By ROBERT PAHRE
Last summer, my eldest son and I decided to go to Yellowstone for our annual backpacking trip. After picking up our permits at the South Boundary ranger station, we began our trip by fording the Snake River. A small group of mule deer greeted us on the other side.
After passing some backcountry hot springs, we left the Snake River behind for a walk through the woods. The forest was alive with both wildflowers and mosquitoes, with dappled light showing through the trees.
After rejoining the Snake River, we cooked our lunch — toasted chipotle-cumin quinoa tortilla wraps — and watched osprey cruise above the river.
After lunch, we explored some nearby hot springs. One of them had the greatest variety of algae colors and textures that I've ever seen in Yellowstone, and another was fizzing like a soft drink. The features in this area tended toward a deep green-blue in color, and it was nice to have them all to ourselves.
Dinner was a Thai green curry with salmon and rice. A margarita chilled in the river didn't get as cold as we had hoped but went well with the curry anyway.
After a good night's sleep, we had a lazy morning. While packing up breakfast (eggs and breakfast potatoes with cumin), we saw a garter snake swim across the Snake River.
The day's hike took us above Red Creek, which forms a small canyon here. Farther on, we were surprised by frogs at several places where a trickle of water crossed the trail. After a lunch of pitas with tuna, capers, olives, tomatoes and basil, we hiked on to a wide, open basin. We would follow the well-named Basin Creek to our campsite for the night — an open field overlooking Overlook Mountain.
There, we enjoyed a martini with olive garnish before eating a salmon pasta with pesto.
At this point, you may be wondering how we handled food on this trip. We used ingredients that can last five days without refrigeration, like rice and pasta. Backpackers also rely on just-add-water items like sun-dried tomatoes, dried coconut milk and egg crystals. Fish in foil packets, tomato paste and spices are also key ingredients. In some cases, we just resigned ourselves to heavy food items like cheese, potatoes and avocados. Our mixed drinks were an indulgence for the first two dinners.
Of course, those ingredients can attract bears. Yellowstone's backcountry campsites all have strong log poles at least 12 feet off the ground, long enough so that you can hang food more than 4 feet from the supports (which are usually trees). All trash gets double-bagged in Ziploc bags to reduce smells, and you cook at least 100 yards from where you sleep. We also wash up meticulously to keep food smells off our hands and faces.
Those precautions made possible our next breakfast — croissants with avocado, scrambled eggs and chiles. That proved to be our messiest meal, and we made a point of leaving the campsite clean.
The day's hike took us through a forest that had somehow escaped the 1988 fires in this area. Heart Lake would be our home for the next two nights, a luxury destination in Yellowstone's backcountry. Our campsite had a composting pit toilet — with no smells, but also no walls or seat.
The campsite was popular with wildlife, including many birds, squirrels, chipmunks, mule deer and a beaver. We had a beautiful view of a sunrise across the lake each morning and could watch the sun set behind Mount Sheridan at night. Our local beaver came out and swam in front of us after dinner.
Mount Sheridan was our destination the next day — about a 9-mile round trip and almost a 3,000-foot climb. We had the entire trail to ourselves and great weather. We could see much of Yellowstone, as well as the Grand Tetons and parts of Jackson Hole.
When we got back to camp, we met a ranger who had just inspected our site. We were happy to learn that we had successfully followed all the bear-safety rules.
Dinner that night was couscous with salmon in a sauce with a sun-dried tomato base. After dinner, we went down to the lake for sunset and a visit with the local beaver and ospreys.
We hiked out the next day through the Witch Creek and Factory Hill thermal areas. This is an attractive thermal area comparable to some of the drive-up sites in the park. Like almost all of our trip, we had it all to ourselves. The final few miles of our expedition were mostly wetlands with a lot of mosquitoes — we kept a brisk pace and reached the trailhead before our pickup time.
Hungry, we went off for an unhealthy lunch. In short, the experience was everything you'd want a backpacking trip to be.
Robert Pahre teaches political science at the University of Illinois and regularly takes students to national parks in the summer.
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