Wildflowers on the Beaver Ponds Trail

An after work/dinner hike on the Beaver Ponds Loop Trail. 5 miles roundtrip. I've never seen so many wildflowers. Absolutely gorgeous!

Bull elk coming to greet us.

August Hikes

Cathleen, Elizabeth and I hiked Sepulchre. I believe this trail had the prettiest wildflowers of the summer:

Another great hike in August was Mt. Washburn, one of my all-time favorites in the park. This hike provided great views, a good workout, and good fellowship with Cathleen and Del.

The HooDoos

An another after dinner hike with Rebekah in the HooDoos:

Indian Paintbrush:

Mt. Evarts

Mt. Evarts, below, was named for Truman Evarts, a member of the 1870 Washburn Expedition that was some of the first explorers of the park. Evarts was separated from group, lost his glasses, horse, food, blanket, and shoes. He spent the next 37 days in peril - hallucinating, starving and freezing in the wilderness. He was eventually rescued just hours from death.

Our fearless leader Linda at the front of our group: Cathleen, Suzanne, Holly and me!!

The reward of the climb was the panorama : Osprey Falls to the left..

...Mammoth Hot Springs in front...

...and Devil's Slide to the right. Amazing!

It was quite a climb but luckily the weather was nice and cool.

Here are some more views:

Pretty flowers:

Mammoth Hot Springs from 8,000 ft:

It was really windy at the top and was a little scary, especially at the edge:

Gardiner, MT is at the far right: A cactus in bloom:

Crossing over the Gardner River at Rescue Creek. It was exhausting, but so worth it.

At the half way point or so, we were all pretty tired and exhausted (or at least I was). Holly promised us that she would sing for us (she's awesome). She chose the perfect song, You'll Never Walk Alone from Carousel, at the perfect place and time!!