Andrew Yeckel > Stories > Living in the past

Walking the earth

In September, 1988 we hit the road for 45 days, driving 6,600 miles around the western U.S. We had just gotten married, so we call it the honeymoon trip. We visited Zion, Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, North Cascades, Mount Ranier, and Olympic National Parks. We lucked into good weather again and again. This picture was taken in mid-October in Yellowstone. Days like this are precious and few at this time of year, and heavy snow is not uncommon.

There was no reason this trip had to go so smoothly, but it did. Rainy days often happened when we were driving between parks, comfortable in our heated truck with a thermos of hot coffee to share. Not always, though, and we hiked in plenty of wind and rain before it was over. Below are some highlights from the trip.

The Subway

Our first stop was Zion National Park, where we visited an amazing feature called The Subway. There isn't much of a trail to this place. Park rangers can tell you where to park your vehicle in an unmarked pullout on a back road. A short trail takes you to a steep descent to Left Fork of North Creek (yes, there is a Right Fork, and I will tell you about that in a later story). This picture shows Lisa picking her way down the slope. This is desert country, and the sun beats down hard here in summer.

Fortunately it feels much cooler in the canyon bottom below. From there we headed upstream, sometimes along a narrow river bank, often walking and sometimes wading in the creek. Here we ascended a long series of rock steps in the river bed.

The canyon steepens into a narrow slot, eventually reaching The Subway, carved in the rock by flash floods that occasionally inundate the canyon. Though it isn't apparent in this photograph, the canyon here is several hundred feet deep, just a narrow keyhole.

It was our good fortune to have the canyon to ourselves on this trip, three days of magical solitude that cannot be bought anywhere.

Death Canyon Shelf

Grand Teton National Park was the site of another backpacking trip, a 35 mile loop into the high country. The picture shown below is the view that most park visitors see, Jenny Lake with the Teton range in the background. Visitors pay $835 per night to stay in the lodge there, but it is well worth the effort and much cheaper to spend some nights in those mountains instead. You just need to get there.

Our trip entered the range in Granite Canyon. A friendly stranger offered to take this picture of us at the trailhead. We're loaded up for a five day trip. It is October and we have lucked into some very fine weather.

Over the next two days we hiked up the long canyon, gaining much altitude. The first day was spent mostly in the forest. The trees thinned out at higher altitude. This picture shows Lisa on the second day as we near the top of the canyon.

The canyon ends in a narrow plateau at 10,000 feet called Death Canyon Shelf. Our trusty tent is shown there. Lisa can be seen in the background. The scrawny looking trees show that we are near the tree line here.

It was cold at night, with temperatures falling into the 20s. This picture shows Lisa after sundown. We're in camp and I'm making dinner, as usual.

The air warmed quickly in the morning. Lisa is dressed for summer in this picture of her collecting water from a spring.

The high country is dotted with tiny lakes, called glacial cirques. At the end of summer it looks like this, but it doesn't have to. In the middle of winter, there is twenty feet of snow here. This is a beautiful place, but it is also a harsh and lonely environment.

After lingering a few days on Death Canyon Shelf, we descended Death Canyon and returned to civilization. But not before we were terrorized by two moose fighting outside our tent in the middle of the night, ferociously banging their racks together in a territorial battle. We were frightened that our tent would be crushed by the rampaging animals. This went on for about two hours before the moose left the scene. All's well that ends well.

Wonderland Trail

This famous trail circumnavigates the flanks of Mount Ranier at mid-elevation. The summit rises above 14,000 feet, quite a bit further than it might seem in this photograph taken from the trail at an elevation around 5,000 feet.

The trail is aptly named. It is indeed a wonderland.

Some of the best views on this trail are those of other mountains. I think this is Mount Baker, but I'm not sure.

We camped in a site overlooking this valley carved by glaciers.

This rock strewn area at the bottom of the valley is called Indian Bar.

I would have liked to spend more time on this trail.

Hoh River Valley

This bridge is the last point of civilization before one enters the Hoh River Valley in Olympic National Park. It's another five day trip into the wilderness, and we're looking pretty good at the start of it.

The valley is a rare example of a temperate rain forest. Yearly rainfall averages 140 inches in this lush valley. Day one went well, not a drop of rain in sight.

This late in the year the park is nearly empty. We didn't see a single person in the next five days. We saw a lot of water, but we were prepared for it.

            

On the second day we climbed out of the valley to the subalpine basin of Hoh Lake and camped there, still in fair weather.

The third day was a hike through the highlands to reach Seven Lakes Basin, much of it on trails cutting through steep slopes like this. For what it's worth, that colorful plant on the slope is bear food.

Our reward, besides the incredible views, was a solitary place to pitch our tent at Lunch Lake. We made camp early this day and relaxed in the weak sunshine.

The temperature dropped overnight and snow was beginning to fall, so we bugged out at dawn, hoping to reach lower altitude before the trail back to the valley was obliterated by snow. What materialized was more rain than snow, and by mid-morning we were ready to make our breakfast, sitting by the trail in the dripping forest eating hot oatmeal with tea. It rained all that day and the next, walking down the Hoh River Valley to reach the bridge where we started five days earlier.

We reached our truck at the end of the day and drove to a pizza parlor in the nearest town, Forks. Going out to dinner was pretty rare and special back then, but what happened next was even more rare and special. We both noticed the motel across the street from the pizza parlor. It didn't take long to decide we would get a room there instead of returning to a campground and pitching our tent for another night in the rain. Soon we were spreading our tent and other gear around a warm room to dry off.

Epilogue

Besides the eight national parks already mentioned, we also visited Navajo National Monument, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument, Dinosaur National Monument, Hoover Dam, and Grand Coulee Dam on this trip. Each of these places was special in one way or another.