Where’s Nico?

Okay, I probably could have used this title almost any week along this trip, in all fairness. This was the last song on the A side of the Talking Heads’ best selling album, Little Creatures. For those of you who don’t know what an A side is, you’re too young to be reading this blog. Go away – you make me feel old.

Also, the title of this blog references the Talking Heads song, not the Huey Lewis and the News song – I’m not a psycho.

Anyway, it was another great week on our road trip as we approach the midway point of the whole excursion. Last you and I chatted, we were hanging out by Palisades Reservoir at Bridger-Tetons National Forest, and just thankful that we weren’t hanging out underneath Palisades Reservoir. We did spend one more day in the area after that post, when we did a hike up to Palisades Lake. It was a nice hike with over 1200 feet of climb, and I wanted to mention it in here because it was the first time Nico did over ten miles in a single hike. I can’t get over what a toughie this little guy is! We narrowly missed seeing a moose at Palisades Lake according to the other hikers, but that didn’t diminish from the fun we had.

“Okay Ken… so you were at Bridger-Tetons for another day. But that doesn’t tell me what I really want to know, and the whole reason I go to wheresnico.com…. Just tell me, where is Nico???“

Okay, okay… be patient! The answer this week is…

Salmon-Challis National Forest in central Idaho!

But before we came out to Salmon-Challis, we spent a few days up in my favorite national park in the world, Yellowstone. Yellowstone is my favorite for three reasons: it has such an amazing selection of wildlife, it has great canyons and mountains, and it has absolutely insane geothermic features. I will say, as this trip has gone on, I’ve let my inner-Ted Kaczynski out a bit and I’ve come to really enjoy having trails and views to ourselves.

Ted Kaczynski mug shot

Me, after a previous trip into the wilderness

To that end, Yellowstone is, even now before the prime season there, unbelievably crowded, which did leave me excited to move on from Yellowstone once we were done.

When we first arrived at Yellowstone, we were greeted by four grizzlies.

Oops – wrong bears and wrong park. Here’s our welcoming committee.

We saw these guys from a safe distance and from within our truck – a much safer way to encounter bears. We also saw plenty of bison, pronghorns, mule deer and elk on the route. We set up camp at Mather Campground on the northern end of the park. For you NPS buffs, the campground named after the first National Park Service director, Stephen Mather.

For the more gullible, it’s named after child star Jerry Mathers of TV’s Leave It to Beaver.

It was the first time we had stayed at a campground since we were in California a month or so back. We have a real fondness for boondocking, where you have a lot more space to yourself. All the same, this was a very nice campground, and we saw a dozen or so elk walking on the hill in front of us later in the day.

Our first full day at Yellowstone was a rainy, cold one, so we spent it driving to some of the great overlooks at the park and doing short hikes (Nico isn’t allowed on hikes in the park so he hung out in the truck). The highlight was Norris Geyser Basin, where there are a couple of mile or so loops you can walk to see a wide array of mud pots, geysers, and hot springs with all kinds of colors.

Our second day was quite a bit warmer and sunny, so we headed north of the park to Gallatin National Forest in Montana. There we set out to hike a far less traveled path along Big Creek. I say less traveled, because the AllTrails reviews were limited and quite spread out. But it wasn’t completed untraveled – with the rain the day before, we were able to see fresh prints of elk, mule deer, and… mountain lions.

I will say, the mountain lion prints did give me pause (the dad in me would say “the paws gave me pause!”).

We didn’t see the mountain lion live and in person, which was okay by us. However, we did encounter a stream crossing about three miles into the trail that, with the snow melt, just wasn’t all that crossable with a chihuahua. It was maybe two feet deep or so, which isn’t that bad, but the current was pretty fast, so we didn’t feel safe even carrying Nico across it. In the end though, that gave us a great place to stop and eat lunch and take in the view before heading back.

The next day, we headed out to Salmon-Challis National Forest. Once again, we opted to stay at a campsite as opposed to boondocking, even though there were several boondocking spots available in the area. But this place, Cottonwood Recreation Site, only cost $5 a night for those with a National Parks pass and had city water we could connect to, which is a convenience that was worth the $5 to us! Also, we found a spot right next to the beautiful Salmon River. Our camp host is a guy named Jim who is very kind and swings by every day to chat for a couple of minutes. Here’s our front yard:

We’ve done two hikes in Salmon-Challis but they’re both worth talking about. The first was a bit north of our camp – Goldbug Hot Springs! The trail follows a nice creek, and I must admit, for a short hike, the last quarter mile or so to the hot springs was pretty steep, but it was totally worth it! At the top of the climb, there’s a waterfall with several hot springs on the sides. There were only two guys up there when we arrived, and we took a different hot spring that we had all to ourselves. The water was probably a bit over 100 degrees – it felt great and the view was terrific!

(please ignore the pasty white blob behind Nico…)

The second hike we did was Lower Cedar Creek Falls, about an hour south of our campsite. Both hikes are only around three miles or so, and both were very much worth it. This hike follows Cedar Creek up to a waterfall that doesn’t pour over a mountain – it comes out of the mountain. Pretty spectacular stuff!

Anyway, that’s probably enough for now. Happy to say it was another great week in this perfect world!

– Ken, 6/7/2024