beaver ponds hikes

We finished training today and sent all of our stuff to Old Faithful. Due to the lack of snow someone from the Association was able to actually drive down to Old Faithful and was kind enough to take our stuff with him. Now we only have a couple bags to take on the snowcoach which is good because space on those things is at a premium. Still, if the snow doesn’t come soon we may be taking a school bus down like the hotel employees had to do yesterday.

After lunch, we braved the cold and headed to the Beaver Ponds trail, a four and half mile hike that swings behind the Mammoth Hotel, heads straight out to the town of Gardiner, before circling back so you come out by the Mammoth Hot Springs.

Wendie had done this trip during the summer on a Ranger-led hike so she knew just what to look for as we headed up a gentle slope to the trail. The first thing she pointed out was a Wikiup, a temporary Indian-style dwelling that was about 50-yards off the trail. Apparently, it was discovered earlier this decade, so it doesn’t date back to the days of when Native Americans lived in what is now the Park, but no one knows who built it.

There were a myriad of animal tracks criss-crossing the path. During the summer you see tracks here and there but during the winter everywhere you look are the footprints of one animal or another. It gives you a much better idea of how many animals are in the Park and, and even though you haven’t seen them, how close they have been to where you are walking. Plus, many animals are smart enough to know it is easier to walk on a well-maintained trail so they take the same route you are hiking. On this day, we followed the tracks of a coyote – we never did see him – for almost the whole trip.

About a mile and a half into the trip, Wendie next brought the remains of an old trapper’s cabin to my attention. Though it was now the definition of a fixer-upper, it was easy to imagine that back in the day this must have been a prime spot for someone looking to make some cash off of the area's abundant wildlife.

Despite the couple hundred feet we’d climbed and the breeze rushing through the trees, this area seemed to be a good bit warmer than where we started. Go figure.

From there we followed a couple switch-backs up to a plateau and then down again to a series of beaver ponds that were frozen. For the next mile or so we went through a series of forested areas and small meadows. The tracks continued but except for a couple of birds hovering near their nest, we didn’t see any animals. Finally, as we reached a larger meadow we looked to the hill above us and spotted a group of elk (one bull and about six cows). We watched each other for a bit before we both decided to move on, us down the path, the elk into the woods above us. Just as we lost sight of them we heard one of them bugling – a rare occurrence for this non-breeding time of year but not unheard of since the elk that don’t mate in the fall will sometimes give it another go before Christmas.

As we made our way down the final leg of the trail, we spotted another pack of elk cows. They seemed captivated by us as they all stopped what they were doing to gawk. We returned the favor as Wendie snapped off a couple shots.

As we got a nose-full of the tell-tale smell (raw eggs) of the sulphur hot springs, we knew the trail was ending. Not quite the smell of victory but close enough.