Operation Yellowstone Ranger: Accidental Mountain Climb

Oh. My.
Devaney and I have had such amazing adventures in the last 2 days. Attempting to fully give the events justice seems a very daunting task. But, I shall attempt this endeavor.
After Devaney arrives on Saturday, we had coffee, yummy food and jumped in the car. From there we went to Trout Lake in the Lamar Valley to observe trout swimming upstream to spawn. The walk was beautiful! We only saw one trout swimming upstream, but we were super pumped about it.
We did end up seeing a river otter. SO CUTE!!!!!
From there we went to Old Faithful. I don't want to talk about it.
After that we went to Midway Geyser Basin. At this point, it was still snowing. As a result, steam was pouring everywhere. At the peak of steam and wind blowing around us so that we could not see anything, we were in the middle of the board walk surrounded by hot springs. Devaney was not happy, but we persevered. I think this was a literal precursor to the following day's events...
For dinner we went into town and ate with Lloyd and Amanda at the Two Bit. Yummy. After the delicious food, we went back to Mammoth and played Settlers of Catan with Lloyd until around 2am. Yeah. That happened. Also, during this time, Lloyd suggested this longer hike called Sepulcher. Without thinking, we concluded that this would be the hike we would undergo the next day. If only we had known...
The next day, Devaney and I took our time getting. We sauntered into Gardiner, grabbed some grub and groceries for a delectable dinner and then headed for our hike.
About 1/3 of the way into our hike, we began to notice a trend. The trend can be best described as: uphill. Serious inclines. Curious, we sat down to rest and looked through our hiking book. It was at this moment that we realized Sepulcher was a mountain. And that this trail was 3,400 ft climb. I believe Devaney's exact words at this moment were "Why does Lloyd hate us?"
The rest of our hike was the exact same. Beautiful. Intriguing. Breathtaking. But up. And up. And up. Up. Up. and more up.
Finally, we reached the summit. And suddenly the trail vanished. Beneath snow. After much deliberation, we decided to turn back. **It is also important to note that we were parallel to Gardiner at this point. And we started in Mammoth. WE WERE PARALLEL TO ANOTHER CITY!!!!**
We eventually made it back. About 12 miles and 5 hours later.
We drug our bodies into the house. And then Devaney cooked. THE MOST AMAZING FOOD EVER! And then we got ice cream. And then we slept. And then I got up and went to a boring orientation all day. And now we are back at the Tumbleweed, sitting outside, drinking a pot of tea. Perfect.
That was so much writing. So I'm going to move on to pictures. Needles to say, it was a wonderful weekend. And very challenging. We are currently trying to figure out a way to keep Devaney at Yellowstone all summer. Updates forthcoming.