Sevenmile Hole

Today John, Charlotte, and I hiked the Sevenmile Hole trail, a ten mile out and back in the Canyon area. The trail began along the forested rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and offered several amazing views of the colorful canyon from breaks in the trees. We continued in this forested area for the first three miles or so, before reaching the Sevenmile Hole spur trail.

A view from a break in the forest

Another nice view of the canyon

Silver Cord Cascade across the canyon

We took this trail, which continued through the fairly level wooded area for another half mile before beginning to switchback sharply downward into the Canyon. Along the way, we saw a large dormant geyser to the side of the trail. We switchbacked for at least a mile before we found ourselves hiking down a steep volcanic area, covered in white sand and dirt.

The dormant geyser along the trail

The trail down into the volcanic area

The canyon in view from the volcanic area

We hiked through that area into a wooded area with several small meadows before finally reaching the bottom, where we were level with the river at the bottom of the canyon. It was a beautiful place – the canyon walls rose up in front of us with red and yellow hues. The green water rushed past us, roaring and full of white rapids.

The lovely colors of the canyon

Me, Charlotte, John

We rested next to the river for about 45 minutes before beginning the arduous ascent up the canyon. We climbed about 1,400 feet in under two miles, and we definitely felt it. Many sections of trail were in the open, with the sun blazing on top of us. Most of the trail us was incredibly steep. Somehow, we made it up the trail quicker than we had gone down (I think it’s harder to go down steep sections because it is hard on my knees).

From the top, we hiked back out of the woods the same way we came in. We noticed storm clouds in the distance and heard thunder, so we hurried to finish hiking before getting rained and stormed on. We just barely made it to the truck when it started raining. We really couldn’t have timed our finish any better. All in all, it was a beautiful hike, and I really enjoyed the steep ascent from the canyon. After hiking over 150 miles so far this summer, it feels good to be able to cruise up steep trails like the one we hiked today. Hikes like these will put me into great shape for some longer, steeper hikes later on this summer.