2009 National Park Trip - Day 4

Having gotten to the gift shop and purchasing a map, I had a plan for the day. A nice hike over to Colter Bay. It was one of those “easy” 5-milers that would be just the thing for the first full day at 6800 ft elevation. I got my day pack out (that I got from Dad), strapped on my knife (from Dad), had my compasses and fire starting gear (Dad), packed the first aid kit (Dad’s), and added a couple of liters of water and the binoculars (Dad’s again). It was a lovely day.

Off we went. From the map, I knew we would start from the lodge, so I went to the north end and started up a trail. Up a trail – first clue. We hiked along in some pretty well marked and wide trails. Then the trails got more narrow (second clue), and there were forks that weren’t clear (clue). Then the trees were fallen across the trail – lots of trees.(wake up people!) Finally, the only way the path seemed to go was down a steep embankment. We gave up. Went back. And along the way we looked down and saw a nice wide “easy” trail going happily along. We’d probably gone a couple of miles so far.

I located the trailhead we wanted but there was yellow caution tape across it. And a big yellow sign talking about bear activity. I decided the best plan would be to go into the lodge and ask someone whether it was safe to proceed. They insisted it had been opened “last week”. I was a bit cautious but onward! Met up with a couple of horse carts carrying happy campers back from a wilderness breakfast. Spotted a young bull moose wading in a pond. And we hiked.

We didn’t really see any more wildlife. We took a wrong turn that cost us another ½ mile at least (ended up at the spot where they had that wilderness breakfast) but it had a restroom so Michelle was happy. Finally, 5+ miles later we got to Colter Bay. We were dead tired. We found a restaurant that had an EXCELLENT salad bar and fuelled up. We went through their Indian Art museum which was also excellent. And we took the free shuttle home. Michelle went straight to nap. I went to the lodge to catch up on some emails and do this log.

Michelle joined me at the lodge later and we sat outside on the patio and had some local brew and a smoked trout wrap. It was low 70’s and sunny, although the sun was going down. We sat there until the sun went behind the mountains and the temp dropped about 15 degrees. Then we walked out to see if we could see wildlife. A couple of us spotted some cars, but that’s about all we saw.

Michelle and I went back to the room and just as we were going to sleep, we heard that wildlife strolling by behind our room. We could hear the calling (we’re guessing moose) and hear then walking through the woods, but it was too dark (even with the half-moon) to see them. Pretty cool having them right behind us, tho.