Days 31-35: Total eclipse of the park
Day 31
After a good night's rest following a great Yellowstone vacation, we spent a long morning at the Man Cave re-packing our things in biking mode as well as doing various chores on the internet.
We finally left around 2pm and rode to the Warm River Rail Trail where our journey continued southward. The rail trail was an old railroad bed that had been converted to a multi-use (bike, hike, equestrian, snowmobile, atv) trail. Originally built in 1908, this was the railroad that took passengers from Salt Lake City to West Yellowstone via Ashton to access the park. Remember the old railway station in West Yellowstone? This was the railroad went there. The railroad was later owned by Union Pacific who operated it through 1979.
A cool old tunnel along the rail trail
At the end of the day, we camped at a nice National Forest campground called Warm River. Apparently the river was not all that warm (like 50-something degrees); it is just warmer than some other rivers, especially in the winter.
We camped near two men, Mike and Ken, who were friends doing the Great Divide together; there was also a family who camped near us who lived nearby and were doing several days on the rail trail together.
Day 32
We left Warm River and climbed up into a different landscape than we'd seen in a while - agriculture (in this case, wheat and potatoes) with the Tetons as the backdrop.
We saw Mike and Ken several times along the trail and talked a good bit. They also took some of the few pictures we have of both of us on bikes...
That day we biked into Wyoming!
and ate lunch by Indian Lake.
The riding was beautiful all day. Toward the end we rode through an area where there had been a fire last year, and the wildflower display was beautiful.
Unfortunately, that fire had also destroyed some of the campground options in the area. All the campgrounds in the greater Teton area (where we now were) seemed to be full due to the solar eclipse coming the days later, but we find a "dispersed" spot to camp near a trailhead by Sheffield Creek Forest Service campground. The trees in the area were small and not very conducive to hanging our food in overnight, but a nice man in the campground let it's store our food in his horse trailer.
Day 33
We got up at 4am, left our dispersed site at 5:30, and began riding in the cold and the dark to hopefully get a jump on Grand Teton National Park traffic before things got too crazy. The goal: get into Grand Teton, get a campsite, then hang out for the weekend and watch the eclipse from inside the park. Our only concern was that thousands of other Americans had that same goal, since Grand Teton is within the eclipse path of totality and would be an amazing place to watch it. Hence the early start.
We were concerned about traffic and whether or not we would get a campsite. Thankfully, everything worked out great, and our fears were unfounded. Traffic was not bad, the roads had good shoulders, and while the campground at Jenny Lake (where we wanted to stay) was "full," the hiker/biker sites were not! So we got a great campsite along with the other folks who arrived by foot and bike.
We even saw our fellow bicycle tourist friend Nina, here from New Zealand following a different route than us, whom we met in Glacier National Park! What a great surprise!
That night, we did what we had been wanting to do the whole trip: make a campfire and invite our neighbors over for s'mores.
Day 34
We slept a little extra this morning after our 5:30am departure the morning before. It was Sunday, and we hoped to make it to a worship service inside the park if one was happening. We knew there was an organization called "A Christian Ministry in the National Parks" who holds them during the summer, because this is the organization I volunteered with while I was working in Yellowstone during summer 2009. However, since arriving in the park, we had not been able to figure out if worship services were still being held this late in the summer, since a lot of ACMNP volunteer staff are college students (like I was when I worked with ACMNP). We also were not sure how we would get to a service location, as the flyers said they were not being held in our campground due to amphitheater renovations.
We did what seemed like the right thing to do in our situation: we prayed and asked God to make a way for us to get to a worship service if that was what he wanted us to do, then we went out to the road to hitchhike to the nearest service location (the park is so big, we would have been too late if we biked).
God answered our prayer by sending an off-duty driver for a multisport outfitter company who took us all the way to Signal Mountain campground, where we got to participate in Sunday worship with other believers for the first time on our trip.
It was such a blessing to us getting to worship and fellowship with other believers on a Sunday. It was a refreshing experience. And it was followed by another fun and refreshing surprise: getting to eat at the employee dining room with several ACMNP staff! Not only did it bring back fun memories of being a park concessions employee in Yellowstone, but we also got to enjoy all the fresh vegetables we could eat!... rarity for trips like this.
We had a very restful afternoon around the campground, and we took a short bike ride for a scenic dinner picnic next to String Lake.
Other exciting things that happened today include meeting a bicycle-traveling photographer named Mike, whom we met near the visitor center. He was in the middle of wondering where he would spend the night, when we told him about the park's excellent hiker/biker camping. He was thrilled and joined us in the hiker/biker section of the campground. We also learned that we both planned to hike to the same spot the next day to see the Great American Eclipse.
The other exciting thing that happened was when a mother black bear and her cubs walked through our campground. We were just about to start night #2 of s'mores when the campground host came barreling through the campground in a golf cart shouting "put away your food now!" We did, and next thing we knew, there were bears walking along the edge of our hiker/biker site. Thankfully, they did not want any trouble... They were just traveling through.
Day 35
We woke up at 4am to start a long hike up to Lake Solitude to see the Great American Eclipse in its totality. The hike was a beautiful 9-mile trip up Cascade Canyon. We saw lots of beautiful waterfalls coming into the side of the canyon, which reminded me of Psalm 104 which praises God for the beautiful and amazing ways in which he sustains the world he created.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. (Psalm 104:13, ESV)
We made it up to Lake Solitude, a high- altitude lake where we would watch the eclipse.
There were about 20 or so other folks scattered around the lake with is to watch it, many of whom were photographers.
We also saw our new photographer friend Mike again, who was shooting material for his next book on night sky photography (mikeshawphotography.com).
The eclipse was a truly awesome experience.
I cannot describe the experience in a way that does it justice. I will day that one of the most surprising parts was how cold it got leading up to totality. The sun appeared to be at full strength illuminating the landscape, but we kept having to add layer after layer of jackets just to stay warm. It took us a long time to connect the dots and realize that the creeping cold was due to the moon blocking more and more of the sun's heat! And up here in the Tetons, that meant cold.
After the eclipse, we hiked further up to Paint Brush Divide then hiked back down Paintbrush Canyon. It was a day full of beautiful hiking and breathtaking views.
And...
There were huckleberries to eat on the way down!
This was our last day in the Tetons before riding on to continue the route.
*****
Update:
We are still running a bit behind on posting, but as of publishing this post, we are on Day 42 sitting in a saloon in Atlantic City, WY about to head out toward the Great Divide Basin where I do not expect there will be WiFi or cell service (there are not even trees). We plan to camp tonight at either Sweetwater River or Diagnus Well.
After a good night's rest following a great Yellowstone vacation, we spent a long morning at the Man Cave re-packing our things in biking mode as well as doing various chores on the internet.
We finally left around 2pm and rode to the Warm River Rail Trail where our journey continued southward. The rail trail was an old railroad bed that had been converted to a multi-use (bike, hike, equestrian, snowmobile, atv) trail. Originally built in 1908, this was the railroad that took passengers from Salt Lake City to West Yellowstone via Ashton to access the park. Remember the old railway station in West Yellowstone? This was the railroad went there. The railroad was later owned by Union Pacific who operated it through 1979.
A cool old tunnel along the rail trail
At the end of the day, we camped at a nice National Forest campground called Warm River. Apparently the river was not all that warm (like 50-something degrees); it is just warmer than some other rivers, especially in the winter.
We camped near two men, Mike and Ken, who were friends doing the Great Divide together; there was also a family who camped near us who lived nearby and were doing several days on the rail trail together.
Day 32
We left Warm River and climbed up into a different landscape than we'd seen in a while - agriculture (in this case, wheat and potatoes) with the Tetons as the backdrop.
We saw Mike and Ken several times along the trail and talked a good bit. They also took some of the few pictures we have of both of us on bikes...
That day we biked into Wyoming!
and ate lunch by Indian Lake.
The riding was beautiful all day. Toward the end we rode through an area where there had been a fire last year, and the wildflower display was beautiful.
Unfortunately, that fire had also destroyed some of the campground options in the area. All the campgrounds in the greater Teton area (where we now were) seemed to be full due to the solar eclipse coming the days later, but we find a "dispersed" spot to camp near a trailhead by Sheffield Creek Forest Service campground. The trees in the area were small and not very conducive to hanging our food in overnight, but a nice man in the campground let it's store our food in his horse trailer.
Day 33
We got up at 4am, left our dispersed site at 5:30, and began riding in the cold and the dark to hopefully get a jump on Grand Teton National Park traffic before things got too crazy. The goal: get into Grand Teton, get a campsite, then hang out for the weekend and watch the eclipse from inside the park. Our only concern was that thousands of other Americans had that same goal, since Grand Teton is within the eclipse path of totality and would be an amazing place to watch it. Hence the early start.
We were concerned about traffic and whether or not we would get a campsite. Thankfully, everything worked out great, and our fears were unfounded. Traffic was not bad, the roads had good shoulders, and while the campground at Jenny Lake (where we wanted to stay) was "full," the hiker/biker sites were not! So we got a great campsite along with the other folks who arrived by foot and bike.
We even saw our fellow bicycle tourist friend Nina, here from New Zealand following a different route than us, whom we met in Glacier National Park! What a great surprise!
That night, we did what we had been wanting to do the whole trip: make a campfire and invite our neighbors over for s'mores.
Day 34
We slept a little extra this morning after our 5:30am departure the morning before. It was Sunday, and we hoped to make it to a worship service inside the park if one was happening. We knew there was an organization called "A Christian Ministry in the National Parks" who holds them during the summer, because this is the organization I volunteered with while I was working in Yellowstone during summer 2009. However, since arriving in the park, we had not been able to figure out if worship services were still being held this late in the summer, since a lot of ACMNP volunteer staff are college students (like I was when I worked with ACMNP). We also were not sure how we would get to a service location, as the flyers said they were not being held in our campground due to amphitheater renovations.
We did what seemed like the right thing to do in our situation: we prayed and asked God to make a way for us to get to a worship service if that was what he wanted us to do, then we went out to the road to hitchhike to the nearest service location (the park is so big, we would have been too late if we biked).
God answered our prayer by sending an off-duty driver for a multisport outfitter company who took us all the way to Signal Mountain campground, where we got to participate in Sunday worship with other believers for the first time on our trip.
It was such a blessing to us getting to worship and fellowship with other believers on a Sunday. It was a refreshing experience. And it was followed by another fun and refreshing surprise: getting to eat at the employee dining room with several ACMNP staff! Not only did it bring back fun memories of being a park concessions employee in Yellowstone, but we also got to enjoy all the fresh vegetables we could eat!... rarity for trips like this.
We had a very restful afternoon around the campground, and we took a short bike ride for a scenic dinner picnic next to String Lake.
Other exciting things that happened today include meeting a bicycle-traveling photographer named Mike, whom we met near the visitor center. He was in the middle of wondering where he would spend the night, when we told him about the park's excellent hiker/biker camping. He was thrilled and joined us in the hiker/biker section of the campground. We also learned that we both planned to hike to the same spot the next day to see the Great American Eclipse.
The other exciting thing that happened was when a mother black bear and her cubs walked through our campground. We were just about to start night #2 of s'mores when the campground host came barreling through the campground in a golf cart shouting "put away your food now!" We did, and next thing we knew, there were bears walking along the edge of our hiker/biker site. Thankfully, they did not want any trouble... They were just traveling through.
Day 35
We woke up at 4am to start a long hike up to Lake Solitude to see the Great American Eclipse in its totality. The hike was a beautiful 9-mile trip up Cascade Canyon. We saw lots of beautiful waterfalls coming into the side of the canyon, which reminded me of Psalm 104 which praises God for the beautiful and amazing ways in which he sustains the world he created.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. (Psalm 104:13, ESV)
We made it up to Lake Solitude, a high- altitude lake where we would watch the eclipse.
There were about 20 or so other folks scattered around the lake with is to watch it, many of whom were photographers.
We also saw our new photographer friend Mike again, who was shooting material for his next book on night sky photography (mikeshawphotography.com).
The eclipse was a truly awesome experience.
I cannot describe the experience in a way that does it justice. I will day that one of the most surprising parts was how cold it got leading up to totality. The sun appeared to be at full strength illuminating the landscape, but we kept having to add layer after layer of jackets just to stay warm. It took us a long time to connect the dots and realize that the creeping cold was due to the moon blocking more and more of the sun's heat! And up here in the Tetons, that meant cold.
After the eclipse, we hiked further up to Paint Brush Divide then hiked back down Paintbrush Canyon. It was a day full of beautiful hiking and breathtaking views.
And...
There were huckleberries to eat on the way down!
This was our last day in the Tetons before riding on to continue the route.
*****
Update:
We are still running a bit behind on posting, but as of publishing this post, we are on Day 42 sitting in a saloon in Atlantic City, WY about to head out toward the Great Divide Basin where I do not expect there will be WiFi or cell service (there are not even trees). We plan to camp tonight at either Sweetwater River or Diagnus Well.
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