That
morning we were treated to a bison wandering among the cabins at Canyon.
A
view of the canyon west of Tower Junction. This is the overlook at
Overhanging Cliff, where according to the wonderful book Death in Yellowstone,
at least three people have fallen to their deaths in seperate incidents,
trying to get that good picture. I didn't climb over the retaining
wall, I figured this view was plenty good enough.
The
Overhanging Cliff. It's made from columnar basalt, a type of lava.
Farther
west from Tower Junction, almost to Mammoth, is Wraith Falls, at the end
of a short trail. It's kind of more like a water slide than
a fall. I thought mom was going to fall in the gully of the creek
here when she was taking a picture of some fireweed flowers, but she didn't.
We
made it to Mammoth Hot Springs. We were looking around at the signs
and things at a trail head, and there were big warning signs about an aggressive
bear in the area. There were also signs telling about trails that
were closed because of fire. We had no map with us. My sister
saw a sign that said "Beaver Ponds Loop", maybe 0.8 or 0.5 mile or some
other very small number. She wanted to go, insisted it was just a
short hike that she had read about. After all the sign did say 0
point whatever it was miles. I remembered reading about it being
a somewhat longer hike, but the aggressive bear and fires made it sound
pretty exciting, better than another few hours in the gift shops, so we
went. I think the sign meant that the beaver ponds loop trail started
in 0 point whatever miles. It turns out it is a five mile loop trail.
So, not only were we afraid of the bear, we got to worry that we were lost
too after the first mile or so. I did think at times that we were
lost, that we had maybe taken a wrong turn onto a trail that was closed
due to fire, but not seriously lost. I mean we went by a big ugly
cell tower, and could see the Old Gardiner Road down below, and the town
of Gardiner in the distance, it wasn't like we would be lost forever.
I was just worried we would never see the beaver ponds, or be eaten by
the bear. It was kind of steep climbing at places, and hot and dry
(we had no water) and I was hiking in sandals because of the huge blister
I had gotten the first day. We did finally make it to the beaver
ponds. There were some rose bushes with rose hips on them there.
I think bears like to eat them when not eating tourists.
There
were several ponds. Some were mostly overgrown with cattails. Some
were open but kind of scummy looking, and some had clear water. This
tree looked like a beaver had been chewing on it.
The
beaver ponds, with a kind of recent looking beaver dam. We never
did see the actual beavers.
A
quaking aspen tree along the trail, all shining in the sun. They
are such a pretty tree, with the white bark and the way the leaves flutter
in the breeze. They are also a favorite food of the beaver.
We
found some sort of ruins of some sort of log structure along the trail,
but couldn't really tell what it had been.
Soon we made it back to the Mammoth Hotel, and drank lots of water. I talked to a lady who had been on the trail ahead of us at the water fountain. She thought they were lost for a while too, so I didn't feel so bad. Then we ate lunch and explored the hot springs at Mammoth.