Monday, September 1, 2008

Yellowstone

On Saturday morning, Tyler woke at 6:00 AM to start a fire for breakfast. He is hardcore into getting the most out of our cast iron frying pan purchase, and what better way to season the pan than a campfire. Eggs, bacon, and toast were on the menu for breakfast. We showered and headed for Yellowstone, stopping to pick up a pair of binoculars on the way out of the cute town of West Yellowstone.

The best way to go animal hunting during peak hours is to look where all the parked cars are stopped. Almost immediately after entering the park we saw a huge pack of parked cars. People were stumbling down a embankment to take pictures of a bull elk standing on the opposite side of a stream who seemed to care less that he had an audience for breakfast. After getting out of the car to get a little closer, we realized that there were a dozen elk cows and calves on the opposite side of the road, much closer to us. Most of them were safely relaxing in the shade of the trees watching the tourists gogle over the bull across the stream. I don't think most people realized there were so many elk directly behind them until they turned to go back to their cars.

We continued on to Lower Geyser Basin and decided to stop at Fountain Paint Pot, a seemingly interesting name for a hot springs area. The most fascinating thing about this particular area of hot springs was the diversity of each hotspot. There were clear blue bubbling pools, alien looking sediment deposits, gurgling mudpits, screaming heat vents, and small geysers, all with steam rising from them. The whole area smelled particularly foul.

Upon leaving Fountain Paint Pot, we saw a bison huffing and puffing walking uphill on the shoulder of the road, coming our direction. A van was keeping pace directly alongside of him. The kids in the car could have reached out the window and pet the bison's back, if they wanted to. Other than for the harumphing sound issuing from the bison, he didn't seem to care.

Down at the Upper Geyser Basin, we pulled in with 45 minutes to spare before Old Faithful was "scheduled" to erupt. We picked up a few trinkets at the gift shop, and were sucked into buying a jar of huckleberry jam for our PB&J sandwiches (they had huckleberry everything!). We made ourselves some sandwiches, grabbed some snackes, poured out glasses of milk, and waited for the eruption. It was cool but probably not the highlight of our trip to Yellowstone as most people seeem to think it should be. I guess we were hoping for something a little more grandiose considering the amount of people who were gathered for the spectacle.

At this point we were getting tired of hot springs and geysers, so we headed on around the Grand Loop to Yellowstone Lake. We stopped at one point to get out of the car and touch the water to see how cold it was. The crystalline clear water was stunning. As were the pretty colors of blue you could see across the lake. The water was freezing, and the air was cool and breezy. But, there were people in boats, suffering against the chill. In the distance we saw plumes of smoke, and wondered if they signaled a forest fire.

As we left the lake we entered Hayden Valley, a prime place for animal watching. It wasn't long before we saw more cars pulled alongside the road. Naturally, we pulled off too. A huge herd of bison were grazing/standing/stomping/meandering just off the road. People were snapping pictures outside of their vehicles, within 10 ft of the bison. The bison seemed to completely ignore the large mass of people. Every time the bison would make a slight movement towards the people or make any loud snorting noises, the people would all begin to take giant steps backwards. This was probably due to the large signs posted EVERYWHERE stating that tourists have been severly injured and killed by seemingly harmless bison. In fact, it is illegal at Yellowstone to get within 25 yards of bison, or 100 yards of a bear.

The rest of our day was spent stopping at various vistas and waterfalls, which you can look at in my pictures. Hopefully some of them will give justice to just how breathtaking the landscape was. Reaching the northern end of Yellowstone, we came across a neighborhood, that we took to be the place where the rangers families live. Within this neighborhood was a large lodge. And in the shade of the building 10 elk cows were getting a break from the heat of the sun. While this was quite comical, considering the amount of fearless elk and bison we had all ready seen, we were ready to see some other four-legged animals.

It was early evening and we were getting tired, but we still decided to stop at Mammoth Hot Springs. If you ever go to Yellowstone, do NOT stop at Mammoth Hot Springs. If you are still intrigued, only look at the lowest level of salt formations. You won't see anything else more interesting by climbing hundreds of steep wooden stairs. All you'll get, is out of breath from the exertion/elevation. The lowest level, is very pretty. Everything else, looks exactly the same. Except for the bunnies who seem to be the only animals that can live in this sulfur laden environment.

As we exited the park, we saw many more elk and bison, but we didn't do much more than slow down to check if they were Moose or being stalked by bear or wolves, before passing them by. We made it to our KOA by dinner time, cooked up some tomato soup, grilled cheese, hot dogs, the last of the bacon, and S'mores and headed to bed, exhausted from our 1-day, self-guided, tour of the 2,219,789-acre park.

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