Attempt Number 2 on Granite Peak, MT

Thursday, July 31, 2014 - Took I70 and I74 to Lake McBride State Park in Iowa. Nice park with showers. The weather radio played constantly in the bathrooms, tornado country, I guess.



Lake McBride
Friday, August 1, 2014 - Found my way up to I90 and drove to the Corn Palace in Mitchell. There was a lot of construction on the outside. The exhibits were still great inside. Continued on I90 to American Creek Campground on the Missouri River. This was another nice campground. It had wireless. I walked into town and got a chocolate shake at McDonalds.

Corn Palace	American Creek Campground

Saturday, August 2, 2014 - Took the road tour of and did a little hiking in Badlands National Park. Bike week in Sturgis was starting. There were a lot of bikers out. Drove to Devil's Tower and walked around the tower. Lot's of bikes there also. The park service campground had plenty of sites. It was surprising for a weekend.

Badlands	Road through Badlands
Devil's Tower	Climbers on Devil's Tower

Sunday, August 3, 2014 - Drove to Emerald Lake Campground near the East Rosebud trailhead for Granite Peak (~6500'). This was a good trip for wildflowers. It's a little overwhelming to go west; there are just so many new ones.



Gunnison's Mariposa Lily
Monday, August 4, 2014 - Hiked to Mystic Lake (~7500'). Mystic Lake is a beautiful place. See attempt one for pictures of the lake. Hiking in the mountains in the west, I've become accustomed to the afternoon thundershowers. They usually don't last long. On this trip they seemed to be longer lasting and heavier. Today it rained all afternoon and most of the night.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014 - Hiked to top of switchbacks and set up camp. It was sleeting while I put up the tent. I was using a Hillberg Soulo which pitched as one piece; tent, rainfly, and footprint all set up at once. With the sleet, this was very nice. I took the shortcut (light blue line on map) up on to the plateau (~10,000'), and then looped back to the trail. The cow skull is on the trail near the top of the pink line on the map. The pink line is a planned track I made in Garmin Basecamp software for crossing the plateau. I deviated slightly from this, going high below Froze to Death Mt. to avoid giving up altitude gained and to cross above a snow field and going a little low near GP 2014D to follow the occasional cairn.

Cow Skull	Arctic Gentian

Wednesday, August 6, 2014 - Hiked across the plateau to about 10,870' (GP 2014B) and returned to camp. This was a little further than I went last year. I passed a nice campsite with water which would be tomorrow's campsite (GP WATER 2). Braden Burkholter, Biologist / Information Specialist, with the Montana Natural Heritage Program was very helpful in identifying some of the flowers. Montana has a great website: Montana Field Guide

Froze to Death Plateau	Mule Deer
Anderson's Aster	Alpine Clover
American Bupleurum	Sulfur Flowered Buckwheat

Thursday, August 7, 2014 - Hiked to 11,040' (GP 2014C), passing two water sources (GP WATER3 and GP WATER4) and returned to camp at 10,390' (GP WATER2).

11,040' (GP 2014C)	White Mountain Heather
10,390' Camp (GP WATER2)	View from Camp

Friday, August 8, 2014 - Hiked to 11,620' (GP 2014E). The weather looked threatening. I descended to 11,040' (GP 2014C) and made camp.

Goats	11,620' (GP 2014E)
Snow Field	View from Camp
Camp	Oeder's Lousewort

Saturday, August 9, 2014 - Granite had me about wore out. I hiked out and drove to Billings. I had the lumberjack slam at Dennys and then went to the KOA and did laundry. The KOA is along the Yellowstone River, but there is no access to the river.



Eaton's Thistle
Sunday, August 10, 2014 - Drove out along the Yellowstone River to Pompey's Tower. Pompey's Tower has William Clark's name carved in it. He named the rock after Sakagawea's son, whose nickname was Pomp. From there, I drove down into Wyoming to Little Bighorn National Battlefield and then on to Guernsey State Park where I camped next to the lake. This bractless blazing star only blooms in the afternoon.

Pompey's Tower	Plaque at Pompey's Tower
Monument to Custer and His Men	Indian Sculpture at Little Bighorn Battlefield
Guernsey State Park, Wyoming	Bractless Blazing Star

Monday, August 11, 2014 - Drove to Glacier Basin Campground in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).

Tuesday, August 12, 2014 - RMNP can get crowded. They have shuttle buses to help. There was a parking lot across the road from the campground where I could get a shuttle bus to many of the trailheads. Today I took the bus to the Bear Lake stop and hiked the trail past Nymph Lake and Dream Lake to Emerald Lake. This trail was crowded. Over the next couple of days I found less traveled trails. It helped to get an earlier start too.

Indian Pond Lily	Nymph Lake
Elephant Heads	Emerald Lake

Wednesday, August 13, 2014 - Took the shuttle to the Glacier Gorge stop and hiked past Alberta Falls and Mills Lake to Black Lake. All of the lakes had fish in them.

Mills Lake	Larkspur
Blue Columbine	Black Lake

Thursday, August 14, 2014 - Hiked from the campground to Sprague Lake, bypassed Bierstadt Lake, and continued on to Hollowell Park where I caught a shuttle back to the campground. In the afternoon, I drove on Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796'. It was only in the forties at the visitor center.

Strawberry Blite	Prickly Poppy

Friday, August 15, 2014 - Drove to the Deer Mountain trailhead and hiked to the top of Deer Mountain. The Glacier Basin Campground had been closed for a few years to remove the trees that had been killed by insects. There weren't many trees left to screen campsites from each other. Despite this and the number of people RMNP was well worth the visit.

Town of Estes Park from the Top of Deer Mountain	Campsite at Glacier Basin Campground

Saturday, August 16, 2014 - drove to Clinton Lake State Park in Kansas.

Sunday, August 17, 2014 - drove home.