The Rockies, USA. Summer 2007

It was in fact to be a very long time before I was able to complete a trek with Macmillan once again, for shortly after returning from China I was troubled by a difficult gynaecological problem and was told by a doctor that I needed urgent test for suspected cancer of the uterus. After a couple of months of tests and treatment for my problems I was feeling very weak but a least once again happy that life was going to be normal as no cancer was found. How wrong I was, for I caught pneumonia and didn’t get over it.  I seemed to get weaker as the weeks went by, weight fell off my figure that now appeared tiny and frail, my joints hurt and I lost the feeling in my limbs continually. After many tests for Lyme disease, numerous blood tests and antibiotics it was finally diagnosed as ME the following summer.

I had already signed up for a trek in Cambodia in the autumn of that year with Macmillan Cancer Support and I had already planned and booked USA trip later that summer with my husband. Our flights had been booked since the previous summer and I was excited about discovering an area of the Rocky Mountains that I hadn’t yet visited. I just wasn’t sure if I would be well enough to get on the plane itself having had great difficulties doing that during the spring.

As the summer passed I gained quite a bit of strength as my condition waxed and waned rather, like the moon, so by the end of July I felt I would be able to go if I did everything at a very slow pace. I gathered our camping equipment which was a challenge without even leaving the house and when our bags were packed and the dates on our tickets corresponded to those on the calendar we left for Heathrow.

Arriving in Salt Lake City, Utah we drove up through Idaho Falls to the North West corner of Yellowstone National Park. It was very much in evidence that there had been many large wildfires here in the forest. The pines with blackened trunks stood naked in the bright mountain light, their thick bark protecting them from a sudden and cruel death as lightening feed fires had torn through the landscape. Amazingly they had regrown their spiky leaves and the fire had given a new life to many species on the forest floor. Elk grazed on sweet, green meadows and the day was bright and clear.

Here in the Yellowstone Caldera which stretches 34 miles in one direction and 45 in the other there is a unique world of geothermal features; hot springs and bubbling geysers, dramatic canyons, lush forest and alpine rivers. The wildlife is rich; bear, wolf, elk, moose, bison, bighorn sheep and bob cats, not to mention lynx, coyotes, mountain lions, deer and mountain goats. Then there are the beautiful birds and reptiles too, alpine meadows full of wild flowers and lakes and rivers bursting with fish.

This beautiful area with its rich ecosystem was explore by Ferdinand.V.Hayden in 1871 and by 1872 it was declared a National park to protect the splendid landscape forever and provide a setting for the enjoyment of people. The park sits on a high plateau and is surrounded by mountain ranges and the mighty Rocky Mountains.

Driving east towards the centre of the park we stopped to enjoy the many geological features of the geyser basins, of which there are nine different areas. They contain many large and small gushing geysers, mudpots and fumaroles; which are literally opening in the earth’s crust where gases and steam burst out. We hiked around them all; Sawmill, Steamboat, Old faithful, Lone star and Norris, waiting in awe for them to erupt; sometimes on time and sometime not. The colours of the hots springs were probably the most magical, blues and golds of Silex at Paint pot fountain and Prismatic springs with crusty browns surrounding a heavenly, blue pool.

Heading for our campsite at the end of the day we hastily erected the tent which was so small that it went up in just a couple of minutes and almost disappeared in our large emplacement. You can always buy a supply of wood from the campsite office in the USA. In fact it’s often the only place that you are allowed to purchase it as disease can spread rapidly from infected wood that has been brought in from other areas and the parks authorises ask you not to travel with firewood. In areas that has been affected by the spread of beetles the trees are dead and stand as reddish skeletons.

Unfortunately we only stayed that one night in Yellowstone as we had planned to spend a week in the Bridger Teton wilderness when we booked our permits. So early the next morning we headed off down to the Grand Teton National park, with its beautiful clear lakes and mountains passes who names resonated the natural beauty; paintbrush and Cascade canyon and Inspiration point. Oh, how I wished I could reach these high places once again and touch their stones, warmed by the sun. We reached Jenny Lake and after a wait, it was established that one or more parties were moving on later that morning and were happy to keep their pitch for us. It was a very warm day and we welcomed the promise of sitting in the sun for a rest and acclimatise to the higher altitude of these mountains.

The next morning we were out early walking around the lake. Valley trail gave way to Jenny lake trail and the cool morning air quickly gave way to a baking afternoon. There was plenty of shade under the trees and the views were lovely, baby bears moved about in the undergrowth on the lakes fringes and we caught little glimpses of them from time to time. Constantly our eyes scanned the bushes for their mothers but we never saw them, well not that day anyway!

I struggled on wanting to complete one of my previously planned walks and towards the end of the day my head ached, my legs swelled, my heart thumped and I began to feel really quite unwell. As usual I was taking Diamox for the altitude but as it was so hot I was quite sure it was the sun that had caused my malady. I lay in my tent and hoped I would soon feel well again, trying to cover up how I really felt. It was pretty here and I had a plan to hike up Cascade canyon and down paintbrush, even if I did have ME. Feeling a little recovered the following morning, we packed our lunch and in the cool of the early morning we headed for the ferry to take us across the lake. As we crossed that cool, green water I knew that I shouldn’t be hiking that day but the powerfully, alluring Grand Teton was calling me ever nearer to it. My ankles were very swollen and I was feeling weak but the Tetons were so beautiful I wanted to know them. We passed moose, wild flowers and trees of emerald and jade, shamrock and lime, reaching ever higher into the sky. On I went until we reached a place where the trail narrowed and the rock overhung and there my husband refused to let me go any further. I touched the rock and said goodbye to the mountain.

We turned around but it was too late. This time I knew I was very unwell, my head thumped terribly, my heart pounding, I became weaker with each step and less co-ordinated. Finally I tried to tell my husband that I didn’t think I would make it down to the ferry, more and more I stopped, I drank as much water as I could, the hot, midday sun beating down through the trees. As I reached the queue for the ferry I lay upon the ground and hoped that I could get to the Diamox that I had in the tent. At last we reach the far bank and with help from my husband Martin I hobbled the final stretch back to the tent, passing a young bear cub and then her mother.

I lay in my tent, barely sipping the warm tea that my husband had made for me. I drank more water and waited for hours for my medicine to work, my head throbbing to an explosive level until finally it began to pass and I was able to visit the toilet. Unknown to me the mother and her cub had passed very close to our little tent while I was recovering, my husband had kept watch over me and their close path too.

Recovered enough to travel the next morning we decided to make our way down to the Bridger Teton wilderness or Wind River Range as it is also known, but not to do the 7 day trail that we had intended, instead we found a beautiful lake to rest by and recover. After a few days we walked to the start of the trail and signed in the book, but only for a day’s walk. Here we found an overview of this spectacular wilderness and looked in awe of its raw beauty, wild, serine and dramatic. A river wound though deep ravines and canyons, lone pines clung to the bare rock, one could not see that there could possibly be a passage, safe or otherwise though this stunning landscape.

The Wind River Range stretches 110 miles from South Pass to Togwotee Pass and encompasses 2.25 million acres of wild passes and needlelike spires, many of which are more than 12,500 feet in elevation. This dazzling mountain range forms part of the great Continental Divide where snow-capped summits, board alpine plateaus and deep canyons form the great watershed dividing rivers that travel west to the Pacific Ocean. It’s an area containing more than 2000 high mountains who glaciers spill out into lakes, tarns and rivers teeming with trout and reach in life. Fragrant wild flowers fill beautiful meadows with a dreamy perfume. Here tundra rich in wildlife embraces delicate flowers that form a land so beautiful and alluring it become quite spellbinding.

Instead of wilderness camping we had found the next best thing. A tiny, self-registering camping area, beside a lake of great size and serenity. In a small, brown envelope we placed the $2 fee and meet with locals who cooked on fires and invited us to join them and their extended families. One day a huge storm swept across the lake, we hid in our tiny tent, listening to the booms and feeling the ground almost vibrate beneath us. Hungrily looking at un-warmed food and waiting for it to pass before the next storm came in. It was time to move on an as we were not expected in the Rockies National park for two more days we decided to head for the Wyoming’s beautiful Snowy mountains.

After crossing a huge area of the state of Wyoming, where all we could see was either grassland or windblown dust where tangled balls of weed were swept across an almost deserted land. Passing signs that informed us that there was no petrol for 60 miles or that it was even further to the next town of any size we kept going until the mountains and trees re-emerged. Finding a lovely campsite within the forest park we made a fire form fallen wood as we were informed by the warren that we were welcome to do so and enjoyed a night under the cover of quietly whispering pines.

The Snowy mountain range is a jewel of southern Wyoming, high in the Rockies the mountains the land is between 9,000 feet and 12,000 feet, where snow, rain and sunshine can occur almost any day of the year. The Medicine Bow Mountains which form part of it are full of wonderful crystal blue alpine lakes, meadows full to bursting of wildflowers and subalpine fir forests, all the time watched over by jagged peaks. These wonderful mountains were formed about 50 million years ago by the earth’s compression of the continental divide. Huge faults broke up the granite and became mountain ranges and basins: The result was that the Rockies were born.

We loved this area with its wonderful trails, where gentians of the deepest blue carpeted the valleys beneath the towering peaks and marmot and ground squirrels dashed into the rocky terrain making holes where they surfaced and watched us from a safe distance. Although here is a land where black bear, moose, coyotes and lynx live alongside the tiny pika and mule deer. After enjoying the trails along the Snowy Mountain Highway we headed east to the Wyoming and that evening sat in a bar watching the longest train pass through a town straight out of the wild west, that I had ever seen.

Now on the far side of the Rockies we entered the park, where towards evening we found our walk-in pitch high on a hill. Bringing up first our tent, bedding and then cooking equipment we set to and made dinner. Nothing much, just sausages fried and served in a bread-bun, but oh joy when you’re hungry and camping in the mountains. This was not a wilderness camp but a pitch set on its own above the other pitches at Moraine Park Campground.

The next day we took the free park bus down to the trailhead of the Fern Lake trail, a small stony trail that ran through a lovely valley until it reached, The Pool and some waterfalls to cross. Now on the other side of the valley we took the Cub lake trail through woodland, past the lake and around a number of small ponds dotted along the valley. The trail took us back up to the Cub lake trailhead and as we car no car to worry about we waited for the bus to arrive and clambered aboard.

It’s always beautiful to wake up to a new day in the forest but one that is surrounded by glorious mountains is even better. Another day of walking in the park was planned. Once again we took the park bus to the trailhead and walked up Glacier gorge to Alberta falls and on to Glacier Knobs, a circular trail that returned to Bear Lake. Then one final walk up on Tombstone Ridge the following day, amid a shower and a double rainbow. The views from the ridge are quite spectacular, looking down to the valley that we had walked in two days before. It’s a high windy place of 11,722 feet, where little grows except short grass. I enjoyed my last views and then we were on our way over to Steamboat Mountain and Dinosaur National Park before arriving back at Salt Lake City and another eventful trip over.