Hiking 101

I finally got out to do some hiking in this beautiful area.  On Tuesday I met up with the group of women I had been in touch with to do a 5 mile hike on the Continental Divide in Montana. The name of the group is the WOW's which stands for Wild Outdoor Woman. The group has a total of 130 women and 38 went on this hike. The wildflowers were in bloom and those in the know were teaching me about them. I met a woman through this hike who invited me to join her and a few friends on a more strenuous hike on Friday.  We went hiking in the Gallitan National Forest which is just outside the west area of Yellowstone.

Hiking here is a little different than I am use to and the altitudes do make it more difficult to breath . We went to a trail called Avalanche Lake. It was a 11 mile hike starting at 7300 feet and an increase of 2300 feet change in elevation. When we got into the hike we encountered a good amount of snow still at the higher elevations which made it interesting to find the trail, or should I say not find the trail. Due to the snow there was alot of runoff in the streams we had to cross which also made things interesting. As you can see from the pictures though it was a beautiful day and great hike and I could not have asked for better company.

I am glad that I went out of my way to find a group to hike with and it is going to make my summer here mush more adventurous.

Happy Trails,
Denise