Bunsen Peak Ascent - 8 October 2006

James and Gail Waldby

Four of the pictures show some of what you can see if you climb the trail up Bunsen Peak in fog, rain, and snow. The other pictures show two birds (probably sage grouse) that we saw, at probably around 8100' altitude.

Bunsen Peak is ~ 5 miles south of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. It rises to 8564 feet (2610 m) of altitude. The trail we took began near Glen Creek and Rustic Falls along the Mammoth-Norris road, at altitude ~ 7300'.

Click on thumbnail or short captions if you wish to see a larger image.

Cathedral Rock

This is the first view of Cathedral Rock from the trail. Higher on the trail, we looked down at the tops of these rocks.

View across Golden Gate Canyon

View across Golden Gate Canyon at perhaps 7500' altitude. Earlier in the hike we had excellent views of the bridge near Rustic Falls, the Hoodoos, and Mammoth Terrace.

Typical view at the top of Bunsen Peak, where I counted 14 antennas.

View to the north

Two grouse on the trail

Two grouse on the trail

Zoomed in closer

The grouse slowly walked ahead of us as we went up the trail.

Grouse

Grouse

Grouse

Note, the last picture was treated with gimp's "unsharp mask" because it was a bit blurry.