Hello From Wyoming!

On July 27th I crossed over the Wyoming border in Yellowstone National Park! I’ve hiked over 900 miles at this point, and I’m just over a month in!

I’m Lima, I caught up with a couple other southbound thru hikers, who were taking a few days off. It’s always great to run into other hikers, and since then, I’ve started running into quite a few northbound hikers! It’s exciting to see folks who have made it this far from the Mexico border! In and around Lima I also ran into a few bike packers who were on the Great Divide Route. Really fun to talk to them; I think bikepacking might be my next adventure, but let’s finish out this one first.

The hiking from Lima to Yellowstone was pretty tough going. The terrain wasn’t particularly challenging, but that seemed to leave plenty of room for other hardship. There were tons of black flies and mosquitoes in the area. The bites were painful and itchy, and I could barely hike fast enough to outrun the bugs! I spent most of those days in my head net, wearing long pants and with my shirt all the way buttoned up. To finish off the stretch, I had to hike a hot 26 miles between water sources to get into Yellowstone National Park. I must have looked pretty haggard by the time I got to my camp and water source in the park, because I ran into some rangers who seemed pretty concerned about me, they even stopped in on me when I was at camp just to make sure I was okay! Of course, it was not all bad news. I did enjoy some beautiful views and got to see a lot of wildflowers in this area!

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  View shortly after leaving Lima

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  Awesome wildflowers, unfortunately the flies think so too

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  More flowers!

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  Spent some time hiking through a Sheep experiment

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  Cool rock formations surrounding Hell Roaring Creek

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  One of the bike packers I ran into— we have the same shirt! (Her’s is a lot cleaner)

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  A rainy day on Raynolds pass

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  Pretty pretty

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  This ridge walk provided some welcome relief from the flies

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  Goodbye beautiful ridge, hello bugs

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  “The can is beautiful, the road is ugly”

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  Black canyon road heading into Yellowstone is HOT

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  Stepping into the park, 7 more miles to water

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  Water! And camp— at summit lake on the west side of Yellowstone

Yellowstone was quite an experience. I hiked in from the northwest side of the park which is mostly flat and dry. Coming into the part of the park with the geysers and springs (and people) I felt like I was stepping into another planet. Old faithful village was packed and a bit overwhelming, but I was still happy to be there to see the park. I was so blown away by this place. I feel really lucky to get to experience the park, and especially lucky to just be able to walk in!

Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were also pretty into the park. In fact, it was probably the most mosquitoes I’ve ever seen. Night two in the park, I was relieved that it was raining. Usually, that brings some relief from the bugs, but these mosquitoes were strong! I guess getting to camp I had been hiking fast enough that they weren’t biting, but once I slowed down they attacked. I think I got 20 bites just in the time it took to set up my tarp! The next day, the trail traveled through a marsh which served as an especially welcome environment for those horrible bugs. My last night in the park, however, was pure bliss. I got to camp a little earlier than I expected, enjoyed some amazing views, and it finally cooled off enough for the bugs to die down. I ate a great dinner, slept well and woke up the next morning happy to be there!

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  Seeing my first pool of this kind

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  Nice not to have to take selfies!

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  Ayayay

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  Castle geyser

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  Watching old faithful erupt

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  A beautiful evening hike

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  Hot pots in the Shoshone geyser basin

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  Such a cool trail!

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  As one hiker noted “this is less of a trail and more of an aquatic experience”

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  The mosquitoes trapped me inside this net

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  Headwater of with creek

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  Looking down at heart lake where I camped my third night in the park

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  View from heart lake

Photos from Yellowstone National Park

From Yellowstone, I entered the Bridger-Teton Wilderness area. Apparently, this is a really popular horse packing area, so the trail was a little torn up, but the hiking was beautiful! Mosquitoes were not nearly as bad, and I actually saw a lot of hikers: few more northbound cdt hikers, quite a few folks going from brooks lake to Yellowstone as a section hike, some horse packers, and a NOLS course nearing the end of a 30 day expedition!

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  Out of the park, into the wild!

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  First glimpse of some of the amazing geological formations in this area

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  Enjoying an evening view

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  Two ocean river, diverges at this point to both the Atlantic and the Pacific

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  Always cool to see a waterfall!

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  Quite a silhouette

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  A seven lane horse highway

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  Feeling lucky to be out here!

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  Leaving the wilderness area

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  View from just outside the wilderness area

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  Another impressive peak in the distance

Photos from the Bridger-Teton Wilderness

I’m really looking forward to the next part of my hike through the Wind River range. Actually this is the most excited I’ve been about a section of trail so far!

One final note: my birthday is coming up near the end of August. This year I’m asking for letters! I’ve loved keeping this blog, and I’m happy to be able to share my experience with you all, but I sure do miss hearing about and being a part of everyone else’s lives. So, if you’re willing and able you can send a letter to the Steamboat Springs post office. I should be there around the time of my birthday. Please address the letter to Nicolette Jones/ General Delivery/ 200 Lincoln Ave/ Steamboat Springs, CO 80487. Make a note on the letter to “Please hold for a CDT hiker. ETA: August 20th.” Usually the post office will hold letters only up to two weeks, so maybe send out letters around the 10th. If you don’t get a letter out by that time but still want to sent me one, you can send it to my parents house and they will send it in my next resupply. Text or email me for that address. Thanks to everyone who is reading! -Nic