Hoback Shield

We were reluctant to leave the Grand Tetons, but recognized that we wouldn't be finding much in the way of sport climbing if we remained there.  

The next day we leaved the awesome majesty of the rugged mountain range and headed south to Jackson Hole.  We needed to stock up on a few supplies, so we stopped at the grocery store.  Before heading in Joey and I sat in the cabin of the van and made a list of the usual items we needed to continue our journey.  We needed some bagels, carrots, cheese, apples, and OUCH!

I arched my back in electric shock!  OUCH OUCH OUCH!  My back was in so much pain!  I started swatting my back and encountered this fellow.

While minding my own business in the van, a bee stung my back.  What business did the bee have in the van?  I showed no remorse at his demise.  

The Grand Tetons

Driving into the Grand Teton National Park the next day, we were greeted with haze.  

The mountains are obscured by smoke from fires in Idaho.

We stopped at the Lodge for some coffee and internet - we wanted to get some more information on some of the climbs in the area.  At the Grand Tetons, we also noticed there was a 'Climber's Ranch' operated by the American Alipine Club.  We decided to go check it out.  

The climber's ranch is a little haven tucked into the mountains for mountaineers and climbers.  It is a dorm style ranch that has a nice picnic area, showers, laundry, and small bouldering wall.  The ranch is open to the public, they often have families stay there, but the rates are discounted for AAC members.  Naturally, we decided to join the AAC! 

New AAC member!

Yellowstone

We entered Yellowstone from the northeast.  Before getting to any geologic features, a valley filled with buffalo greeted us.  Adrianne was excited to see buffalo for the first time.  

Even though we weren't in eastern New York, seeing buffalo reminded me of this unique grammatically correct sentence, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.  

We toured the falls of the grand canyon of the Yellowstone, zooming down and up the trail.  Calling in a reservation for a campsite from the visitor center, we continued touring.   

We visited the Norris hot springs area, with all sorts of belching and churning steam holes and some small geysers.  Before heading to camp, we made a quick stop at the paint pots to see some bubbling muddy paste.  Geology is wild.

Beartooth Pass

After a weekend of fun in Oklahoma, full of fun times with friends and some cowboy hat sightings, we returned to Billings. 

We had to restock on our supplies and get the van ready to go for the next leg of our trip.  We were headed south, to Yellowstone, and on to Colorado. 

In Montana, even the food has awesome sports on it. 

We saw some other bread with rock climbers on it. :)

The campsite host we had met the previous week recommended a scenic route to Yellowstone through Beartooth pass.  We made our way in that direction, and camped in national forest land just south of Red Lodge, MT.   We were happy to be on the road again.  We busted out our bikes and rode around some of the trails by the camp, and hung around in the hammock. 

We camped down by the river, as usual. 

I love the hammock.

Great campsite at the bottom of the mountains, our bikes are off the top of the van resting after a ride.

Allenspur

Allenspur is an idyllic climbing location.  It is on BLM land only accessed by cutting through a farm pasture. The land is on some limestone cliffs on the edge of a river valley south of Livingston, MT.   The climbing area was bordered by a farmstead with classic red buildings with white trim. 

Photo of the valley from moutainproject.com

We were excited for a full day of climbing.  The rock at this location is limestone but it is extra exciting because of the pockets of dolomite crystals! 

Dolomite crystals mixed in with the limestone make for interesting climbing in Allenspur. 

Rattler's Gulch

On Monday, we headed out of Missoula.  Our goal was to spend the week climbing through Montana before catching a flight to Oklahoma on Thursday for our friend Rhiannon's wedding. 

We chose some climbing at a drive-up approach climbing area called Rattler's Gulch.  There were some cool blades of limestone sticking out of the ground, and we had the crag all to ourselves.  Adrianne was super tired and took a nap while I scouted out the climbs.  I was pretty excited after checking out the climbs, and couldn't wait to get started. 

 

The area was marked by limestone ribs sticking out of the mountainside. 

'Going to St. Louis' was a 5.9 route up the edge of one of the blades, so that's where we started.  It was pretty different than a lot of the climbing we had done, since it was essentially up the edge of a narrow spire - not on the face of a cliff.