We haven't been doing a lot of long hikes in the past few weeks but we have done a few shorter hikes. Jeff and I hiked out to a small waterfall that it not well known. It is called Lovely falls, named by the waterfall book I have. It is only about 15 feet tall but the seclusion makes it unique.

We also hiked to the top of fairy falls and hung out and read at the base of upper fairy falls for a few hours. The wildflowers have started to come out and all the underbrush made everything very lush. 

There is a small lake about a mile south of our dorms which we hiked to off trail through the woods with a compass. When we got there we saw a wolf in the distance. Since the whole area is swampy the mosquitoes have taken it over. 

On one of our other hikes a group of about 10 hiked three miles to the shore of Shoshone lake where we hung out for the afternoon. The water was still cold but I did go all the way in. The hike followed Delacy creek and the surrounding meadows all the way to the lake. 

Wednesday night the Rec Department led a moonlight hike up to the top of Elephant back trail which looks over Yellowstone Lake from 8,600 feet. The sun was setting as we went up and it was dark for the hike down which made for an interesting decent. 

 Saturday we got up early to start hiking. We did 12 miles among three different trails. On of the trails ended in rocky cliffs over Yellowstone Lake. 

Monday

Jeff, AJ, Caroline and I headed out for Mammoth early in the morning and met up with a group of Christian Ministries people including one of the support staff people who works for the National Forest Service. He took us on an off trail hike along the edge of a long ridge. Most of the hike was feet from a 300 to 400 foot vertical drop. We saw lots of wildlife; a tiny fawn, a golden eagle, a falcon fighting a hawk, big horn sheep, elk and a few bears on the way home.

Also on the way back from Mammoth we stopped at five different waterfalls that were close to the road. Undine falls, Upper and Lower falls, Crystal falls, and Tower falls which is the waterfall in the picture.

Sunday

After our morning services on Sunday we headed out to do a 6 to 7 mile hike in the Hayden valley with a group of people that we know from Grant Village. We saw many bison and a badger. 

After the hike we went to do our evening service but the only person to show up was the head of Christian Ministries and he told us he had just seen grizzly's on the way in and had us go see them. It was our first bear jam and there were tons of people and no good picture opportunities. We headed back to Grant and right before grant we met up with a big Grizzly walking down the side of the road. Apparently the Grizzly's are following the Elk into Grant Village so we will be seeing more of them. 

Saturday - Jeff worked Breakfast on Saturday morning so we didn't have any plans but around lunch time we decided to make another visit to the Grand Tetons and the to Jackson. We went with a neighbor who knew about a sports bar in Jackson where we could watch the Red Wings game. In the Tetons we did the first few miles of a trail and then found our way off trail to a waterfall the we could hear from the path. The high points looked down onto Phelps lake below. 

Sunday - In between our morning services and our afternoon service we decided to drive to Canyon, one of the places we hadn't yet seen. We saw lower falls which was a busy lookout close to the parking lot. We then took a trail from there and as soon as our feet left the pavement and met the dirt and snow of the trail, the tourists disappeared. We hiked along the south rim of the canyon with a steep thousand foot drop always at our side. We then headed back to our 7:00 service but it started to thunderstorm. On our way back to Grant Village we saw an incredibly bright and full rainbow over the lake. 

Day 1 - Saturday was the first day off of work I have had since I arrived. Nate and Ross came on Friday and on Saturday we went to see Old Faithful and in the afternoon took a hike to fairy falls (pictured below) It was cold and raining/snowing, but we still made it to the falls. The 2 mile hike back was tough with soaking wet pants and walking through the snow.

Day 2 - 

Sunday we left early for Grand Teton National Park which is an hour south. We took a trail around Jenny Lake to the Hidden Falls. The hike was difficult through rocky trails and almost the whole trail was covered with snow. The waterfall at the end was worth the hike. We saw seven moose (two bull moose), one black bear, and a few woodchucks.

Jeff and I out by the lake at dusk. Still Frozen.

The view from the lake is hard to capture in a picture. This only only a small section of the mountains in the distance.

This was taken from the edge of a cliff with a river running below it. Bears supposedly hang out at the river below to eat fish but we still have yet to see a bear although almost everyone else has seen one.