When you’re camped somewhere questionable, it’s best to get up and leave before there’s anyone around to ask questions. Luckily, there was a breakfast buffet at 6:30 am, so there were multiple reasons to get up early.
The menu was almost exactly the same as in Grant Village, but everything was a little nicer. The French toast especially. I ate with the 3 other hikers that I was hanging out with last night.
As we were finishing breakfast, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was FeelGood and he and Caddyshack had made it to Old Faithful. I went and chatted with them while they finished their breakfast then we went to the general store for some snacks for the day. I still had a lot of food so I just needed a few things.
Caddy and FeelGood had some other things they wanted to do while at Old Faithful, so I left them waiting for the geyser to go off and I hiked on.
I followed the boardwalk and saw some beautiful geysers and springs. There are so many of these in this one area.
Eventually I left the geysers behind and went into the forest. I wanted to get out of the park so I could camp without a permit. Also, the only campsite in this area was a mere 10 miles from where I started the day. I needed to do a lot more than that if I wanted to get to West Yellowstone for a hotel and a shower tomorrow.
This lake is where the last campsite in the park is. It is also the last water for 27 miles! I filled up as much as I could and started hiking. Luckily the trail was very flat for most of today and I didn’t need too much water. I have a little more than a liter left to go 9 miles tomorrow. That should work fine.
Not long after the lake I started smelling sulfur. This usually means there’s a hot spring or vent in the area. Through the trees I noticed a huge white, steamy area. I walked over and discovered a whole bunch of boiling mud puddles, called mud pots.
This is one feature that I saw on the signs around Yellowstone, but didn’t see anywhere in the geyser basins. Surprisingly, there was another person out here looking at them too. It was a southbound thru hiker that was staying at the lake in a couple miles.
When I was a couple miles from Wyoming border, I noticed a small bottle of Jack Daniels sitting next to the trail. It was about 1/3 full so I did what anyone would do. I picked it up and carried it to the border.
I took a celebratory shot and chased it with a cherry Pepsi I had hiked out. I left the rest of the bottle at the border so other people can celebrate too. I’m done with another state!
The Wyoming border is not the park boundary. It extends for a few miles into Idaho. When I hit the boundary, I could tell because there was a CDT marker. For some reason there wasn’t a single CDT marker in the whole national park.
Despite getting a somewhat late start today, I made it pretty far. I stopped early to make dinner before camp and hiked until almost 9. It’s just under 25 miles to town tomorrow so I should have some time to relax when I get there.