The Grand (Mis)Adventure: Day 7 – Backpacking through Lone Star Geyser Basin & Travels Home

“The Grand (Mis)Adventure” is a blog series chronicling my fourteen-day-turned-seven-day adventure in July 2025 through the rugged, awe-inspiring northwestern corner of Wyoming. From hiking and backpacking along the Continental Divide to paddle boarding on alpine lakes and camping under the stars, I’ll be sharing the highs, challenges, and misadventures from my summer vacation that didn’t go quite as planned.

July 19, 2025

Restless since 5am, I finally packed up camp, gathered my last items from around the campsite, gulped down a Snickers, and headed out of camp… alone. For the first time in days, I could be me. I sang little songs for the bears, marveled in the early morning mist and dew (shoes were soaked about in about fifty feet after leaving the campsite!), and geeked out about all sorts of things.

Though my permit had me staying at the backcountry campsite OA2 Upper Firehole on this night, I would instead be hiking out 9.5 miles to Lone Star Trailhead. My car was nearly seven miles down the road at DeLacy Creek Trailhead (as the exit trailhead on the planned itinerary was Divide Trailhead, only 2.5 miles from DeLacy Creek), but that was a problem for Future Heidi to conquer. Right now it was just this worn-in singletrack of the CDT (Continental Divide National Scenic Trail), my lonesome thoughts, and the quietness of Yellowstone’s backcountry.

I was smiling, giggling, and cruising, despite my 33-pound backpack. Around 2.5 miles into my hike, I saw fellow humans for the first time in 48 hours (not including backpacking company)!! I called out, mostly so I wouldn’t get bear sprayed, and waited while the gal on the makeshift log bridge over the Firehole River crossed. I think caught her face, and realized it was Sara Walks A Lot!! I’ve been following her attempt of the Great Western Loop (a nearly 7000-mile loop of the Pacific Crest Trail, Pacific Northwest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Grand Enchantment Trail, Arizona Trail, and a trail-less segment through the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts) on YouTube. Holy crap, I cannot believe I ran into her! I knew I was visiting at the start of the CDT thru-hiker bubble, but what are the chances?! Frizbee, Sara, and I chatted and snapped some photos together before parting ways.

*insert excited noises here!

Energized by my chance encounter, I had pep in my step as I continued cruising along in the beautiful forest of the Shoshone Lake Trail/CDT. I knew my pace was uncharacteristically fast (for me) for backpacking, but I was feeling good and motivated. It helps that the trail is mostly downhill all the way!

The lush lodgepole pine forest eventually gave way to meadows (biting horseflies included) and drier terrain, with an occasional steaming thermal feature spotted here and there.

Lone Star Geyser Basin is one of the smallest geyser basins of Yellowstone, and is located south of the Upper Geyser Basin. It comprises only a few geysers and a few pools of size, and is spread along the Firehole River for about 1.5 miles. Not as deathy as my walk through Shoshone Geyser Basin the previous day, it is still important to watch the trail through this area (a few weeks after my visit a teen was badly burned in this geyser basin).

Just a bit out from Lone Star Geyser I parted ways with the CDT, as it heads off along the Howard Eaton Trail to the Old Faithful area. I would turn right on the Lone Star Geyser Trail, and take that to the trailhead.

Lone Star Geyser is a beautiful backcountry geyser that loosely erupts every three hours. The National Park Service does not issue predictions for it, but there is a log book at the geyser (and at least during my visit in 2021, at the trailhead… I didn’t check for it on this trip) where visitors record eruption times. With my shoulders screaming from hours of hauling butt with my heavy pack, I dumped the pack before checking the register. I saw it had erupted shortly before I arrived. I did not want to wait around the three-ish hours for an eruption, so I strapped the pack back on and set out for the trailhead. (I had seen Lone Star erupt in 2021!)

Shortly after leaving Lone Star Geyser the trail turns to a crumbling paved road, open to both pedestrians and bicyclists. While it made the hiking easy, there is something to be said about how much paved walks hurt the feet. By now my endophins of the morning hike had worn off, and the realities of figuring out how I would get back to my car started weighing on me.

Hitting the Lone Star Trailhead was a relief, but I felt like my day had just begun! I did the 9.4 miles from camp in three and a half hours, which was a crazy pace for me, especially with my pack! I was sore, I was hungry, and I just wanted to be at my car. I remembered that Kepler Cascades practically shares the trailhead with Lone Star, and that is a more popular area with higher traffic.

Trip details (all data recorded on Garmin Enduro 3):

• Mileage: 9.41 miles
• Elevation gain: 531 feet
• Time: 3 hours 34 minutes
• Start: 8R5 Basin Bay Point backcountry campsite
• End: Lone Star Trailhead

Okay y’all, like most 40-something year olds, I grew up with messaging not to hitchhike. Very fair advice. But what choice did I have? Isn’t it the thru-hiker way? My lack of confidence showed through, as the first three cars to pass by gave me strange looks as I stood there with my thumb timidly stuck out. Then I was directly towards the most glorious sight in the parking lot: a park ranger!

Overcome with emotion, I burst out crying when the ranger said he could give me a ride (but only after calling me in as “a distress hiker just out of the backcountry” to dispatch). The ranger was an amazing guy, and he filled me in on his thru-hike plans and instructed me to go home, regroup, and return to do Cirque of the Towers. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of my Subaru Forester. The ranger gave me a hearty handshake, and had me swear I was okay before he drove away.

I had already cancelled my Seven Mile Hole backcountry permit before embarking on the misadventure to Shoshone Lake, but I had played around with the idea of still doing Cirque of the Towers in the Wind Rivers on the way home. Now that I was back to my car, I realized I was exhausted (physically and emotionally) and just wanted nothing more than to head home to Laramie. First staying in Yellowstone, I would have to try to secure camping on a Saturday night… in July… in Yellowstone, which I wasn’t too hopeful for (I had a campsite reserved for Sunday night at Lewis Lake). While I had plenty of food, camping gear, and all that good stuff, and would’ve loved spending a day geeking out at Norris Geyser Basin, the logistics seemed overwhelming. I could’ve moved my car to Lone Star Trailhead, and walked back three miles to my backcountry campsite for the night, but that did not appeal to me in the least.

So to Grant Village I headed to use my shower punch card (but not before stopping for a mother and daughter with a flat tire that was waving down traffic… paying back the karma after my own situation earlier!). The shower felt amazing! After grabbing a grilled chicken sandwich from the grille, I turned my car south and towards home. The great thing is I could stop at Moose Falls, which I missed on the way in due to… the misadventure situation… and also at the entrance sign to see my favorite tree that leans over the Snake River. A smile came back as I enjoyed a few of my favorite Yellowstone things before departing.

Was this the two week summer trip I was eager for? Hell no. But there were still many good things I am holding onto, like surviving backpacking in grizzly country, seeing new geyser basins, and running into Sara! I also got to experience new things in Grand Teton National Park, which is a park I definitely need to pay more attention to. And it turns out… my heavy backpack + my pace + first time backpacking in trail running shoes caused a nasty case of retrocalcaneal bursitis in my right heel (which means Cirque of the Towers would not have been a pleasant experience if I had attempted it!). One week was enough!

For more information on backpacking in Yellowstone National Park, please check out their official webpage which will have all the details on permits and regulations.