Posts tagged #The Tetons

Death Canyon

Adventure Tuesday

Hiking in the Tetons

We went hiking in Death Canyon in the Tetons during our time there. As with all places you have to get there early, to beat the crowd. I am one of those too, one of those who get up early to try to get some views of the nature. I think many people have bears, bison, wolves or any other mammal on their list to see. I have seen a fair amount of bears and bison, less wolves but many coyotes. I would be very happy if I saw a large mammal, from a great distance, but if I don't I am still really happy. I love being outside, I love being able to see views, views of the mountains, views of the deep forest and views of all the tiny little flowers, or the texture of a rock. It’s a magical landscape, once you get down on your knees and start digging in the dirt you start to really appreciate the small things in life.

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Death Canyon Trail

The Death Canyon trail is about 10.5 miles. This day we weren't aiming for a far or fast hike, we just wanted to be out and about. W's mom and our friend's parents were with us too, and we enjoyed walking slowly and talking about ecology and geology as we continued towards phelps lake. Once we got to the lake we had lunch, just some sandwiches we brought, but we enjoyed the downtime in the shadows. It was once again a pretty hot day, and the mosquitos were all around us of course. We never ventured into the canyons themselves, but we enjoyed looking at these magnificent mountains and the stories they silently tell. I love being out and about, watch the day slowly go by, I love seeing the details. Sometimes you can’t see the trees for the forest, just like you cant see the forest for the trees.

Magical Landscape of Christmas Trees

The Rocky Mountain forest is so beautiful. The trees are a lot different from the typical black spruce you see in Alaska. They are in the same family, but belong to different genera. The Douglas fir stands tall in the forest, tall and green, and beautiful. A typical christmas tree. Depending on what elevation you are hiking at in the Rocky Mountains, you will see different species, Douglas fir in the lower elevation and whitebark pine at the higher elevations. Sometimes you even see an Engelmann spruce or lodgepole pine, but mostly in between (in elevation) whitebark pine and Engelmann spruce.

Have you ever been hiking in the Rockies? What is your favorite spot?

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Other Summer Adventures:

When we Hiked through Lamar Valley - Summertime in Yellowstone National Park

It all Started Here

The Ultimate Roadtrip pt.5

The Ultimate Roadtrip pt.4

A Tale of Fires and Ghost Logs - Fieldwork in Yellowstone Pt. 3

Forgotten Memories

Longing for the Boreal Forest

Camping in Chequamegon National Forest

Those Summer Nights in Alaska

My Summer Bucket List and my Summer Plans

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Photography, The great wide open and tagged Summer Adventure Hiking Hike The Grand Tetons The Tetons Tetons Grand Teton National Park 2017 Elsewhere Macro Mountains Summer Adventures 2 National Park Summertime Rocky Mountains National Parks.

Holly Lake - Grand Teton National Park

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Adventure Tuesday

The Tetons - July 2017

This summer I flew out to Jackson, WY, to help W and his field crew with some ecology work, mainly in Yellowstone. We stayed at a lodge in the Grand Teton National Park, just about an hour or so south of where we were doing most of the fieldwork.

Hiking

I had just arrived in Jackson a few days earlier when we decided to go on this hike. Originally we wanted to backpack and spend the night at a campsite or alike, somewhere in the mountains, but with all the logistics we figured that a day hike was a lot easier and maybe more doable given the circumstances. I always want to see some grand views during my hikes, and if you can fit in some forest, streams and alpine tundra into that mix I am all for it. A couple of other friends had done this hike the day before and said it was amazing, so we also went on that same hike. If you are planning on doing this hike I would recommend to adjust to the altitude first. Jackson, Wyoming sits at an elevation of 6,237 feet, which also makes the area very dry. I burned my lips so bad this summer in the Tetons and Yellowstone. Holly Lake sits at 9,416 feet, so you will gain many many feet before you reach the end of this hike. I think I got a very light version of altitude sickness, which happens if you are not adjusted to the high elevation.

Paintbrush Canyon, Lakes, Mountains, 2,900 Feet and 13 Miles

The start of this hike is very mellow, walking along the shoreline of String Lake and watching Mt Moran as it mirrors itself in the lake. At this point the trail is all flat, but you will soon slowly start heading up in elevation. The forest along the trail is a typical mixed conifer forest that you will find in large areas of the park, consisting of lodgepole pine and spruce-fir. You cross Leigh Lake outlet that connects to String lake, and it basically looks like a large stream.

As always we marvel on this landscape, and the ecology behind it. We are both ecologists/biologists, so even the tiniest things matter to us. This hike is usually has an amazing wildflower display as you go up in elevation. We were a little early for that display but got some wildflowers along the trail within the forest.

Paintbrush Canyon - Mountains, Creeks and Forest

We were greeted with forest, streams and flowers, right of the bat. We would have to earn the mountains and the alpine ecosystem of course, some total elevation gain of 2000 feet. The deep forest, consisting of a mix between lodgepole pine, spruce-fir species does remind me about the Swedish forest to some extent, but at the same time this forest is extremely different. This is bear country too of course, and we had our bearsprays and voices of course. Clapping and talking loudly is something we are both very used to. They warn for moose too along some of the brushy edges of the creeks up along paintbrush canyon too. As we slowly make our way up and onwards we walk through deep forest. And when you least expect it, it opens up and give you these amazing views. Just like when we were driving through Canada I almost feel saturated with mountains, but there is more.

Snow

Eventually we get high enough in elevation that we start seeing more and more snow on the ground. It’s July, and temperatures down in the park and around Jackson has been around 85-90F. Up in elevation we have a panorama view of mountains, snow and waterfalls. The tree line is still present here, although the trees are more and more sparse as you continue upward.

Holly Lake

We were treading through a rugged landscape mixed with deep forest, creek crossings, and snowfield traverse. The end point of our hike was an alpine lake, Holly Lake. A beautiful lake at an elevation of 9416 feet. Originally W wanted us to continue after the lake, up on the ridge, before heading back, but that did not happen. We were satisfied with the lake being the end point of this hike. I for one was happy about this, because I was pretty beat after that approach. The last few miles before the actual lake we were treading through snowfields that were starting to melt. But what a view once we got there. I am always so blown away by these landscapes. I have to pinch myself in the arm to make sure it's for real. We hung out at the lake for a while, watched some kind of small animal roam around on the other side of the lake. Watched these waterfalls that were on display. We were really lucky about the weather too, but as always in the mountains the weather can quickly turn.

Heading Back

Most often I am not a fan of out and back trails, with the exception of hikes that includes a view, which seem to be the norm nowadays. Usually when you hike up you keep looking back at the landscape behind you, and you get treated by that landscape all right in front of you when you walk down. Every single view of this hike was absolutely spectacular! These fantastic rock outcrops mixed with a constant view of creeks, small waterfalls and huge trees are like something from a different planet.

Just like the way up, we had an amazing view walking down. Creeks, waterfalls and forest. What more can you ask for?

Holly Lake Hiking

Have you done any hiking this year that blew your mind away?

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Adventure Tuesday Posts:

Adventure Tuesday, Yellowstone, Montana, Nature, The great wide open

When we Hiked through Lamar Valley - Summertime in Yellowstone National Park

Adventure Tuesday, Yellowstone, Montana, Nature, The great wide open

Adventure Tuesday, The great wide open, Yellowstone, Science

A Tale of Fires and Ghost Logs - Fieldwork in Yellowstone Pt. 3

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Adventure Tuesday, Photography, The great wide open

Death Canyon

Adventure Tuesday, Photography, The great wide open

Adventure Tuesday, The great wide open, Photography, Nature

Holly Lake - Grand Teton National Park

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Great River Trail along the Mississippi River

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Hiking Blue Mound State Park in Wisconsin

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Posted on September 5, 2017 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, The great wide open, Photography, Nature and tagged Adventure Wyoming The Tetons National Parks Hiking snow snowcover 2017 Elsewhere Grand Teton National Park Ecosystem Ecologist Mountains Mountain Summer Adventures 2 Hikes National Park Rocky Mountains Holly Lake Summer.

My Summer Bucket List and my Summer Plans

Backpacking in Yellowstone National Park

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Summer plans

A couple of other bloggers, Swedish bloggers (Livet från den ljusa sidan, Fantasiresor, Äntligen Vilse, and probably a few others), have written about their summer plans this summer, and I figured that I could share some of my plans too. At the end of this list of my summer plans you will also find my summer bucket list, because there are a few things that I really should try to do, or do more of this summer!

Where are you going to spend your summer?

This summer is turning out to be pretty eventful, even though I did not have high hopes about this a few weeks ago. It turns out that I will travel to Puerto Rico on Thursday, I booked the ticket not long ago which feels a bit crazy. It's not going to be a vacation though, so not really running around on the beach, not that that is my style anyways, but it will be about eight days full of fieldwork, collecting soil samples all over the island, and also measuring tree diameter and looking at other ecological parameters.

In July, I am going to go to Yellowstone, yay, because I love that area. We are also going to go to the Tetons. Again, this is not a vacation trip. I am volunteering for W and his field crew, so we will do fieldwork during the 10 days that I will spend there. We are going to measure the amount of downed wood in burned areas, but convert it to amount of carbon, and also count the amount of seedlings. I will fly in to Jackson, Wyoming and then fly out from Bozeman, Montana (MT), and hopefully get one or two days with my mother in law and her sister if those stars align.

Yellowstone

The Tetons

In August my dad will finally get to come and visit me in Madison, Wisconsin (WI). But I am super sad that my mom is now dead, and that she will not be with us on this trip we planned for a while :( We are going to drive from Madison, WI to Bozeman, MT, because W and I are going to have our wedding celebration around there. We will travel to Yellowstone again, I know but I love Yellowstone, do some hikes around Bozeman and then have our wedding celebrations somewhere in the mountains :) After that we are driving back to Madison, and we are going to attend another wedding in the woods of Wisconsin, sort of like a summer camp wedding. After that, we will travel to Chicago, and then my dad will fly home to Sweden again.

Hiking around Bozeman

In between all these trips I am going to be here in Madison, WI, because I just started working full time instead of 50%, and I extended my contract so I will now work here for another year, yay! Although, with this comes the disciplin of actually also finishing up my dissertation...

How long will your vacation be?

Well, my vacation will be around a month! Which feels terrifying, somehow, but I will of course not be completely on vacation, because remember that dissertation that should be done?

Would you like to travel somewhere else, other than what you have planned so far?

YES, I would! Of course, to no ones surprise I would love to go to Alaska too....but yeah we just went there, so that would be a little too much and I would honestly not have enough vacation (or money) to be able to do that.

What will your Midsummer be like?

Oh, I don't know, I am really bad at celebrating midsummer. We did celebrate a few times in Alaska though.

One of my favorite memories of midsummer, or the actual longest day, was a few years ago when I went hiking in the mountains, in Alaska, and it was so beautiful and magical, but it wasn't really a real Swedish midsummer.

I have bought matjessill though, and I have snaps in the freezer. I will maybe try to make some pickled herring too! There is a Scandinavian group here in Madison that has a yearly midsummer party, we went there last year and I think we will try to go there again, unless we go camping somewhere :)

What does your best summer days look like?

Oh my best summer days, would probably be hiking somewhere where I can get a view, sitting around a bonfire with friends who play music, and talk through the night under the midnight sun.

How do you approach a rainy day?

Well, I grab my rain jacket and my rain pants too if I have to. And that is about it. There are no bad weathers just bad clothing, right? No, not always, of course here in Madison we can get really really bad downpours, and lightning, you better stay inside then, there is no use going somewhere if you are going to get that wet. In Alaska if it was a fieldwork day, it was a fieldwork day, and no weather could change that, and that will most likely be the case when we are doing fieldwork this summer too...

How will this summer be different from last summer?

This summer will be a lot different! Last year I moved away from the cabin in the woods, and we drove all the way here, all the 4200 miles or so...and then W left for fieldwork and I tried to get a job, it felt like forever, but I did. Before I actually managed to get a job I was pretty sad and lonely, because I had left one of the most beautiful places on earth. But I survived and here I am today! I had a lot of free time on my hands so I walked/biked around a lot in Madison. This summer I will not be so lonely, and it seems like it will be pretty busy.

Who are you planning on spending your vacation with?

Family! My dad is coming, how awesome is that, and W's family, and also all of our friends that are coming from far away places to MT in August. We are stoked!

Do you have any trip planned after the summer?

Hmm....well, maybe Alaska, we will see how that goes...time will tell.

Summer Bucket List

I do have some things I would like to do this summer, but I am not sure I will have time, but here it is, my summer bucket list for 2017

I want to learn how to sail, or at least get on on the water with a sailboat...
I want to learn to fly fish, and then I want to go fly fishing here in WI, and maybe also in MT when we are there.
I want to go camping and hiking, well backpacking a lot, I am not sure we will have time for that though, not any long trips.
I want to get into road biking, which would require me getting a road bike somehow
I want to get into mountain biking, which I have already started so I guess I am half way there!
I want to start running long distances, and more trail running again....which might be a bit tricky because it is so hot here!

I think that is all I have on my bucket list for now, maybe I'll add more to it later on :) What are your plans this summer, and do you have a summer bucket list?

Madison posts: