2021-09-09 42 -109

Location

Edge of East Green River Rd, near Pinedale

Participants

Pedalpusher
J

Expedition

Continuing the road trip (you can find the previous expedition here), We left Devil's tower for Cody, Wyoming where we stayed the night in a rustic but very nice log cabin. On the way, we stopped at Big Horn National Forest and hiked the Circle Park Trailhead to a lake. After that, for the next three days, we explored Yellowstone's mountains, hot springs and geysers. It would have been really cool to get a Geohash in Yellowstone, but everything was just too far away from roads (and usually near/on mountains).

From Yellowstone, we then spent two nights in the Tetons at a very nice cabin in the Coulter Bay area. Unfortunately, it's been a very bad year (and with climate change, most years now) for wildfires further out West. To help combat the fires, they mostly drained the reservoir (Jackson Lake) and the haze was extremely bad. It wasn't until our last morning that we could clearly see the Tetons across the remains of the lake. We still got in some hiking there, and on our hike of Signal Mountain, J proclaimed that "wouldn't it be crazy if there was a bear right over there" as we were getting back to the car. Half a second later, she kind of freaked out because there was, in fact, a black bear across the pond from us! Fortunately, we were nearly back to the road and quickly got in the car. The morning we were leaving the Tetons, I also got to see my first moose out in the wild (eating vegetation in the aptly named Moose Pond)!

From the Tetons, we were on our way to our last stop in Rangely, Colorado to visit Dinosaur Monument before ending our trip with a weekend back in Denver. It was on our way to Rangely that our next Expedition opportunity presented itself. It even had the benefit of being just 4 or so miles out of our way, right before we went through Pinedale, WY. It wasn't much of an expedition, but the road it was on was hilly and curvy so we had to be careful. It was decently maintained though as there weren't any potholes. Finding our way to the spot, I overshot a bit and had to turn around, but was able to park right next to the Geohash.

Getting out, J didn't really want to tromp around in the short brush, but I encouraged her to come as this was another Virgin Graticule. I walked around to find the spot and was able to get a good reading without too much of a GPS Dance. As I was taking pictures though, a truck pulled up and stopped behind our car because another vehicle was coming the other way. We actually caused a mini traffic jam at the hash! I kind of apologetically waved to the guys waiting, and they didn't seem to mind as they waved back as they pulled around and continued on their way. I'm sure they were extremely curious why we were taking pictures in a random field though. Another successful expedition completed, we continued on our way.

We stopped at the Flaming Gorge dam to stretch our legs and take some pictures, and then again in Vernal, Utah at a brewery for dinner before ending the day in our Airbnb in Rangely.

Not satisfied with three Geohashes, we turned this into the start of a Consecutive hash on our way into Denver! You can click here for the next Expedition.

Photos

We got to see Old Faithful erupt (ten minutes later than expected).
The haze in the Tetons was way worse than in Yellowstone. You can barely see the mountain just across the lake.
The bear across the pond on our hike back down Signal Mountain.
The last morning, the haze had mostly cleared. (Both Mtn pictures are from Signal Mtn)
My first Moose sighting!
Driving down the Hash-road...
Made it!
View North...uh-oh, about to cause a traffic jam.
View South, with the other guy waiting for the vehicle in the last picture to pass.
View West and the hash-mobile after the traffic jam cleared.
Stupid Grins for another completed Virgin Expedition!
View of the hash from the car.
Stopping at the dam for a break.