YELLOWSTONE

Boy, can’t believe I’m so far behind with my ‘reporting’.  So much has happened in the last two days it fair boggles the mind.  All of it good stuff.  Some of the place names following might b e wrong, but if I wait to check you won’t get this till we are back in Ontario

We packed up and left Grand Tetons National Park with some regret.  Nice campground, and we enjoyed touring the park.  We overnighted at Coulton Bay RV Park and had a lovely campsite.  Jack remarked that we need to always include stays in National Parks in our travels to remind us what camping is really about.  Its true.  You are in semi-wilderness instead of parking lots.

Of course this statement was disproved when we got to Yellowstone.  More about that later.  Trying to keep in chronological order here. 

One thing we have notices here is that what looks like a short distanced in miles, can take a long time here.  Between the roads that are very twisty and turney, not to mention the long steep upgrades followed by long steep downgrades up and down mountains, and the necessary low speed limits it can take an hour or more to go 19 miles.  Of course the time is also dictated by the fact that your can’t pass very often, and there are so many wildlife sightings that slow traffic to a stop.

Coming out of the Grand Tetons is was construction.  Took us an hour and a half to travel 26 miles!  When we entered Yellowstone at the South Gate we stopped to walk in to a waterfall and relax.  Lovely.  I’m so impressed with the wildflowers here - this stop it was something similar to blue bells.  

Back on the road we traveled along side a spectacular canyon.  Almost impossible to get nice photos because the roads have no shoulders, and the turnouts (or pulloffs) never seem to be where you want them.  Apparently this canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon.  Not as accessible.  

Next stop - West Thumb Hot springs.  We took the walking trails (mostly boardwalks) around these hotsprings and whatever else you call the weird stuff that is part of thermal Yellowstone. I find it pretty interesting - bubbling (boiling) ponds steaming away in a landscape that looks like it belongs on the moon.  The springs range from mud pots that bubble up milkly-muddy looking ooze to turquoise pools rimmed with crystalized minerals that are gorgeous to look at.  These particular springs are located beside a lake some of the springs are along the shore, looking like miniature volcanoes, others create little streams that run down into the lake.  The little bit of growth is usually brilliantly coloured.  I have some awesome pictures.   

Carol and Russ had never seen anything like it and we have only seen this type of thermal activity years ago in a different part of Yellowstone   It truly is other-worldy.  But the sulphur smell and steam get to you after a while. On the way out we passed an elk on the road

So now its time for a little history lesson.  Some facts for you.  Yellowstone, all 2 million acres of it, is actually a huge volcano.  An active one at that.  The Park is rimmed by mountains, which actually were the rim of a huge crater.  This is/was the largest Volcano in the world. They class it as active because of all of the thermal stuff happening.  There are geysers, hot springs, mud springs, all manner of things going on, including about 1,000 earthquakes or tremors a year.  I would have loved to spend time learning more about all this stuff.  They have a centre when you can go to see the seismographs and such but we just haven’t had time and the rest of the gang isn’t as interested as me. 

Anyway from there we checked in at our campground.  Thank heaven we reserved back in February because they were turning people away when we arrived a 2 pm.  Had no time to dawdle about as we had booked a wildlife tour at 3:30.  I had suggested it to give the guys a chance to enjoy some of Yellowstone without having to drive.  The roads are so twisty, have no shoulders, and most of time, no guardrails even where there are steep drop offs.  

Had a bit of a shock at the increased price over what they quoted, but decided to go for it.  Turned out the price went up because we got to go in a restored heritage mini-bus thing,

These were originally build for the park in he 1920's. They had been sold off years ago, but were recovered in Alaska.  The buses and all parts were purchased in Alaska, shipped to Detroit where they were rebuilt and restored.  And of course brought up to today’s standards.  So off we went in these yellow tourist buses that hold 13 passengers, and have a roll-top roof to facilitate standing up to view wildlife from the safety of the vehicle.

A few interesting things.  First the doors are made of wood, which flexes when you lean on it, so every time we went around a steep curve it felt like I was going to fall out.  Second, there were three full bench seats across, each supposed to hold four people.  Jack got to sit in the front passenger seat, so Carol Russ and I were in row 2.  It was cramped.  None of us are small people.  So when the driver said we had to pick up three more people, two for the back row and one to go in with us, the dander went up.  Russ was livid, I was worried I would loose my window seat, as was Carol.  Luckily, when he stopped at the next resort to pick up the 3 (mom dad and child) she took one look at the space and said no way, I want my money back.  Phew!!!

So off we went.  First spectacular wildlife was a pretty large herd of buffalo spread out over a river valley.  A mile or so further on, the buffalo - oops, have to remember the guide’s lecture - the bison - were right along the side of the road.  We saw an eagle and kept a lookout for a grizzly who had been feeding on a dead buffalo/bison but didn’t see him.  Saw some pronghorns, and elk at a distance.  Probably the best part of the tour was the drive.  Having a narrator, especially one who has worked in the park for years brings things to life and increases your awe and appreciation.  The old bus thingee did a lot of clanking and gear changing as we charged up steep mountain switchbacks, and down again.  It was pretty hairy as the driver seemed to spend most of his time gazing about looking for wildlife instead of at the road.

We spent quite a bit of time stopped looking at where wildlife was supposed to be - grizzly and black bears, big horn sheep and such.  We saw a lot of people with scopes looking for bears and wolves.  Yellowstone has a number of wolf packs and there are people who go out night after night with scopes to try to see them.  They refer to them as wolf spotters.  Driver never stopped to see if they could see bears or wolves, he just kept saying “you often see bears here but we can’t stop because there is no where to pull off.”

This tour was great for the guys because they could look and enjoy the spectacular place Yellowstone is.  But, I would not recommend paying $100/each for it.  He didn’t go anywhere we couldn’t go ourselves.  As we found out the next day.

We got back to camp about 9 pm, so had to hook up in the dark.  Its amazing how much earlier it gets dark now, especially in the mountains.  

Next day we headed out to explore another part of the park. Taking a circular route which would get us to Roosevelt Lodge at 3:30 ready for another adventure.  We had booked a covered wagon trip that took us out to a cookout in Pleasant Valley. It was a fantastic experience, and much better value than the yellow bus.

We had two possible ways to get to the Lodge.  A repeat of the hairy mountain trip of the day before, or a drive around a western loop which would take us through new territory.  We went west, taking in Mammoth Hot Springs and lots of different scenery.  I had been told that our best chance of seeing Big Horn Sheep was to head for the North Gate so off we went.  Well here we are driving in second again because of the steep roads.  Sure enough we found a herd of 7 Big Horns clambering about on a cliff.  Mark another one off Carol’s list.  We saw elk along the way, so really her list is getting down to a sighting, and photo, of a black bear.  We do keep trying.

We have actually seen Black Bears three times, but she has always missed it, or couldn’t get a picture.  

We arrived at the Lodge, which is a centre where you can taking several different horseback rides out into the wilderness, go on a stage coach ride, or do what we had come for, take the covered wagons out for a cookout.  Its about a 45 minute trip out through the valley.  We passed bison and pronghorns along the way.   We arrived at the “camp” just before two groups of horseback riders, so had the pleasure of seeing them come down a ridge and hill.  It was so enjoyable.  They had a western singer, an old fellow who talked like Johnny Cash and sang like Gene Autry, who brought a real feeling of the old west.  Coffee was in pots hanging over a campfire and dished out by an older cowboy.  The wranglers (drivers from the wagons, and those who accompanied the ‘dudes’ on horseback) or cowboys sat around the campfire and gave real atmosphere to the place.  There were picnic tables for the rest of us.  The meal was all you can eat - steak grilled on site, potato salad and coleslaw, western style beans, cornbread, watermelon and peach cobbler.  Very good.

So we all enjoyed this experience very much but were a little anxious to get back because we had to drive over the mountains to get home and wanted to do it before dark.  To give you an idea of the roads here they give you a map with distances and driving times on them.  This road we were to travel was 19 miles, estimated time 1 ½ hours.  Not only tough up and down grades, sharp curves, no shoulders with drop offs that go down thousands of feet but we also knew we had to go through the buffalo/bison again and Jack and I knew how hairy that could be after dark.

So off we set.  Well folks I have to tell you that our little Rialta did us proud.  Jack put her in second and we just made our way up and down, round and round, with no hesitation.  Russ followed along behind, and other than running a bit to close to the back of us from time to time, he had no trouble.  The day before he had complained about his brakes burning and smoking, so Jack told him to rely on the transmission more.  Worked great.  Much better trip than that darn old bus thing.

So today is our last in Yellowstone.  We decided to head off to see Old Faithful.  Man what a place that has turned into.  Huge lodges, gift shops, eating places and such.  The parking lot is absolutely huge.  We all ended up doing a bit of shopping before heading out to watch the geyser perform.  They have a boardwalk around Old Faithful now.  It has benches for the fortunate, some sit on the raised boardwalk and many stand behind the sitters.  There seemed to be several hundred folks all eagerly waiting for the big blow and she performed admirable, right on time.  Fascinating to thing this geyser has been sending up water and steam 60-90 feet in the air at 60-90 minute intervals since it was discovered in the 1800s.

Our day ended with a trip to the laundromat and showers in the campground, then a leisurely evening.  We head for Cody tomorrow.

So there we go.  Sorry this bit has been long-winded but truth is we packed a huge amount of serious experience into these three days.  

One more interesting note: Today the work crews were out putting up long poles that were 10-12 feet high to mark medians and such for the snow plow operators.  They quite often get snow here in early September.  That is only 10 days from now.  We have three nights in Cody, then will be hot footing across to Sault Ste Marie.  Plan stops in Wall, the Badlands, and a few other places along the way but just short ones.

Thats all folks.

Julie

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