Got out for a few days. Originally planned for 4 days, but Monday's weather was nasty and Friday was supposed to get snow and 50 mph winds, so we cut out part of the route and did 3. We got snowed/sleeted on the first night and woke to a completely glazed over tent. Super fun to clean up before packing up.

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful beside winds picking up as the trip went on. We saw plenty of wildlife. Moose, elk, owls, bats, pika, a salamander. Someone supposedly saw a wolf there recently. Below is a very fresh mtn goat kill we found up on the ridge line.

We didn't see more than a few people the whole time, but that didn't keep us from having to put out someone's still very alive bed of coals at their campsite. They could've easily taken the 5 minutes to do it as they were less than 100 feet from water. Extremely annoying.

Good trip otherwise. The fall colors were really starting to pop.

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[–] miles@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looks nice, great pics! Love hearing about the weather and wildlife, how do salamanders survive up there? How’d you hear about the wolf sighting? Sad to hear about the fire but it’s all too common.

[–] hombre_fundido@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks. I believe the salamanders burrow under mud and go into a sort of torpor. There are a ton of meadows and marshes. It seems like the area supports a large variety of wildlife.

My SO read about the wolf sighting. We weren't too far from Wyoming, which could explain it. I'm not sure of they've done it yet, but the state was planning on releasing some wolves as well.

Sad to hear about the fire but it’s all too common.

Yes, definitely. UC Boulder did a study and found that 84% of wildfires are human-caused. Nuts.