Hiking In Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park was founded in 1872, as the foundation of our National Park System. It was the first place that our national leaders felt compelled to preserve for all future generations of Americans. Yellowstone was so beautiful that it felt necessary to set it aside, and keep it natural. 150 years later, the park is celebrating its storied history as a bedrock of our Public Lands.

Although many of the more popular attractions like the Grand Prismatic Pools and “Old Faithful” were less then overwhelming, largely due to the enormous crowds of slow walkers and lack of social awareness, we found a walk, up to the peak of Mount Washburn to be just the remedy. Now don’t get me wrong, you’re not escaping the crowds on this hike, and you’ll see plenty of other people along the way, there are moments of solitude where you feel like you are the only one on the mountain. The roundtrip hike takes about 3-4 hours and lasts just around 6-7 miles from top to bottom and back again. The terrain covers about 1,300 feet of elevation gain and loss, however, it’s accessible to the average hiker.

The one thing we would have changed about our trip up Mount Washburn and back was we should have left earlier in the morning for the trailhead to beat some of the crowd. Heading up at 10:30am or so put us smack dab in the middle of most of the hikers.