guest trip report: Bob Marshall Wilderness – Prairie Reef & The Chinese Wall, September 2023

May 8, 2025.Reading time 22 minutes.

Adventures with Richard is always amongst the most challenging backpacking trips on my calendar. I’m assured plenty of bushwhack and boulder hopping. But it’s all worth it. To provide another viewpoint of our backpacking trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness, this report was written by Richard (themountainrabbit.com) in 2023 on the backcountry post forum. With permission, his writing was edited by site editor and owner John (me) and published here. It is also supplemented with my pictures and video. This was the third trip I’ve done with Richard and all three were epic.

Richard:

I’ve been trying to get out to the Bob Marshall Wilderness for a number of years now – I’m happy to say I finally made it. For the third year in a row, I was able to join up with John and we had a fantastic trip. I will say, despite my love for September/October backpacking, if I go back to do any high traverses in “the Bob” it will probably be earlier in the year – there’s very little water above treeline by September. I suspected this and planned for it, but it definitely affected our route.

I’d told John that I hoped for a bit of snow and shoulder season conditions and I wasn’t disappointed on that count. The weather did convince us to make a few alterations to the route – including missing a traverse of the Chinese Wall itself – but I’ll be back, so it’s all good. And we did get to do the section I was most excited about – it didn’t disappoint in the least.

trip video: Bob Marshall Wilderness – Prairie Reef & The Chinese Wall, September 2023

May 1, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

This is a companion video to an upcoming backpacking trip report (at some point).

Richard and I teamed up again for a late season backpack into Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. The Bob Marshall Wilderness is just south of Glacier National Park in Montana and is known for the 15 miles long feature called the Chinese Wall. Unlike the typical hike to visit these Walls, we had plans to be on top a couple of them. What do they say about plans? Regardless, my 3rd team up with Richard was again a Wild adventure, with a capital “W” as he says.

You can our full detailed report of our hikes below in the index as they are posted.

trip video: Gros Ventre Wilderness – Granite Creek, West Fork Crystal Creek, Crystal Creek, & Swift Creek loop, June 2021

January 11, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

As a companion video to our upcoming backpacking trip into the Gros Ventre Wilderness, I joined Richard from the Backcountry Post forums for an early season hike into the Gros Ventre Wilderness. Nestled between the Tetons, Wind River Range, and the Absaroka Range are these set of mountains that I had never heard of a week before meeting up with Richard at the trailhead. Wild is an apt description of the hike. That included the many wildlife we saw along the way and the difficult terrain that came with the early season.

You can our full detailed report of our hikes below in the index as they are posted.

trip report: Yellowstone National Park – Hellroaring Creek, Yellowstone River, Black Canyon, & Blacktail Deer Creek, June 2021

December 28, 2022.Reading time 33 minutes.

Early season in Yellowstone National Park means snow melt. Many of the creeks and rivers are swollen and most likely impassable. The trail may also become a marsh. I didn’t think of this when I originally sold the idea of backpacking here to Brenna and Bradley (pictured below),

specially the idea of hiking around Shoshone Lake and down Bechler River trail. But it became clear after a quick look on the backcountry situation report on the Yellowstone NPS webpage was that our plans would have to change for the beginning of June. So sometimes the lesson here is just going with what’s available or take the advice of a ranger. That’s how we ended up following the early season roars of the well names Hellroaring Creek and Yellowstone River for a few days. We were even joined by a local.

Note from John (website editor & author) on 2022/12: When I started to writing this report earlier in the year, the northern portion of Yellowstone National Park flooded knocking out several roads including the portions between Gardiner, MT and Cooke City, MT (NPR). While the road that’s part of the Northern Loop where the trailheads for this hike are located on has reopened, I don’t have exact information about the backcountry conditions and bridges status. Please check with the Yellowstone backcountry status report for more up to date information (NPS). So this report is most likely dated already… which is part of the reason I had stopped working on this series. But back on the saddle I go.

This is the third entry of our 2021 Wyoming trip series covering our backpacking trip up Hellroaring Creek, Yellowstone River, & Blacktail Deer Creek (3). You can navigate to the other parts in the index below as they are posted.

trip video: Yellowstone National Park – Hellroaring Creek, Yellowstone River, Black Canyon, & Blacktail Deer Creek, June 2021

December 23, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

As a companion video to our first backpacking trip into Yellowstone National Park, we saw green rolling hills and rushing rivers that part of the early backpacking season. Along the way, we saw plenty of animal carcasses and bones under an unseasonably hot sun. We were also visited by a way too friendly black bear to round out our trip.

You can our full detailed report of our hikes below in the index as they are posted.

brief report: Yellowstone National Park – Union Falls, Dunanda Falls, Bechler Canyon, Mr. Bubbles, & Shoshone Geyser Basin; August 2022

September 24, 2022.Reading time 18 minutes.

This last minute trip came together as my young brothers-in-law (Sean & Shane) wanted to go backpacking for the first time and they wanted to do it in Yellowstone. After zooming with them about how to prepare, it was clear they weren’t and I would be heading out to west to lead them. Also with us was their friend (Ozan) and my friend (Chris). I met Chris on the John Muir Trail a few years ago and hiked again with him last year in Glacier National Park. I was able to recruit him to help me out on leading the kids on their first backpacking trip by offering a free flight via my Southwest companion pass and free hotels. I was very happy having someone I knew the capabilities of and trusted in the backcountry. So we were a group of five for this trip, but with the flexibility of splitting the group up at times to accommodate the different goals and paces of the kids as they got use to backpacking.

Note from John (website editor & author): Motivation to work on my website this last year has hard to come by for me. The reasons are probably familiar to many out there as we learn to live and normalize the world of COVID. As such, I am backlogged more than a years worth of hikes and travel. So it will take me a while to write my typical detailed trip reports and produce the videos. In the meantime, these brief reports (as cross-posted on the Backcountry Post forums) will serve as a teaser and place holder for the full reports to come. Read More

trip video: Yellowstone National Park – Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs, & Grand Prismatic, June 2021

June 9, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

As a companion video to a few of our day hikes at the most popular spots in Yellowstone National Park, we do our best to capture the typical road trip experience through the park. That includes plenty of geothermal features from erupting geysers to colorful pools to cascading terraces. Along our way, we also so a grizzly bear, a coyote, and plenty of bison roaming the fields.

You can our full detailed report of our hikes below in the index as they are posted.

trip report: Yellowstone National Park – Old Faithful & Upper Geyser Basin, May 2021

June 2, 2022.Reading time 19 minutes.

Old Faithful and Yellowstone National Park are synonymous with each other. The geyser is a must stop for all visitors to the park and as such has an entire village built around it including the historic Old Faithful Inn, visitor center, backcountry office, store, gas station, and a massive parking area. Part of what makes Old Faithful so prominent is how frequent and regular it erupts, every 2 hours, as its name suggest. However it is not the tallest at 106 to 185 feet (Wikipedia) and you can’t particularly get close to it due to its popularity these days. So while you are here, it is worth your time to check out one of the other 6 geysers whos eruptions are predicted by the NPS or the many geothermal features around the Upper Geyser Basin.

This is the second entry of our Wyoming trip series covering our day hike around Upper Geyser Basin and visiting Old Faithful (2). You can navigate to the other parts in the index below as they are posted.

trip report: Wyoming – decisions & planning, June 2021

May 26, 2022.Reading time 26 minutes.

With the shots in our arms and more than a year of being mostly at home, we were ready for the hot vax summer of 2021. Our possible destinations were still limited internationally, but there are plenty I wanted to see in the United States, specifically the state of Wyoming. For something new, it was about time that I visited Yellowstone National Park, the first national park established in the United States in 1872. And for something loved, I looked forward to returning to the Wind River Range where we had a grand adventure the first time around. Of course with any good trip, there would be something unplanned and surprising as well.

This is the first entry of our Wyoming trip series covering our pre-trip planning (1). You can navigate to the other parts in the index below as they are posted.

trip report: Vermont – Colchester Causeway, October 11 2020

March 12, 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

Our final hike of the trip was into the middle of Lake Champlain on a converted railroad bed known as the Colchester Causeway. Rather than climbing up a mountain, we had a view of them from the causeway as it crosses Mallets Bay. The change of pace, or rather elevation profile, was a welcome end to our couple weeks of working remote and visiting friends. Thanks to Jared and Domino hanging out and showing us around.

This is part 5 of 5 of our trip out to New York and Vermont. In this part, we cover our causal walk on the Colchester Causeway and wrap up our trip with our budget. You can find the rest of the series in the index below.

trip video: Vermont – Mt. Mansfield & Colchester Causeway, October 10 – 11 2020

November 14, 2021.Reading time 1 minute.

This is the video companions of trip to Vermont to visit our friend Jared. With good friends, it is always easy to pick up where we left off and this was no exception. We revisited Mt. Mansfield and then opted for less elevation by visiting Lake Champlain via the Colchester Causeway. In between we had a campfire and cookout to complete the autumn scene.

You can find our full trip report of our hike in the index below.

trip report: Vermont – Mount Mansfield, October 10 2020

November 10, 2021.Reading time 15 minutes.

For our second week on our working remote road trip, we headed across Lake Champlain into Vermont where we spent our next weekend with Jared and his new puppy Domino.

Our hiking target was to head up Mount Mansfield via the Laura Cowles and Sunset Ridge Trails. This was the second time we visited the highest point in Vermont having done so in the summer time several years ago in 2013, to give you some indication of our opinion of the hike.

Unlike our first visit however, the highlight of the hike this time around was how we got there and not so much the end or summit.

This is part 4 of 5 of our trip out to New York and Vermont. In this part, we cover our hike in Vermont up Mt. Mansfield. You can find the rest of the series as they are posted in the index below.