July 2015: Upper Fairy Falls, Yellowstone

My boys at the base of Upper Fairy Falls

I mentioned the book, The Guide to Yellowstone Waterfalls and Their Discovery in an earlier blog post.  It's a book that references 300+ waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park.  I purchased a copy and have been reading it and carefully laying my plans to see as many of them as I can.  I've seen around thirty.  I think one hundred is a doable goal.  Yellowstone is a wonderland, in fact it used to be called that many years ago.  Everybody knows about the hot water in Yellowstone but most people don't realize how much cold water there is in the park.  There is something for everyone in Yellowstone.

Fairy Falls has always been one of our favorite hikes.  I think I discovered it when I was a teenager and introduced it to my family.  When the Hot Chick and I got married, I introduced it to her and some members of her family as well.  We hike in to Fairy Falls every three or so years now.  Back in the seventies, Fairy Falls wasn't nearly as popular as it is today.  I was told that at some point the touring companies started advertising Fairy Falls in their brochures and after that the trail has been inundated with people.  I like people but they are not the mammals I go to see in Yellowstone, so we try to hit the trail early in the season or late when there are less humans around.

From the waterfall book I discovered there are two waterfalls upstream of Fairy Falls on Fairy Creek.  That seemed like a good place to start.

The Hot Chick was out of town so it was just me and my two youngest sons.  We headed up to Yellowstone on the third of July to do a little hiking.  As per usual, the trail to Fairy Falls was packed with people.  The parking lot was full to overflowing.  The trail to the falls is about two and a half miles and the first mile is along an old stagecoach freight road.  I didn't take many photos of the trail to Fairy Falls because I've already blogged about that trail here.

Hot pool at the trailhead to Fairy Falls

Another thermal feature along the trail

Bog orchid near Fairy Falls

Fairy Falls

There is a social trail up a hill along the Fairy Falls Trail that overlooks Grand Prismatic Spring.  The trail was open last year when we went and got a great view of one of the iconic sights of Yellowstone.  Sadly, a tourist last year was doing something he shouldn't have and had an accident up there and died.  The Park Service has closed the hill to climbing now because of it.  There are signs all along the trail that say no hiking, but when we hiked by, the hill was swarming with people trying to get that great view of Grand Prismatic Spring.  I am one who likes to obey the law because it's the right thing to do and because it makes my life less complicated, so we did not hike up the social trail.

I believe the Park Service should figure out a way to formalize the trail and even construct a viewing platform at the top of the hill.  They could do what they have done at Canyon on the Red Rock Trail and build a wooden staircase up the hill to a viewing platform.  I have found references all over the internet about that social trail and nowhere online have I found that it is closed now.  People are planning vacations around that hike because the information is out there.  The Park Service is either going to have to permanently station a ranger at that point to cite people who climb up, or just accept the fact that they are going to, or better yet, formalize a real trail that is safe and practical.  If they did that, the honeycomb network of trails that exist on that hill can be restored to their natural state.  That's what would happen if I ran the world.

I found that most of the people on the trail did not go all the way to Fairy Falls.  Most of them ended up on the social trail.  When we got to Fairy Falls there were about twenty people, give or take.  We hung out at the falls for a bit before we decided to hike up to Upper Fairy Falls, and while we were there, people came and went but there were always between fifteen and twenty people there.

So, now comes the silly part.  I bought the book, and I read it, but I thought I knew what was what and I took a trail up the plateau that looked like it would get me to where I was going.  It did, but it was not the trail that the authors of the book had written about.  There is supposedly an easier trail to Upper Fairy Falls than the one we took.  The trail we found was a social trail immediately to the west of Fairy Falls.  The correct trails is a game trail about two hundred yards east of Fairy Falls.  Next time I hike this, I will find that game trail.

Our trail was very steep until about halfway up, then it was a near vertical rock climb the rest of the way.  The good news was that there were plenty of handholds and toeholds to get us up.  The bad news was that we were going to have to climb back down.

I recommend that you only attempt the climb we made if you are a seasoned rock climber.  Do not attempt this if you have no prior climbing experience.

The steep part of the hill was about forty-five degrees.  It was steep.

The slope

This is where the social trail went

The view of the valley was stunning

The near vertical rock climb

Looking down at the pool at the base of Fairy Falls.  Notice how little the people are.  They look like ants.  There were more people than show in the picture.  There were people hidden by the green hillside.

Once we cleared the rock climb, we had to bushwhack across the top of the plateau in the direction of the creek.  As we got closer, we began to hear rushing water.  We were very close.  When we got to the location, it seemed the best approach was from the east, so we crossed the creek and descended into the small canyon where Upper Fairy Falls resides.  It did not disappoint.

The first view of Upper Fairy Falls

Once we were there, we decided first to go see the brink of Fairy Falls.  It is a 150 foot dropoff.  I will admit that peering over the edge, even though we laid down on the rock and inched our way toward the cliff, was at the same time exhilarating and terrifying.  I would do it again.  It was obvious we were not the first people to have done so.

When we had exhausted our curiosity about the brink of Fairy Falls, we went back and hung out at Upper Fairy Falls for a half an hour or so.  It was just too pretty to leave.  I noticed something white and manmade at the bottom of the falls, though.  I sent the boys over to retrieve it and it turned out to be a bottle of Axe body wash.  I almost instantly remembered a poem from my college days.  I can't remember the poem but the gist of it was a man climbing a hill he believed had never been seen by man before and reveling in the undisturbed nature of it and in the last stanza finds a broken mason jar lid on the ground.  I wish I could remember that poem.

So we took the Axe body wash and hiked it out and threw it away.  I wondered as we did so if it belonged to a backpacker who had left it there with the intent of coming back and bathing in the stream.  I'll never know, but there may be a stinky hiker out there somewhere now.

The contrast between the base of Fairy Falls and Upper Fairy Falls is striking.  The upper falls lie within a small canyon and because of that a micro climate has been formed.  It's almost a mini rainforest.  You don't really expect to see a lot of ferns in Yellowstone, but they were abundant here.  So were the wildflowers.

The brink of Fairy Falls

What Fairy Falls looks like from above

The actual brink

About ten feet upstream of the falls

Here'e Upper Fairy Falls from the base.  Beautiful 

Lewis Monkeyflowers were abundant

So were ferns 

I was there too

More monkeyflowers

Boys in their natural state

The micro-climate

Whenever possible, I like to photograph a waterfall from all sides, the base, the side and the brink.  We climbed out of the mini canyon and walked across the rock wall that formed the falls and found the brink of Upper Fairy Falls and I photographed it.

By this time, we had waterfall fever and the only prescription was finding more waterfalls.  The literature said there was one more waterfall upstream about a half mile.  The authors of the book called it Fairyslipper Falls because of the rare and beautiful and still elusive to me Calypso Orchid, AKA the Fairyslipper Orchid.  To date, Fairyslipper Falls is the only feature in Yellowstone named for the Calypso Orchid.  I missed the blooming window again this year, so I'll have to wait for another year to see one.  The quest continues.

As we hiked up the next canyon the half mile to Fairyslipper Falls, we noticed the entire canyon floor was boggy.  There were plenty of deadfall trees in the canyon so we were able to walk along them and keep our feet dry.  More importantly we didn't wish to disturb the wetland we found there.  The closer to Fairyslipper Falls we came, the more the bog turned into mini or micro springs feeding Fairy Creek.

We had hiked almost a half mile and were looking around for the waterfall.  We couldn't see it, nor could we hear it.  Then we came across a large rock barrier at the mouth of the canyon and decided it must be there.  As we hiked up, however, we couldn't see any falling water.  The creek did drop many feet in cascades though and I wondered if this was what they considered Fairyslipper Falls.

There were springs everywhere and one of them was about a foot wide and fell at least fifteen feet in a horsetail waterfall into Fairy Creek.  I wondered if this was Fairyslipper Falls.  I determined to press on to the barrier though just in case because I thought I remembered from the book that Fairyslipper Falls was a fifteen foot plunge.

When I arrived at the rock wall I didn't find any falling water, but I did find a natural spring ejecting at it's base which I determined to be the headwaters of Fairy Creek.  I wondered if Fairy Creek was like the Little Lost River and the Big Lost River in Idaho, which is an active river during the spring but after the snowmelt is exhausted, the river isn't robust enough to overcome the porosity of the soil and sinks into the desert only to spout from the cliffs a hundred miles further in Shoshone Canyon.

At the right of the rock wall was a telltale pool and a stream channel but no waterfall.  I began to piece together Fairyslipper Falls.

The Brink of Upper Fairy Falls

The unnamed canyon between Upper Fairy Falls and Fairy Falls, photographed from the brink of Upper Fairy Falls

Above Upper Fairy Falls.  Stuff like this was everywhere

Stuff like this was everywhere too

Wyoming Paintbrush, formerly known as Indian Paintbrush

The bog between Upper Fairy Falls and Fairyslipper Falls.  the deadfalls were our path

At first I thought this was an orchid (there are seventeen native orchids in Yellowstone)
But after researching, I discovered it is a bog wintergreen.  So named  because it keeps
it's green foliage all throughout the winter

More of this stuff

Boys and high places.  It's like a magnet to them.  I was a boy once

There should be a waterfall here but there's not

Seeps and springs like this abounded though

micro waterfall, was this the elusive Fairyslipper Falls?

Part of the cascades that ran from the rock face down fifty or so yards.  Was this the elusive Fairyslipper Falls?

A spring ejecting from the base of the cliff

The telltale pool

Another spring.  They were everywhere here.

Boys in their natural state.  Pretty sure I'll get in trouble when the Hot Chick sees this one.

I climbed around the rock face after my boys did and found a dry creek bed.  I followed it down to the rock face and found a dry waterfall at the spot just above the telltale pool.  The mystery of Fairyslipper Falls was solved.  Fairyslipper Falls is a temporary falls.  I wanted to follow the dry creek bed back to see if there is an active stream that sinks into the ground like the Lost Rivers in Idaho but we didn't have time to do so.  I believe there is a small window of opportunity to see this waterfall, between the time the area is open after bear activity in the spring and when the creek dries up.

After I got back to the car, I looked up Fairyslipper Falls and found a picture of where it should have been.  The authors of the book didn't make mention of the fact that this is a temporary falls, which led me to the conclusion that I know something they don't!  They probably saw this waterfall early in the season and assumed since Fairy Falls is a permanent waterfall that Fairyslipper Falls must be as well.  The authors of the book make mention of many temporary falls in the park and so I don't think at the time of publication they didn't know.

The brink of the now dry Fairyslipper Falls

View from above.  Lewis Monkeyflowers in the foreground

The telltale pool from above

This whole canyon is a boggy seep full of springs feeding Fairy Creek.  The authors made reference to that

Those boys again

We headed back down the plateau, and while the climb up wasn't bad, the climb down was more dicey.  I mentioned I hadn't checked my facts before we left, rather I just went with what I thought I knew.  I let my pride get in the way and the climb down was kind of scary.  We made it which could give us a false sense of security, but rather, I know none of us were experienced enough rock climbers to make this descent.  We went very slow and picked each handhold and toehold very carefully.  I went first and stood below my sons at every point of the descent to ensure their safety.  I had to balance getting down in daylight with getting lost at night in bear country.  I chose getting down.  I would not choose this route again, at least not until I was a more experienced rock climber.  I do not recommend this route either.

Instead, wait until I find the easier, safer route later this year and I'll blog about that.  I purposely did not take any photos of this route because I don't want to show where it is.

We came down on the trail we went up on and when we reached the bottom, Fairy Falls was deserted.  We had it all to ourselves.  Some friendly hikers had left us a neat cairn though.

We hung out at Fairy Falls for a half an hour all to ourselves and waded in the pool.  Then we headed back to the car and went into Old Faithful for the obligatory Ice Cream.  On the way home, we decided to run over to Great Fountain Geyser to see if it was going to blow.  My app said it was due.  The App gives a plus or minus 2 hours for Great Fountain, and we caught the tail end of the eruption.  Just a little play in the cone, nothing more than ten feet.  Still, it was beautiful to see it in the sunset.  I have officially added "See Great Fountain Geyser erupt at sunset" to my bucket list.

Cairn left by friendly hikers

Fairy Falls with golden hour light

Geyser runoff near the trailhead

Great Fountain at sunset, tail end of the eruption

I had a great time with my two sons.  We love the outdoors and we love seeing new things.  I wish to find the easier route to Upper Fairy Falls, I wish to take the Hot Chick there.  I wish to see Fairyslipper Falls with water running off of it.  I wish to see Great Fountain erupt at dusk.  That's the problem with Yellowstone.  When you see something new and exciting it makes you hungry for more.

Nirvana!

July 2014: Yellowstone-Fairy Falls

The crew at Firehole Falls

The Sandwich:  We're the Bread
If you read my blog regularly, you'll know that my sister in law came to visit us for two weeks in June and July.  After her visit with us, she flew up to Seattle to see family and friends up there.  She also flew back to New York to pick up her two kids and brought them back to Seattle. Finally, she flew back to SLC where the Hot Chick picked her up.  Now they are back for another two weeks.  We are the bread of her sandwich vacation.  I'd have to say we're artisan bread, though.  We know how to show her a good time.

They arrived late Thursday night and I'm leaving for New York on Saturday.  I'll be gone for three weeks so I'll miss most of her stay.  It was important to me to take her and her boys on an excursion.  Our original plan was to go to the ghost town of Bannock, Montana, but the Hot Chick found out that they'd be setting up for Bannock Days today and we'd be in their way and they'd be in our way.  Bannock will have to wait.

I suggested Yellowstone since her youngest son has never been and her oldest was just three the last time he was here and has no recollection of visiting the park.  Because of a number of things, we decided to hit the southern portion of the park.  The pros for that part of the park today were:  1.  Her oldest son wanted to see Old Faithful.  2.  We were getting a late start and that part of the park is easy to get to.  3.  There is road construction between Norris and Mammoth with waits of up to half an hour.

The cons for that part of the park are and always will be:  1.  It's the heaviest used part of the park so there are a lot of people there.  2.  It's the heaviest used part of the park so there are a lot of people there.  I know I already said that, but it's okay because sometimes I repeat myself sometimes.

We planned to hike to Fairy Falls, one of our favorite hikes from years past, then see if there was time for another hike and ultimately end up in Old Faithful to see the geyser erupt and to eat Ice Cream.  Tradition being what it is and all.

Stage 1:  Getting There
I gave my sister in law the choice between possibly sitting for a half an hour in road construction or going the longer, slower scenic route.  I told her if we sat in road construction we'd probably arrive at Harriman State Park about the same time as we would if we went the pretty way.  We chose the pretty way.  Of course there are things to do on that road, so we stopped at Warm River to feed the fish.

There is a section of river at Warm River where the fish hang out for hand outs.  They grow extraordinarily large.  It also helps that this particular section of Warm River is off limits to fishing.  The fish seem to know that so they hang out there.  I've fed the fish at this spot for most of my life.  It's kind of fun.  We stopped in Ashton to get a loaf of bread to feed the fish.  I bought whole wheat so it would be better for them.  Actually I bought it because it was cheapest.  My intent was to give each person one slice of bread, let them break it up and throw it to the fish and then be on our way.  We'd have leftovers.  Problem was, the kids loved it so much that they kept asking for more bread until the loaf was exhausted.  It was a $2.65 well spent.  They had a blast.

Big fish in the shallows

Gull looking to steal some of that there bread

The boys having a good time

Big fish going after some bread

breaching

It was a sight to behold

After the fish, we decided on the spur of the moment to show the boys Lower Mesa Falls.  We've been to Mesa Falls several times already this year.  My sister in law and the Hot Chick wanted to show the boys where we climbed to back in June.

Lower Mesa Falls from the observation deck

The group, sans me

We stopped at Howard Springs because we always do and her kids had never seen it before.  There were some interesting butterflies hanging around there.  After the break, we headed into Yellowstone and had a picnic at 7 Mile Bridge picnic area.  When you travel with young kids, it takes awhile to get where you're going, and that's okay.  I'm much more of a journey traveler than a destination traveler I've discovered.

Cool butterfly at Howard Springs

Another cool butterfly at Howard Springs

Harebells at 7 Mile Bridge

Fire or beetle killed trees on the ridge at  7 Mile Bridge

The fam picnicking 

I believe this is either the Madison or the Firehole River at 7 Mile Bridge

We still weren't through getting there though.  For the first time this season, we drove around the Firehole Falls Drive.  We wanted to show the boys as much of the water effects in Yellowstone as we could in a short amount of time.  Those falls you can drive to.  We stopped for photos, and I photobombed some people and then they photobombed us.  Lots of fun.

We still had one stop to go before the hike.  Seems since we'd been seeing so much running and falling water, everyone needed to visit the 'room' before we hiked.  I found a place at Whiskey Flats picnic area and everyone took care of business.  There was a giant raven there so we had a photoshoot.  I like getting there as much as I like being there I've decided.

Firehole Falls

Getting photobombed

formally

Very large raven

Stage 2:  The Hike to Fairy Falls (Finally)
Fairy Falls used to be one of our very favorite hikes when we lived in the area in the mid eighties.  It was one of those hikes we would take guests on whenever they would come to visit.  My sister in law is ten years younger than the Hot Chick, so when we were newlyweds, she was quite young and would come every summer to spend a week with us.  She remembered the hike and was excited to do it again with her boys.

Back then, it was a little known trail and maybe you'd share the experience with one or two strangers and maybe you wouldn't.  Somewhere along the line a tourbook published something about this once secret hike and now it's one of the most popular and one of the most busy hikes in the park.  This trail sees a lot of traffic.  Ironically, because of the fires of 1988, the falls aren't nearly as pretty as they were prior.  There was a forest of douglas fir and lodgepole pine trees all around the falls on both sides of the embankment.  There was a mature lodgepole pine forest all along the trailbed so the trail was shaded most of the way.

Since 1988, the trees are gone so the cliff seems like a scar on the landscape and the site has become more and more popular.  Two strikes.  That being said, the waterfall is still beautiful and idyllic.  I just wish it was more like it used to be.  The problem is that the hike is too short and it's too easy.  If only it was a couple of miles longer and had five hundred feet of rigorous elevation gain it would be less popular.

We probably saw over thirty people enroute either to or from Fairy Falls on the trail today.  I imagine September would be a good month to take this hike again.  We live close enough to Yellowstone that we can be there in an hour and a half.  Most folks don't live that close.  September is a grand time to visit Yellowstone.  Less people and the weather is still nice.

Enough about that.  Let's talk about the trail.

The trail from the trailhead to the falls is 2.5 miles give or take a hundred yards or so.  The first mile is along the old stagecoach road that connected the inn at Fountain Flats with Old Faithful.  There is very little evidence anymore of the Inn at Fountain Flats.  Time has erased it pretty well.  There are still pot shards in the river though.

At about the one mile mark, the stagecoach road keeps on going toward Ojo Caliente spring and a spur trail to Fairy Falls breaks off to the left.  This part of the park was hit pretty hard by the North Fork Fire and there are precious few of the mature lodgepole pines left.  Instead, the fires re-seeded the forest and there are young trees everywhere.  There is also evidence of the fires all along the trail.  It's a sober reminder.  The trail is flat almost all the way except at the very end when it gains twenty or thirty feet of gentle elevation.

Fairy Falls is a combination falls.  For the first half it plunges off the cliff and the second half cascades down the face of the cliff.  It's quite a stunning waterfall, even without trees and with the extra bodies along the trail. I really enjoyed how we hiked to Osprey Falls.  I used the short lens that came with the camera for the way in and replaced it with the zoom for the way out.  General stuff first details second.  I think I may adopt this strategy.  It'll keep me from changing lenses every time I turn around.

The old stagecoach bridge that signals the start of the trail to Fairy Falls

Hot water running into the river.  This is why the river was named Firehole

One of many thermals that pour into the river

The old stagecoach road

We took a spur trail up to a vantage point to see Grand Prismatic Spring.  First time I've ever done this and the view was incredible.  Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest natural hot pool in the world.  You can't see it well enough from the boardwalk.  The only thing better would be a helicopter ride over it.

How steep and cumbersome the spur trail to the vantage point is.  Still pretty cool

The spur trail

The spur trail to Fairy Falls

The beginning of the trail

New forest replaces the old mature one

Dry crossing

Evidence of the fires of 1988 was everywhere

so were wildflowers

Boys on the trail

This used to be heavy forest

This used to be heavier forest

The white oxidization on the cliff face is the first indication of fairy Falls

My nephew

My two sons and other nephew

First look at Fairy Falls

Can't get enough of it

These two mountains are locally known as the Marilyn Monroe Mountains.  Well, that's what the trailguide said.

Looking up it seems mystic or fairylike

Dead trees, blue sky

Columbine

More columbine

Boys will be boys

Fire evidence

Purple penstemon

May be a type of orchid.  Yellowstone has sixteen or seventeen native orchids.
Who knew?

Columbian Monkshood.  One of the most poisonous plants in the Rocky Mountains

Yellow monkeyflower 

Lightning damage on a charred tree.  This feature spiraled down the tree.  This is
possibly an ignition source for one of the fires of 1988

Elephant head orchids

Another variety of penstemon

I like stuff like this

Not sure what this is.  Don't believe it's part of the nightshade family even though it resembles it

The Firehole River

Stage 3:  Old Faithful
My older nephew said the day wouldn't be complete without seeing Old Faithful.  Of course he was right. We drove in from the Fairy Falls trailhead and found the doomsday clock first to tell us when it would erupt again.  We had an hour.  We got the ice cream first and kicked around the world's largest log structure for awhile, then we hit a gift store or two.  Finally it was time to see the big boy erupt.  We made it with about five minutes to spare and saw a pretty nice eruption at dusk.  Just as Old Faithful was finishing, we looked across the valley and saw Beehive Geyser begin an impressive eruption.  It was taller than Old Faithful and longer in duration.  Beehive sometimes only erupts once a day.  It's intermittent and I believe this is the first time I ever saw it erupt.  Seeing it this close to Old Faithful is a once in a lifetime thing for someone like me. Park employees may see it more often, but this is a first for me.  It was awesome.  After that all that was left was the drive home.

Part of the Old Faithful Inn I've never noticed before

Same with this

Love the stone foundation

It was dusk

The eruption begins

Gets impressive

Gets upstaged by a more aggressive eruption of Beehive Geyser

Sunset over the Upper Geyser Basin

Epilogue:
Yellowstone is my Zen, my Nirvana, my happy place.  I never get tired of being there and I always seem to see something I've never seen before whenever I go.  I love to show the park to people who have never seen it before.  I love the look on their faces when they see something like this for the first time.  I am blessed.  Great day.