GYE

Although the Uintas have been my go-to destination for convenience, where I most want to hike is along many of the Continental divide ranges of Colorado, and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) which is home to, of course, Yellowstone National Park.  It's also a great deal of the area which surrounds Yellowstone, however, to the tune of over 12 million acres in total, including several national forests, several wilderness areas, and two national parks.  Here's an image:

I've circled some of the ranges that I'd be most inclined to want to hike.  The yellow circle is around the Beartooth Range, mostly in Montana, which contains the highest peak in Montana (Granite Peak 12,799 ft.)  The iconic hike of the Beartooth Range is the so-called "Beaten Path".  It doesn't actually traverse the range; it actually crosses it across it's width.

The lavender "circle" is the Absaroka Range; a volcanic range that is notorious as being the most remote and wild range in the lower 48.  There aren't really any iconic hikes here, that I know of, but there are lots of opportunities to hike, of course.  Places like the Brookes Lake Cliffs, Jules Bowl, Franc's Peak, etc. are at least iconic destinations.

The sky-blue circle is the Teton Range, located within (mostly) Grand Teton National Park.  The iconic hike here is the Teton Crest Trail, which I'd love to hike in the near term (I consider near-term to be within five years.)

The green circle is the Gros Ventre Range; a range that is almost criminally overlooked and underutilized, although of course that's great for those who do discover it.  It's a little lower, a little more remote, a little "cozier" in many ways than some of the really big, wild ranges nearby, but it's got spectacular scenery nonetheless.  Overshadowed by the national parks and the big destination spots in the Wind Rivers, the Gros Ventres don't really have any iconic routes, other than maybe the very short Shoal Falls loop, or the Highline Trail to Granite Chalet, but I'd love to stitch together some routes here.  Here's one rather epic example.

Finally, the red circle is the Wind River mountains, a wild alpine range that has at least a handful of major destination spots, especially for rock climbers (Titcomb Basin and Cirque of the Towers) as well as the highest peak in Wyoming (Gannet Peak, 13,804.)  There's also a beautifully done Wind Rivers High Route, which is mostly on trail, but not entirely.

The highest points—Gannet and Granite Peaks, although they draw lots of pilgrims, are kind of arbitrary, which is easy to see from this map.  Although Granite Peak is the highest peak in Montana, the border placement makes that kinda silly; it's a relatively modest peak for the GYE as a whole, which has a number of 13ers, including one in the Tetons, one in the Absarokas, and forty (yes, forty) in the Wind Rivers.

Wind Rivers from the Titcomb Basin area

Beartooth traverse options

For posterity (i.e., so I know where these links are later) here's a couple of routes for traversing the Beartooth range.

The second one is better explored in his book, which has a map.

http://backpackersresource.weebly.com/absoraka-beartooth-wilderness-traverse---cooke-city-mt.html

http://www.greatoutdoors.com/published/across-montanas-beartooths

http://backcountrypost.com/threads/a-very-late-beartooth-report.5305/

Probably the best way to combine the best of those is to do "The Beaten Path" as it's called (Cooke City to Rosebud via Fossil Lake and the plateau) but with an off-trail detour to hit up the hanging valleys of Martin Lake and Summit Lake (connected by a saddle traverse.)

Cliffs of Bergschrundt Lake

Wind River High Route

This is my own Caltopo representation of Adventure Alan's Wind River High Route.

The maps he includes look like screen grabs from Caltopo maps themselves, but I thought it useful to have my own version of the map I could play around with.






Wind River High Route from Don Wilson on Vimeo.

Gear (including new items)

Now that I'm nearly 6 months removed from my last backpacking trip (and at least six months from my next one, maybe more) it's time to review my gear.  I tried a few things, largely related to trying to get my son also outfitted without spending a ton of money, and some of them didn't work as well as I'd have liked, which means that they need to be re-thought.  Here's what I've got now:

Primary Gear

• Cabela's XPG GORE-TEX Mid Hikers - I really liked these shoes.  They're good for at least several more years worth of hiking, at which point I'll want to replace them with something very similar.
• Wenzel Escape 50L Pack - I really like this pack, too.  Last year, my son used it while I used one I got from a friend, who gave it to me for free after it didn't sell at his garage sale.  It ended up not working well; it was really uncomfortable and parts of it broke.  This was actually one of the main reasons I "gave up" early on my trip.  I really need another Escape 50.  Given that I've got most of the rest of what I need, even if I bring my son along again, I think I'll just buy a second Wenzel.  If I go solo, I'll just take the one I have.
• Waistpack - I might want another one.  I have several very small ones, and one larger one that got DEET spilled all over it and kinda sorta dissolved parts of it.

Camping Gear

• Outdoor Products All Purpose Tarp - I'm wondering how much I really need a tarp, honestly.  Camping here in Michigan in the rain, I think it might have actually contributed to more water issues than it prevented.  I'm tempted to toss the tarp and be done with it.
• Ozark Trail egg-shell sleeping pad.  No issues.  I might by a second Thermarest from Wal-Mart.
• Suisse Sport Adventurer Mummy Bag - I need to buy a second one.  I replaced the little light bag I had the year before, but then ended up using it again anyway so my son could have the warmer bag.  And then I was cold again.  Blegh.
• Campmor 2 person dome tent - I'd love to get the Cabela's XPG Ultralight 2 person tent, but it costs $300.  I bought this for a tenth of the price, and it works fine.
• Coleman inflatable pillow - I liked adding this to my line up.  It's pretty lightweight, but it made a big difference in comfort at night.

Clothing You Wear

• Cabela's boonie hat - I might replace this with a regular baseball cap with a bandana clipped or sown in to cover my neck.  Maybe.  Or maybe not.
• Fleece jacket - I've got several to choose from.  I'd like to add a lightweight puffer jacket to this, to keep me even warmer (especially at night) but I've been happy with the performance of my fleeces.
• Long-sleeved nylon t-shirt - I've got several of these too.
• Cabela's Lookout Peak Trail pants - although I've burned through one pair, I still have two more.  Not bad.  For the price, you can't beat 'em.
• Midweight merino wool boot socks - again; I've got lots of pair.  I could pick up more if needed, since I use them day to day even when not hiking.

Clothing You Carry

• Extra socks - see above
• Manzella gloves - I might pass. I haven't really used them at all the last two years.
• C9 packable rain jacket - I've also got a Frogg Toggs rain suit.  Either one would work fine.  You aren't like to wear either anyway, unless the rain sticks around for a while.
• Beanie - the one I have is by Columbia, but any would do. 
• Ozark Trail sandals - for stream crossings.  It's a pain to change your shoes out to cross rivers, but not as bad a pain as hiking for a long time with wet shoes.
• Base Layers - I'll continue to use the ones I have; I bought them at Wal-Mart on an end of season clearance in January.

Cooking/Eating Gear

• I need a new pocketknife.  After I got back from my trip the year before, I couldn't find the one I had brought anymore.  I don't know what happened to it, and I did actually use it the year before.  I don't really want to not have one.  But small, lightweight pocketknives cost less than $5 and are readily available all over the place.  No big deal.
• Lightweight camp spoon and fork.
• Elektek portable camp stove - a very small backpacking stove.  Works fine.
• Stanley Camp cookset - fairly small, lightweight, and the stove packs inside.  Not room for the fuel canister, though.

Water/Drinking Equipment

• Camelbak bladder
• Power-ade bottle, rinsed out.
• SteriPEN water purifier - no changes to any of this equipment.  I'd probably add a few portable drink mixes, though.  River water, even in the mountains, starts to taste blegh after a few days.

Personal/Miscellaneous

• Camera - I really need my own.  Haven't decided yet which one to get, but for $100-$200 there's lots of choices.
• Compass
• First Aid Kit
• Headlamp - I have a slightly heavier Coleman one, and a very small, lightweight one.  The very small one isn't really as bright as I like.  I might get a second bigger one if we go in groups of two again.
• Insect treatment (permethrin) plus insect repellant - lots of mosquitos last year, but I didn't get a single bite.  I'm sold.
• Map
• Wipes.

Other than adding a second to some of the gear that I liked, but only have one of and therefore if I bring my son with me we can't both have one, the only thing that I'd really like to buy is a puffer jacket.  Here's a good deal on one:

http://www.target.com/p/c9-champion-men-s-lightweight-puffer-jacket/-/A-17075847#prodSlot=medium_1_17&term=c9+puffer

Lake Blanche

Another highly desirable day hike to do while I'm in the Park City area is up to Lake Blanche (and Lakes Florence and Lillian while I'm at it, since all three are next to each other) in the Twin Peaks Wilderness, westward of Park City in the Wasatch Mountains.  This is the other major mountain range of Utah (and there are, of course, many smaller mountain ranges as well, but the Wasatch and the Uintas are the two really big ones.)  Because of its proximity to high population areas (the Salt Lake Valley in this case) it gets a fair bit of use, but if done on a weekday (other than July 4th) the crowds shouldn't be too bad.

It's over 2,600 of elevation gain, but only over about 3 miles.  This hike could be done, taken relatively easy, in two hours, plus some time to explore the lakes area, and then another hour or so to come back downhill to the car.  Even taking it easy and getting a relatively late start, it's not a long hike.  That estimate assumes walking pretty slow and taking lots of breaks to catch our breath.  The elevation gain is significant, but the distance is not.

Lake Blanche and the distinctive spur of Sundial behind it

Sundial from another angle, behind Lake Lillian

All three lakes from above

Ibantik Lake day hike

As a warm-up for the altitude before embarking on a bigger backpacking trip in the area; this is what I'd like to do.

There's a small bit of off-trail by crossing from the Notch Pass to the end of the Clyde Lake trail (or vice versa, depending on which leg of the loop you do first) and I'm not actually 100% sure that you can circumnavigate the entire lake without a lot of really ridiculous boulder hopping.  But it's a nice day hike.  Even taking a break at "The Notch" and again at Ibantik to explore, it's a relatively short trip, the elevation gain (and lost) isn't too bad (and I've heard it's also quite gradual, which is nice) and the views are spectacular.  For example:

Ibantik Lake

View from the Notch pass

Map of the hike.

One for the records... The Frog

https://picasaweb.google.com/115479031052354900696/TheFrog?gsessionid=pnwMx2izlkEX-7aDt1PbVQ

A dried up meander of the Green River near the northern edge of Canyonlands National Park.  A great October/November trip.

How to get there from Vernal.