Heart Six Pack Trips Marston Pass, Woodard Canyon, Yellowstone River, Yount’s Peak

04 Jan Heart Six Pack Trips Marston Pass, Woodard Canyon, Yellowstone River, Yount’s Peak

Cont’d  Heart Six Pack Trips continue past Crater Lake and up around a 1000 foot climb to the top of the world on the Continental Divide. I had on a Garmin Watch with full GPS capabilities that allowed for me to record on a map the elevation and time it took for me to travel and we ended up at around 10200 feet amongst glaciers.  The springtime flowers from April and May in the lower valleys were just blooming and had just enough time to reseed themselves for the next year.  The most fantastic was the Indian Paintbrush.  I wondered to myself, but was to tired to do anything about it what could be found in the massive melt off of the glaciers on top of the mountains?  We continued along and took a turn to the North towards Woodard Canyon.  Woodard Canyon leads down from Marston’s Pass and into the Yellowstone River.  I need to back up some because Woodard Canyon keeps going down in elevation for several thousand feet and has waterfalls coming off of cliff faces of a thousand feet in some places.  It is absolutely beautiful and again full of Elk and Mule Deer.  Most people say they want to see wolves, but trust me you really do not want to see them 25 miles into the Bridger-Teton Wilderness on a Heart Six Pack Trip.  I was carrying a vaquero ruger 44 but after this trip I bought Glock 20. Woodard Canyon is also really cool because it was not logged like the rest of the West so your run into some huge trees and you can also see caves and tell that for thousands of years people used this pass and stayed in the caves due to the fact that there are marks on the openings from smoke.  The other challenge is that when a tree falls down you have to use a hand saw or go around the tree because you are in the Wilderness and through Congressional Legislation this area does not allow one to use chainsaws or other combustion engines.  So, if you have no other choice you have to saw the log out of the way.  Heart Six Pack Trips is cont’d