The following is an excerpt from a diary kept by the Goss family during their 3-day guided backpacking trip with Trail Guides Yellowstone. The entries were written by one of their children and they were gracious enough to share their experience with us.

8/21 – 8/22 Backpacking Day 1 (Olivia)

Day one of our backpacking trip! We set off a bit late and drove to the Fairy Falls Trailhead. We waited and waited, but we couldn’t see anyone who was our guide. We were starting to worry, and even the birds (ravens) had nested on our roof. “Donde Esta, Donde Esta Brian”, the kids sang with delight, to the tune from Pink Martini. Then dad said he saw a man but dad sounded shy. So I stuck my head out of the car window and waved enthusiastically at the first person I saw. Luckily it was Brian, our guide. He came over and shook hands with dad. They bonded quickly. We got our food and a run through of bear spray, our trip and safety. We set off, but Brian suddenly had to make sure his car was locked. Sound like anyone we know? I’ll give you a hint, it starts with R and rhymes with Mick. We started our walk at the Biscuit Basin. We first went to a waterfall called Mystic Falls. Then the hills came. There were switch backs but they were like (sharp zigzags) not gradual! After that struggle, we went to a lookout. Right as we were leaving, it started to rain. It rained and rained until finally it cleared up a bit. The good thing about the hill was that it was at the beginning and that was basically all of our steep up-hills for the rest of the trip.

The terrain turned to rolling hills. We finally passed the campsite before ours (OD1), and within a mile, we got to our campsite (OD2). 6 MILES that day!! We were in a forest on the edge of a huge meadow. It was beautiful. When we got to our spot, it was pretty warm and sunny. We set up our tent and soaked our feet in the cold stream. The weather started to turn ominously cloudy. We got our stuff in the tent and made a fire. Anthony made it and it was a “furnace”. Then we had spaghetti and meat sauce. It was really good! As soon as we got everything eaten and put away, the rain hit. Mom and I ran for the tent. We didn’t realize we had brought into the tent a scented hand sanitizer. We quickly forgot about it. Then Anthony was complaining about how much dad smelled, and so I helpfully offered the hand sanitizer. Dad had a ‘cow’ about us not being on the same page and that we shouldn’t have it in the tent. He brought it back to the camp area and returned, wet and cranky. We went to sleep soundly and tired and sore, and a bit wet. Brian told us that the weather was exceptionally bad. (frowny face). Did we bring Pacific NW weather with us? The rain poured and poured that night.

8/22 – 8/23 Backpacking Day 2 (Olivia)

We woke up leisurely to some clouds. Mom, Anthony and I had a game of Wizard. Anthony won. We weren’t exactly looking forward to the day when it started to drizzle. Some of us may have mentioned Hawaii. I don’t remember who though, but it started with “N” and rhymed with Lanette. The drizzle continued as we broke camp. It didn’t help our excitement that Brian told us the 2nd day was the hardest because we would be sore from day 1. We left around 11 a.m., and set off for the day, not knowing if Brian’s prophecy would come true or not.

As we started, the rain slowed, then stopped, which made us very happy. Hawaii was pushed to the middle of our minds. The terrain was somewhat rolling but there were only a few actual hills. We set off expecting the worst, but hoping for the best. We trusted Brian at this point, so we thought we were going to be sore and stiff. As we slogged along, we came to a road block. It was a tree that had fallen with multiple prongs. We asked him our mileage, and he said, “2 miles”. I thought we were dogging it, but we were in fact flying! Our next stop was at the top of one of the Twin Buttes. We had a lunch of bars and beef jerky. The view was incredible, the sky looked huge, and the trees were tall. The view was awesome, because we could see exactly where it was on the map, indicating how far we’d come – 5 miles! It felt like we’d only gone a few. Also, from the top, we could see our meadow-y destination. We felt hopeful, and admitted that we felt the 2nd day was not that hard. Brian was proud. 

We continued on to Fairy Falls, called that because of its dainty-like qualities. Even though it was thinner than most falls, I wouldn’t name it because of its daintiness. The falls were about a mile away from our destination, OD4. We threw our backpacks down and ran to the base of the falls. I was ahead of everyone else, and just as I got about 50 yards from the water, I skidded to a stop. From where I stood, I could see a cute little creature eating berries. I wasn’t sure what it was, and I didn’t want to call out because I was worried I would scare it. My family and Brian were slow-poking their way toward me. I mimed my predicament as best I could, and my dad hurried over. “Marmot” he whispered. The rest of our crew followed suit, and speedily came over. Anthony and I named him Jerry with a G. He was a fat little guy filling his gullet with currents. We tore our eyes away from Gerry to admire the falls. Two crazy young guys swam in the freezing water. I was “jealous”. As we turned to leave, Gerry was still there. We waved goodbye and got our packs on for the last stretch. Brian knew a shortcut. Instead of going on the trail, a very roundabout way, we cut right through the meadow to our spot, another sign of Brian’s expertise. Once we got to OD4, we went into auto-pilot mode. Brian and I filled the water filter, involving slogging through 2 inches of muddy grass water. Anthony and I built the fire, which rocked, if I do say so myself.

Mom sat with Dad on a log, until Mom shouted out with glee. “2 Bison”! We all froze what we were doing, and snapped our heads to look. Far to our left, 2 bison were chomping along. Specks of Dust, but the coolest thing we’d seen yet. They sauntered around, eating grass in a wide circle. One of them disappeared into the forest, and the 2nd kept circling…. was he coming towards us? Out of everywhere in the meadow, (it munched its way into our camp area, flicking its tongue as a sensor and not being too alarmed), picked 3 feet from our tent to stand by. Brian said that hopefully he would move on. It (Fred or Ferdinand) promptly lied down. The only thing we could do was watch it and eat dinner. We had an assortment of rice and chicken. Then for dessert, we had raspberry stuff with cookie crumble on top. Once mixed, it looked a lot like bear poop. When we asked Brian his favorite freeze dried dessert he said it was definitely ‘bear poop”. It was delicious. After we ate, Brian and Dad got up to try to move our tent, since Fred had not moved. As they got closer, Fred stood up abruptly and stared at them. They backed away. Then Fred, already standing, continued to eat in a wide area, before entering the forest. Bye Fred: We turned away sadly, and to our delight, we saw a herd of elk across the meadow. Two males and a ton of females, and a few babies who were playing tag. There were at least 20 or so of them! After all this excitement, we finally went to bed. We woke up with spirits sky high because we knew we were on the home stretch and we could almost say we had completed a back-packing trip. 7 miles to go!

8/23 – 8/24 Backpacking Day 3 (Anthony)

We left our campsite tired but determined. OD4 had treated us to a mix of scenery and wildlife. We will never forget the sights, but it was time to go home. After a delicious breakfast of granola and blueberries, another example of our guide Brian’s fine culinary choices for the trip, ominous clouds rolled in and a fierce wind arose, signaling it was time to move on. Naturally we wanted to complete our seven mile hike as quickly as possible. Our three day backpacking adventure had been a trip to remember, but we were all stinky and the thought of a shower was somewhat holy at this point. We put on our packs, grateful that our bodies had gotten used to the weight and headed off on a roundabout trail to our car. Along the way, we stopped at the Grand Prismatic. It was a thermal spring, recommended to us by many people and it didn’t disappoint. Grand Prismatic was more than a spring. It was an incredible circular pool, deep blue in the middle with the colors of the rainbow encircling it with various types of rock. We hiked up a butte, about 200 feet, to get a better view of the spring. We continued on, stopping for lunch near the parking lot of the place where we initially met Brian, Fairy Falls trailhead. The view was nice and the geyser was cool, but all we wanted was to return to civilization. Our final home stretch was on a delightfully scenic route called the power line trail. The walk was in a nice wooded area and you only realized why the trail had its name, if you looked up and saw the thick, black cords streaming overhead.

Finally, we walked up to our car as the first rain we'd had since Day 1 started trickling down. We said goodbye to Brian, our old guide and new friend, and we drove for cell service. We checked in at a Super 8 and ate at a local restaurant in Cooke City, Montana. The food, heating and sight of other people reminded us it was good to be back where we could poop in a toilet. As we fell asleep, we all shared thoughts….. “Ahhhhh”.