Hike #2: Beaver Ponds

My second full day in the park has led to the revisiting of an old motto: Be Prepared.  Boy Scouts have it right as does my wife, it is always better to be prepared.

After saying our farewells to Kerry and Brooke, and then dropping Katrina off at work at 7:30 AM, Ilija, Pirate, and I set out on our first Dad day adventure.  We headed down to the Yellowstone Elementary School playground.  We arrived early, about 8 AM and walked around the school almost smack-dab into a bison laying against the school building.  After realizing that we had a decent amount of distance between us and neither party appeared to be threatening, we headed down to the play field as the bison watched us with one side-eye.  We played on the play ground for an hour and then headed back being sure not to disturb or annoy the bison and keeping a safe 25 yard distance :)

We headed back to the house and I quickly dropped off Pirate and gathered a minimal amount of belongings so that Ilija and I could head straight out to the Beaver Ponds trail head.  We hit the trail at about 9:30 AM, with many visitors already swarming downtown Mammoth.  The trail head is located at the base of the lower terraces of the Mammoth Springs near the old stone house/Sinclair gas station (the farthest left of little white buildings in the picture below).

We parked in the middle lot of the terraces area and walked down to the trail head, taking a couple of nice shots of the springs/terraces on the way.

The hike started out steep and moderately forested.  I quickly realized two things: first I forgot my bear spray, and second no bug spray.  Ilija went quickly up the 600 feet or so of elevation gain clapping and singing.  When we reached the an area where the forest began to open we met a family of four from Bonney Lake, WA.  Ilija and I hiked with them to the Beaver Ponds as they had bear spray (and a handgun...) and fruit rollups.  Ilija was able to persuade a young boy to part with some of his fruit rollup along with his sister, who were very kind.  Along the way we saw black bear tracks and heard the cackling of ravens in the forest suggesting a carcass was present.  A little further along the trail we saw a coyote about 50 yards from us on the hillslope and some elk down below grazing.  Lots of wildlife!

By the time we reached the Beaver Ponds, Ilija had eaten a full bag of freeze dried yogurt chips, a bottle of water, a cookie, and the fruit rollups.  He passed out en route to the ponds and was pretty sleepy when we arrived.  I made the decision to forge ahead at double time to try to get back to the car, as I had also forgotten sun screen and we were now exposed to the midday sun.    

Beaver Ponds

We quickly made our way back toward the Mammoth area, meeting another gentleman from Albany along the way.  For being 70ish, he sure hiked quickly, hiking as fast as Ilija and I going our quickest.  We descended down into Mammoth to find shade a relax for a bit following the 5 miles we covered in just over 2 hours.  Ilija received his dose of shortwave radiation for the next day as we took Tuesday off to recover (I thought I got a little sun sick, compounded by the altitude).  A very nice hike, that, if prepared could be a nice half-day hike with beautiful views of Mammoth and surrounding ridgelines.

Mammoth from Beaver Ponds Trail