Trails near Alpine

Approximately three times a year, Leti and I embark on a hiking vacation. We dive into various and sundry mountain ranges and try to take it all in. For our summer vacation, we headed to Alpine, Wyoming, and we hiked around there. The wildflowers were in bloom everywhere we went. It was a lovely vacation. 

First stop was Periodic Springs. 

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1.5 miles. Elevation gain: 209 feet. Hiked July 20, 2022

This is one of our shorter hikes. And, the name of the Spring was not accurate at this time of year. Last year in July the Springs were periodic. This year, the springs were continuous. So, we hiked up to the springs, ate a snack, waiting to see if the water would slow. It didn't. So, we turned around and headed to our next adventure. It was a lovely 1.5 mile jaunt to discover that the springs were continuous. Ha! 

Strawberry Creek Trail to Strawberry Lake

6.4 miles. 1,384 feet elevation gain. Date hiked: July 20, 2022

The next hike we did was to a lake. The drive to the lake was terrible. I do not recommend the road - at all. We did see someone drive in as we started the hike, but that was the last human we saw. It was nice to be out hiking without our 100 closest friends. The bummer of this hike was the destination. It just wasn't that spectacular. 

A lovely view of a neighboring mountain from the trail. 

We started up the trail and it was hot. So hot. But, we had a lot of water, so off we went. We started out hiking along water. We also passed by a peak. It was a lovely view. The wildflowers were quite pretty. The trail was a bit steep. After three short miles, we got to the lake. One thing I liked about this lake and that I noticed on our other hikes is that bluebells really like water. They often line creeks. And, from a distance, you can see this. It really is quite beautiful. And common during our vacation. 

Me at the lake. Behind me in the picture is the bluebell lined stream that feeds the lake. So pretty.

After leaving the lake, we headed back down the mountain. I only fell once. It was a bit steep in that part. :) The trail was extremely dusty coming and going. And, after that horrible dirt road, I was not surprised that there were no people on this hike. Before we knew it, we were back to the car. Day 1 of the hiking vacation was in the books. 

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Some of the flowers from the hike. So, so pretty.

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Rock Lake Peak Trail

Leti from the saddle near Rock Lake Peak. 13 miles. 3,300 elevation gain. Hiked July 21, 2022

This name of this hike is kind of funny: Rock Lake Peak Trail. I am not sure why it isn't Rock Peak Lake Trail or Lake Rock Peak Trail, but it isn't. I digress. This trail started at the same place as the Continuous Periodic Spring. :) It becomes a bit steep right as you start up the mountain. And then, to my annoyance, it flattens out. Which is bad news because at some point the trail must go up. And up. And up. And up. Which is what happened. 

We hiked along this trail for a while and it was indeed flat. #lame Then, after we crossed a creek next to a random corral, we headed up a meadow. And we kept going up and up and up. 

This is one of a few meadows of flowers. We hit wildflower season at the peak. It was beautiful. 

As we hiked along, we came across a lot of water and a lot of snow. This is apparently a hike that you can't do much before we did. 

Leti made me get in this picture. I wanted to just take a picture of snow, but here I am with the snow. There was so much snow.

After we left the snow, we hiked across another gigantic meadow heading up to the peak. There was a lot of elevation, and there were a lot of wildflowers. It was rugged and beautiful. At this point, we thought we would go to the peak. It didn't look that far. 

As we kept going up, the peak started to come more into view. And, I started to be less inclined to hike it. It was daunting, in my opinion, and no real trail to the peak. We hiked on and made it to the ridge of the Rock Peak Lake trail. We took some pictures and ate some snacks. We enjoyed the absolutely beautiful views. And then, we decided not to hike the peak. This was a good decision considering our time and our water situation. I brought three liters of water and Leti brought about the same. But, it was hot and we were going through the water. We decided the peak would take us an extra two hours. And, we decided we didn't have time for that. So, we wisely headed back down the trail, never seeing Rock Lake. #lame

As we went down the trail, we noticed that we climbed a lot! This hike is not for the faint of heart. Also, this was an extremely dusty trail. When I showered, I had to scrub the dirt off my legs and feet. Mind  you, I was wearing long pants and wool socks, and the dust was caked to my legs. 

I loved seeing the wind in the meadows. It made the wildflowers wave to us. It was quite beautiful. 

In good news, I am not going into movie making. :) But, this is a short video of wind. It was much stronger before I took the video. :) 

Leti in a meadow of flowers. So lovely. 

We descended and descended and descended, and then the trail flattened out, and we still had a bit to go. But, we made it back to the car in one piece. It was a lovely hike in the mountains. 

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Phillips Pass/Ski Lake

 Length: 11.6 miles. Elevation gain: 3015 ft. Date hiked: July 22, 2022.

This trail was for our less intense day. We hiked 12 miles, but we only hit like 3,000 feet in elevation. See. Less intense. 

We started out on this hike, and I noticed that I had never seen such tall wildflowers. They were waist high, and in some spots, chin high. This is highly unusual. This hike also had at least 20 different wildflowers. We had wildflowers almost the entire way. Beautiful! 

Hard to tell from the picture, but these flowers are really tall! 

Leti in a patch of flowers. :) 

For our hike, we made it to a ridge and enjoyed the view. Then, we decided to explore. So, we took off on another trail and hiked to a ridge. And, we could kind of see the Tetons. So, we hiked back to our original ridge view. We decided to do a loop hike. This section of loop trail was entirely missing. Leti had the map downloaded on her phone, and she assured me many times that we were on the trail, but there was no trail to be on. 

Me, on the "trail". 

Me in a field of wildflowers! You can see why I gave the hike 5 hiking boots.

We hiked sans trail for about two miles, much of it through these intense fields of wildflowers. This caused Leti to blister. #boo But, the adventure of this was very cool minus the blistering. We scaled rock piles and wandered through various and sundry foresty areas when we weren't passing through fields of flowers. And, just when we needed a trail, one appeared! Yay!

We climbed up this little rock mountain. It made for a great picture. You can see the Tetons in the background. So, so pretty.

Leti at Ski Lake. It was a beautiful, blue lake. 

We hiked down the mountain and passed by the lake. The lake was really beauitful. Really blue and we think somewhat deep. And then, we kept hiking. We completed the loop and had about a mile left to our car. It was another great hiking adventure in the books.

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Mt. Wagner

9.1 Miles. 3,366 ft. elevation gain. Hiked July 23, 2022

When we started this hike, I didn't know quite what I was in for. We passed a nice little lake. We hiked through fields of wildflowers. We crossed snow banks. We saw dramatic views. Mt. Wagner was a real beauty. 

As we started up the trail, I was grateful that this trail wasn't flat for awhile. I prefer the trail to start ascending soon so that we don't have to climb so much in the end. It wasn't the steepest in the beginning, but it wasn't the flattest either. 

As mentioned, we passed by a tiny lake about a mile into the hike. Then, we headed up a meadow, and incidentally, up a lovely little stream. The stream was very mild, so we didn't really get our feet wet. Then, we went up a meadow, through a pine needly forest, and across a solid patch of snow (that had water running underneath it). We kept going up and crossed another patch of snow, and then we went up a very steep hillside. 

From there, we headed over to the lake at the base of Mt. Wagner. It was a very pretty lake. It did not disappoint. We ate a snack, and decided to hike up to the ridge. It was an extremely steep section of trail. We got to the ridge and decided not to go to the peak. There was no trail. #lame Going down what we had just come up required the use of a stick. Leti found us sticks, and we made the descent. It was intense! The pictures don't do it justice, but it really was steep. 

Me headed down the trail. A tad on the steep side. 

Me on the trail. It feels like I am going to go over an edge. Yikes! 

Leti's almost at the bottom of the trail. Still in need of a stick! :) 

After we hiked back down (I had ditched my backpack for the steep hillside climb), we reunited with my bag, and off we went down the trail. Leti had a large blister on her heel. I imagine it was quite painful. Luckily, downhill was a bit nicer than uphill. 

As you hike down, it is always interesting to see where you have been. Here's a little demonstration of that - in pictures. 

Leti on the snowbank. :)

The snow at the top of this ravine was the same snow Leti was standing on in the above picture. It is hard to get the scale here, but I was impressed with our hiking skills. 

We made it back down the mountain, admiring the flowers and beauty of the great outdoors as we went along. It was another successful hiking vacation in the books!