Heading into the wilderness takes a combination of love, mindfulness, caution, and knowing and respecting your physical limits. Montana and Yellowstone are places of glorious big sky, mountains, and many trails with awesome elevation gains. So I stand on the edge of wilderness, knowing beautiful Lost Lake lies ahead, with a willing heart, mind, and feet but lungs that make me reevaluate the wisdom of every trek.
I saw the sign so many times–Harlequin Lake–but I could never see the trailhead. Was it further up or down the road? Did so few people walk the trail that the surrounds swallowed it up? Well, why don’t I just park across from the sign and take a good look. I see it . . . uhhhhh . . .
The Gibbon River begins its life in Grebe Lake found in the center of Yellowstone National Park. About 20 miles from it’s origin we find Gibbon Falls. This river sneaks in on the eastern side of the Continental Divide making it one of the few rivers in the park flowing from north to south. Crashing down 84 feet right along the Loop Road, we can take a short walk to see the wilderness framing the falls. Flowing another 4.7 miles south, the river joins the Firehole River forming the Madison, a major tributary of the Missouri River. The gift of water flowing from the mountain tops of Montana and Wyoming.
That travel alarm is really annoying with its inescapable bbbzzzzzzzz. Remind me again why it is blaring at 4:30am? Right, I’m staying at the Old Faithful Inn in order to greet dawn’s twilight near the Firehole Lake thermals. Watching as the sun rises issuing a challenge to the 23° temperature. Remember your hat and gloves.
It is the beginning of October with a 6:15am twilight, that first hint of promising warm sunshine. Happily it is October rather than June when twilight is 4:55am. A little perspective gets me moving. We want to be ready, camera in hand, to see the morning mist, the thermal steam, and their interaction as the sky grows light and the sun rises.
http://joycarlough.smugmug.com/Thermal-Masterpieces/i-6x54q9D
