Full Moon Hike

On my day off 2 weeks ago (late update), which is only one day now, I went on a hike up Mt. Washburn again. This was the same hike as my first in Yellowstone, except that this time it was on a different trail and was at night, it is also officially titled as a ‘full moon hike’. Tommy drove us in his car, who is from Hong Kong, with 6 other people at around 6.30 in order to reach the trail end at sunset. Tommy also managed to hit an elk later on in the week, as it dashed across the road at a terribly unlucky time and ended up flipping over the front, smashing the top of his windscreen and  lying on top of the roof. This was to the sound of many screams, all under the blanket of darkness. Seconds after it jumped off and walked casually away, surprisingly alive.  I was not in his car this night thankfully. 

Anyway, back to the hike – We aimed to reach the top, where a forest fire lookout station sits, right before the sun was to set. We were slightly slow, so in a final adrenaline rush I ran to the peak to witness the surreal spectacle of the sun lowering at one side of the horizon as the full moon rose on the other. We also saw a coyote dash across the trail with some furry brown animal gripped in its mouth, reminding me somewhat of my dog Archie when he finds a bone or soft toy. And at the top in the lookout station we had an Asian noodle party (which I have been a part of many since my time here), with many sprawled packets of instant noodles finding themselves eventually in a boiling pot. It is quite an amusing sight to watch all this with a plug in hot spoon to boil the water and everyone rushing around to cook and eat before the closing of the station. On the way down we were under the bright reflection of the sun, the moons shadows were stark and ghostly. For as far as the eye could see there was nothing, only some small cars lacing between the forests and some pale yellow glow which we picked out as Canyon village.