, the weather deteriorated quickly while we explored the tunnel, forcing us back the down the mountain. We had to return the same way we came up. The fourth picture above shows the difference in the weather when we hit the snow (picture 2) from the mouth of the tunnel (fourth picture).

We visited the Grinnell Glacier on the second day in the park. We took boats across Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine and hiked 8 miles round trip. Park Ranger Monica guided a group of 20 or so hikers (including us) to the glaciers. The others must have been tired or slacking on their bear knowledge. They were way too quiet. Amanda, Jessica, and I took attendance, screamed "BEAR!... AWARE!", and worked on our original composition, "The Big, Fat Grizzlies," on the ascent and descent. You're welcome silent hikers.

We ended the day with well-deserved beers at on the deck at the Many Glacier Hotel. As we unwound, we met a drifter named Jessee. He noted that all the campsites were full for the night. I told him we had plenty of space at our site for a third tent. No clue what was going through my head. I must have just been glad to be off the mountain. Whatever the case, Amanda and Jessica were not impressed. Turns out, Jessee was extremely sketchy. Never would have guessed that after getting to know him for 3.5 minutes in the middle of the Montana wilderness. Thankfully, he didn't murder us. We're all laughing about it now. Jessee made the last night of the trip our final adventure. 

Here are a few highlights from the Grinnell Glacier hike.

The views on the drive out of Glacier were every bit as exciting as the ones we saw on the way to the park. We took Going to the Sun Road through the middle of the park and part of our way over the Rockies. Here are a few of my favorite photos from that portion of the drive.

Jessica summed up the trip perfectly as we left Montana. Flipping through the atlas, she noticed a familiar photo with some sappy quote. It was the mountain peak in one of the pictures above. "From now on, when I see some amazing photo, I'll wonder whether or not I've been there."

We pulled into Seattle later that night. Jessica helped Amanda and I move into our new place the next day. I had all the electronics setup by the end of the day, including our Apple TV. Our screen saver flips through National Geographic's nature sequence. I noted familiar scenes from the week before. 

Roll call... Amanda? Jessica? Nathan?

"I like sleeping in a tent," I hear Amanda tell Jessica as we try to beat the rain and setup camp in Yellowstone's Madison Campground. I stopped what I was doing to confirm the statement. Jessica tries to get the words out between laughing spells. "No, she said 'LOVE'--not 'like'. Love."  

When I shared the itinerary for this trip with my friends and family, most seemed eager to hear about the plan and the backup plan. "Backup plan.... For what?" I replied the last time it came up. "Well, how often do you and your wife go camping?" my MITRE colleague asked over lunch a few days before Amanda and I were scheduled to leave. Eight or so others around the table began to laugh as it became clear that there was only one plan. "She'll be hooked. I know she'll love it now that we have the right gear." To fully appreciate the qualifier, one would have to know about the pilot study we ran a couple years ago in West Virginia with our friends Will and Tina. It's enough to say that we came away with some lessons learned. This time, we were prepared.

Rain began to pepper our site as I tried to get the fire started. Jessica and Amanda were rushing to get dinner prepped and our site setup. It was already dark, and we had been on the road for 10+ hours. We only had an hour before lights out. We got everything worked out in time to have burgers and S'mores before calling it a day. It poured later that night and the temperature dove into the 20s each evening for the remainder of the trip. It was some of the best sleep we can remember.

Yellowstone was the second stop on our trip. We spent two full days exploring the west side of the park. The first day we visited Old Faithful, the Grand Prismatic Spring Trail, and Artist's Paint Pots Trail. The last stop was my personal favorite for the 'drive-up' portion of our trip. Artist's Paint Pots has several different geothermal features in a small area, including hot springs, mudpots, a fumarole, and geysers. The deafening fumarole venting steam from several holes in the ground was the highlight for me.

We visited Uncle Tom's Trail (300+ stairs) to see the Lower Falls, hiked South Rim Trail along the Grand Canyon, summited Mount Washburn, and drove the Hayden Valley and Yellowstone Lake the second day. We also spotted more stars on our second night than any of us can remember seeing up to that point. Without city lights for hundreds of miles around, the Milky Way was clearly visible too.

Overall, Yellowstone was a worthwhile stop, but the crowds made it feel more like a horribly underdeveloped version of Disneyland than a protected wilderness. I could be convinced to return, but next time I will look for ways to put some distance between me and other tourists.

Key stats:

• 442 miles traveled between Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone
• Average speed was 48 miles per hour
• Averaged 46.2 miles per gallon on this hike

“Come hobbits, come… We must climb!” Gollum tells Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins as he leads them up the stairs to the Cirith Ungol pass to Mordor. I couldn’t help recall that scene from the Lord of the Rings movie as Amanda, Jessica, and I ascended the final quarter mile of our hike alongside Timberline Falls spilling out of Lake of Glass.

We started our hike to Sky Pond by boarding a shuttle at an overflow parking lot near the Bear Lake campground. As we stepped onto the bus, I asked a ranger if the route took us to the Sky Pond trail head. She paused, looked us over, and said “You know the weather is turning up there, right?” I nodded and assured her that we packed the right gear. She shrugged her shoulders, stepped aside, and told us, “This one will take you up there... Don't be afraid to turn around.” We were the last people on the bus and squeezed into the ‘standing area’ (i.e. the isle) of the bus. It was a tight fit. 

We got off the bus at Glacier Gorge (elevation 9,240 feet). Our destination, Sky Pond, was 4.9 miles out and 1,710 feet above our starting point. We chatted with a few hikers as they passed. Only one had been up to Lake of Glass and Sky Pond. He repeated the warning about the weather, so I asked him about specific concerns. “Lightening… You’re completely exposed up there and have no where to go above the tree line.” We had not heard thunder for at least a half-hour and decided to press on until something changed. 

As we made our way around Loch Vale, we could see a waterfall high-up the mountain near the summit. I wondered to myself if the flow emptied into Sky Pond before spilling over into Lake of Glass. It was at least a mile away and had to be 600 feet or more above us. (NPS trail guide puts it around 800 feet.) “Maybe we can get closer to the falls after we visit Sky Pond,” I thought as we continued along the trail. After another half a mile the slight grade and generous switch-backs became a punishing march straight up the mountain’s face. The waterfall did not feed Sky Pond… It was overflow from Lake of Glass. We were going to the summit. 

It began to rain as we ascended above the tree line. We paused to put on our rain gear and see rock stairs leading around to a large bolder. They were walkable, but just barely. When we made it to the top of the stairs, we saw several people on all fours descending down an even steeper field of rocks. As they approached, we could see one with a shirt covered in blood. We offered first aid to bandage a laceration he got when he fell from the rock face ahead. “Rock face? What are you talking about?” This was the first I heard of it. He points up the mountain, “Lake of Glass and Sky Pond are up there. If you can make it past the vertical section, the rest is pretty easy. Be careful though, the rocks are slick from all the water. That’s where I fell.” A second person descending told Jessica that she was "an experience rock climber, and decided it was too risky to proceed." My adrenaline spiked. This is the adventure I hoped to find in the Rockies. 

We got on all fours and moved slowly up a field of rocks. There was no trail at this point. We came to a 15-20 foot tall wall bookended by a waterfall and the sky. We stopped and weighed the risks for ourselves. I started up the wall to see how difficult it really was to find good hand and foot holds. There were plenty, especially if you climbed in the falls. I made it to the top and pointed out the easiest route I found to Jessica and Amanda. They followed without issue. We continued on all fours for another 300 or so yards and took in our first views of Lake of Glass. It was breathtaking.

We could see the water flowing out of the lake and over the waterfall we spotted earlier. We could also see several (small) glaciers clinging to the sides of the mountain. I took out our chairs, and we celebrated our accomplishment with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. After a short break, Amanda broke out her camera as the rain eased up. Jessica explored the lake. I looked for the trail to Sky Pond.It was higher still. (The trail completely vanishes at the Lake of Glass. It took us 10 minutes or so to spot several--unnatural--piles of rocks pointing us towards the path.)   

We made it to Sky Pond after a short hike, but only had a few minutes to stay. Black clouds were lumbering over the peak above the pond and the rain was picking back up. The adventure was fun, but it was definitely time to go. With the rain coming down hard on the descent, Amanda and I partnered to try capturing our adventure to the sky. Jessica also caught several good ones with her camera phone.

Here are some of the images that made it off the mountain along with some photos of our trip up Old Fall River Road (dirt, one-way road without guard rails) and down Trial Ridge Road (highest paved road in the US). I just noticed that we saw the sun rise and set on Wednesday. Both were exciting to experience.

Finally, here are the key road trip stats for the leg from Kansas City, KS to Estes Park, CO:

• Departed Kansas City at 3:09 AM CST on Wednesday, September 2

• Arrived at the Denver Airport around 11 AM MDT to pick up our friend Jessica
• Entered Estes Park at 1:30 PM MDT 
• Total distance 694 miles
• 39.3 miles per gallon on average (very low due to 75 mph speed limit in western KS/eastern CO and ascent from ~5,000 feet above sea level in Denver to ~8,200 in Rocky Mountain National Park)
• Average speed 65 miles per hour

Next stop: Yellowstone