Fairyland Basin, Part 2

From their trailhead at Artist Point, our 3 hikers had views of Lower Yellowstone Falls from the first quarter mile. After that, they continued on Wapiti Lake trail through the Lodgepole pine forest. The pine forest was poor bear territory, but all along they blew whistles periodically and kept pepper spray handy just in case.

The established but lightly traveled trail took them to this small lake.

Many yellow Pond Lilies floated on the small lake's surface.

Pink alpine laurel frames a reflection of trees and sky in the water.
Globeflowers grew in the nearby marshes.

Above is a variety of Indian paintbrush blooming in the surrounding meadow.

From the unnamed lake, the hikers continued a short distance to Orange Rock Spring. Water from the spring's flow was warm, but not deep enough for a soak.

From Orange Rock, our intrepid explorers struck out cross countrytraveled, bushwacking through a Lodgepole forest and some blowdown to an extensive thermal area including Whistler Geyser and many fumeroles and bubbling hot pots.

This water was plenty deep enough for a hot tub, but the temperature would remove a person's skin. 212 degrees fahrenheit or more, continually boiling.

Above, Chris checked out a thermal and was nearly obscured by steam.

They encountered masses of mosquitoes in the forests and meadows. Steve's 35% DEET kept the bugs at bay, but Eric and Steve still managed to attract a horde whenever they stopped. Chris wore a short-sleeved shirt, but seemed to be swarm-free. When they checked the label on his repellent, they found it was 98% DEET -- high octane, indeed. No wonder the bugs ignored Chris!

They passed Josephs Coat Springs, shown above. (The name comes from the biblical Joseph's coat of many colors.)

Not far from there, our hikers located their designated campsite, 4 B1.

The campsite is an open meadow with a fire pit and a few cut logs for seating.
There's no bear pole for hanging food. A tripod about 15 feet high which might have worked for that purpose, but it was too close to the best tent site. Eric improvised a line between trees for hanging the food.
Broad Creek was 100 feet away. They didn't see any fish in the clear, weak tea-colored water.

Pumping water would have been okay, since there wasn't much cloudy particulate matter to foul the pump filter, but they either boiled or used iodine treated water instead. The water tasted fine, with no mineral taste after adding the iodine neutralizer.
The boys climbed into their 3 man tent under clear skies and a Comanche moon. (This is a half moon, which the Comanche Indians considered good for raiding. A full moon would be too bright, allowing the raiders to be easily caught, and a new moon would be too dark, not good for finding anything to raid. Half is perfect.) Of course, our hikers weren't planning to raid anyone, and they hoped having their food cached high in the air between two trees would keep them from being raided by a hungry bear. The portable electric fence was set up around the camp, and they each had pepper spray inside and at hand.

Trail-weary after a 12 mile trek, they welcomed a mosquito-free shelter, and hoped no wild creature disturbed them before morning. They listened for wolf howls and coyote yips as they drifted into sleep, dreaming of the next morning's planned hike into the park's mysteriously unmapped secret treasure, Fairyland Basin.

To be continued.