The Rolling Yellowstones

Team 35b, better known as The Rolling Yellowstones, is the only group out this week. This is the project's first group to head to a National Park (not to mention out of New Mexico), and with a pair of team members that often work for Yellowstone on board, they're enjoying a stay at the staff cabins tonight. They'll be hitting the trail tomorrow morning, hiking southeast from Old Faithful to the west end of Shoshone Lake. All told their section will cover roughly 20 miles of the actual CDT, allowing plenty of time to check out other parts of the park.

This stretch of trail is fairly well-traveled and runs through some of the more active parts of the park. The Upper Geyser Basin (home to Old Faithful, captured with gawkers in this 1972 park photo) is a classic slice of Americana and boasts the largest concentration of geysers in the world. About mid-hike the team will find the West Thumb Geyser Basin, a spot near Yellowstone Lake packed with more hydrothermal activity/photo ops.

The park has produced and posted several online informational videos, and one epsiode in particular gives a nod to the Continental Divide. Check out Park Ranger Beth Taylor's Inside Yellowstone for more of what The Rolling Yellowstones have to look forward to.