3/63 – Yellowstone National Park | 7.24-27.13

We finally got up to Yellowstone when my brother and his wife invited us on a backpacking trip along the Bechler River! It was a pretty fun trip, but not without its own trials. I lost a lot of weight in 2012 (which I’m still struggling to regain, even now in 2016) and I was pretty bony, so I bruised on my collarbones and hips from my pack. The mosquitoes were horrific beyond imagination- the last probably 4 or 5 miles I was quite literally jogging down the trail with my trekking poles dangling from the crook of my elbows, half-crying as I swatted away the millions of mosquitoes that threatened to eat me alive. They actually almost did eat Brady alive, he had so many bites he got sick! It was crazy, but it was still a super fun and beautiful adventure, and one I’d like to do again (preferably in better shape and with a bit more meat on my bones! haha).

We invited our friend Hopkins along. It was fun to have him with us.

How is it possible for me to look so tired already?

Brady found those (WOMEN’S) sunglasses on the trail.

I may look happy, but I was in so much pain. Notice the jacket attempting to pad my collarbones more.

Mr Bubbles hot spring! It bubbles up from the river, so the temperature is always changing. Kind of cool.

So scenic.

Oh look, I’m scratching mosquito bites. No way…

My legs were SO sore, and sitting in that dang river felt so amazing.

Crossing a sketchy little bridge- way better than fording though!

I honestly didn’t take many photos, we hiked 31 miles over 3-4 days and saw a crazy amount of cool things- but no wildlife. Seriously! Just the quadrillion mosquitoes that made me want to die. When we do it again (which as I said I’d like to) I’m taking a lot more intense bug spray and coating all of my stuff with permethrin! Sometimes you just don’t think about the bugs, since those never show up in pictures, but man what misery they can bring. Learn from my mistakes, and take bug spray wherever you go. Seriously. Always.

Our Yellowstone National Park “Must Do”:

Old Faithful and the Geyser Basin. She’s not as ‘faithful’ as she once was, but there’s just not really many places in the world where you can see natural wonders like that, and definitely not so close together.