Backcountry Trip USA · 2024
Camping & Backpacking in Wyoming
July 28, 2024
Backcountry Camping Yellowstone: Shelf Clouds, Snow and the perfect Moment.
The sun is shining as we unload our “lockers” at the trailhead parking lot at Lone Star Geyser. The “lockers” are our 27-pound packs containing all of our gear for the next three days. We are hiking and camping in the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park.
Where access is only by foot, where drinking water is available only by filtering river or lake water, and toilets are available only by shoveling out your own hole into the ground.
Today the forecast seems pleasant, calling for clear to cloudy skies. Well, a scattered thunderstorm may pass through later, but the ranger blows it off: “That's just a brief Yellowstone thunderstorm. It'll be over again in a few minutes.”
Anyone familiar with this blog will know that all does not go as planned. Like us, for example, six hours later, standing under a pine tree in soaking rain jackets and staring at a geyser that won't erupt; while dramatic, dark cumulonimbus storm clouds cover us, heavy, wind-blown horizontal rain pelts us, and three-pronged lightning bolts strike around us. And then there's the thing with the flood, the bears, the snowfields, and a phenomenal evening in golden light.
Pack your lightning rods—here we go!
June 29, 2024
Epic Camping Fail – in the Desert with a flat Tire, raw Carrots and no Water.
I want to scream. So loudly that the hidden camera might fall out of the bushes. But then I'd rather not. Right now, with our luck on this weekend, it would definitely land on my head and break my neck.
This weekend we just want to pitch our tent on a green, tranquil campground in a scenic Wyoming State Park and relax contentedly beside a burbling brook. Eat a delicious spaghetti meal, sip hot chocolate, and hike in a picturesque canyon.
Instead, I'm standing in a swirl of hot dust holding a small package of raw carrots in front of a flat tire, looking back and forth between the sun burning over a no man's land and the last three drops remaining in our water bottle. How on earth could all this have gone wrong in less than 24 hours.
This is the story of an unforgettable epic failure of a camping trip. Get yourself a bucket of popcorn ready!