We were planning a backpacking trip to Yellowstone for almost a year now.  Josh had told me that the weather was supposed to be pretty decent and so I packed accordingly.  I only brought a sweatshirt and waterproof jacket as my main pieces of warmth.  I brought some hiking shoes and thought that would be fine, but I was completely wrong!

Our goal was to backpack to Dunanda Falls, enjoy the hot springs, and camp for one night.  In the afternoon, we all piled in one truck and make the journey north.  We stopped for a minute in Logan to check out some camping gear and I felt impressed to buy some better waterproof hiking boots.  Luckily they were on sale, so I felt pretty good about the purchase.  The boots would eventually be a lifesaver for me!

I thought that this would be a long, yet enjoyable backpacking trip through some of Yellowstone’s most pristine wilderness.  I didn’t packing too seriously and packed a little bit heavier than I should have.  Oh well!  This was going to be fun no matter what!

We finally got to the area near Ashton so we could camp for the night.  It was a very long drive, filled with Mt. Dew and lots of snacks and I was tired.  The weather began to turn bad and it started to rain/snow the entire night.  Luckily, I had my zero degree sleeping bag and I was comfortable that first night.

I woke up about two hours into my sleep to something hitting my feet.  I looked out my sleeping bag and didn’t see anything.  I started to doze off, but again noticed the same feeling.  I sat up and put my hand on the outside of my bag by my feet and felt my entire lower sleeping bag was completely soaked!  The tent was collecting rain/snow on top and it was leaking through the tent!

I was incredibly fortunate that my bag had some waterproofing on it and so I dried off my bag, moved over a bit and fell back asleep.

In the morning, we were happy that the rain had stopped.  The bottom of my bag was frozen, but my feet were still warm!  We packed up our stuff and got in the truck to head to the Bechler Ranger Station.

There was snow on the ground from this point on.  When we got to the station we talked to the rangers and they told us about the trail conditions and other important information.  We then put on our gear and began our hike!

The hike was great!  I won’t go into too much detail, but this is one of the best hikes I have done in Yellowstone.  So much beauty and peace all in one place.  We were going a little over 9 miles today and after a few miles of hiking I was extremely happy that I felt impressed to buy some good boots!  My feet never had any problems the entire time!

We got to our campsite and set up our tents.  There was still snow, snow, snow, but it was beautiful!  When camp was set up we packed towels and swimsuits and hiked the remaining distance to Dunanda Falls.  Along the way there were several scorching hot springs that were incredibly hot.  I remember one of the rangers at the Bechler Station telling us to not touch these ones as they would easily burn our skin.

Dunanda Falls is incredible!  The falls weren’t terribly cold and we had fun forgetting about our long hike to them!  We hiked under the raging waterfall and were screaming and yelling and having a great time. 

It was now time for sitting in the hot springs!

The hot springs are located right next to the falls and bubble right out of the side of the hill.  The hot springs were very hot, but on this cold wintery night, I wanted them hotter.  We spent a good amount of time there and then went back to camp for dinner.

I had the worst freeze dried meal I ever had that night.  It was so disgusting, but I had to keep eating because that was the only meal I had for dinner.  After dinner, I was setting up my sleeping bag and noticed that it was still wet from the night before!  How could I have been so stupid!  Why didn’t I leave my bag open in the truck while we were driving to the Bechler Station so it could dry out?  I felt scared for what the night would bring.  I was already worried about bears, but now I had to worry about freezing to death.

As I was getting more and more worried about my predicament, I said a prayer that I would be ok.  I put on every piece of clothing I had and got in my bag.  The lower part of my bag was now wet on the inside and I just knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep in a wet bag.

I didn’t know what to do.  It was now late at night and we were 9 miles from our truck.  I remember feeling like I should say a prayer again that my bag would be dry and I could get some sleep.  I was so sore from the hike and I was shaking bad from being cold.  What else could I do?  I somehow fell asleep hoping that I wouldn’t wake up with frostbite.

I woke up a few hours later and I was burning hot.  I suddenly remembered about my wet bag and sat up so I could feel if my bag was still wet.  It wasn’t!  It was completely dry on the inside!  How could that be?  In fact, I was so hot that I took off a layer of clothes and went back to bed.  It wasn’t the end of my troubles though…

About an hour later I woke up to very loud noises outside of our tent.  Jake was sleeping in my tent too and I was debating about waking him up.  I heard some more heavy noises and it sounded like they were getting closer.  Was it a grizzly bear?  It sounded like the thing outside was moving brush or logs on the ground.  I couldn’t hear any breathing or animal noises, just loud moving.

“Jake…are you awake?”
“Yeah…”
“Do you hear that?”
“Yes.  What is it?”
“I don’t know, but it sounds big.”

We both laid quietly listening to the noises.  I was beginning to get scared again and grabbed a can of bear spray just in case.  I told Jake I was glad that we decided to stay in the same tent.  Josh and David were in their own individual tents, but were very close.

After about 20 minutes of just laying and wondering what was going on outside I was beginning to fall asleep.  It was weird how relaxed I felt.  I just felt like if a bear was going to break through our camp we would just spray it with tons of bear spray and make tons of noise to scare it.  After all, there were four of us and one of them.  I dozed off again amidst the noises…

The sunlight woke me up and I realized it was morning.  We had survived.  I was happy to hear some birds chirping and the sound of the creek nearby.  I couldn’t wait to get outside and see all the bear footprints outside our tent!

I put on my boots and walked around the tent to find nothing. No footprints.  No broken branches.  No nothing.  I heard Josh and David waking up now.  They both had very loud sleeping pads.  Their pads almost sounded like what Jake and I were hearing last night.  But, it was strange because we heard the noises farther away from our tent.  I went to our food storage area (where we hung up our food and any items that omit odors) and didn’t see any footprints there except for what appeared to be very small tracks from a fox or something.

Oh well!  I was happy knowing that there weren’t any bears stomping around our camp.  Note: make sure you are prepared when you are in bear/moose country.   Always bring bear spray, make noise, and travel in groups.

We packed up camp and hiked up to Silver Scarf Falls.  These falls were warm water falls!

We then hiked back to the truck and drove back home.