At Yellowstone
Monday 9/8 – Cody to Mammoth Hot Springs
We woke up to a beautiful clear, blue sky – finally - and to the promise of temperatures in the 70’s. We headed out early on the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway toward the NE entrance of Yellowstone. The scenery along the Chief Joseph Highway was spectacular, especially at Dead Indian Pass. New snow had fallen the night before at high elevations, which made the mountain scenery picture-perfect.
At the end of Chief Joseph Highway, we took a detour up to Beartooth Pass. Charles Kuralt called the Beartooth Highway America’s most scenic drive, so we had to see it. The highway goes all of the way to Red Lodge, MT, which would have added 3-4 hours to our trip. When we were in Cody we asked our clothing salesman/tour guide about the route, and he said the WY side (the pass is on the border between WY and MT) is the prettiest part of the drive and the least “cliffy”. That convinced us to drive just to the summit on the border and turn around, thereby saving ourselves a couple of hours and miles of terror.
The drive was gorgeous. The Pass is a tad shy of 11,000 feet in elevation, the highest paved road in WY and MT. There was quite a bit of snow at the top and it was cold - only 38 degrees. There were several mountain lakes along the way and the whole Absaroka Mountain range in the distance. And not very cliffy at all! Arthur drove all of the way up, and I drove down without too much wear and tear on either of us.
We thoroughly enjoyed the drive from the NE entrance of Yellowstone across the La Mar Valley on our way to the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. On the drive we saw several herds of buffalo and a few deer.
After checking into the hotel, we strolled around Mammoth and up onto the travertine terraces created by the hot springs. We saw the brightest blue bluebirds I have ever seen (they might be mountain bluebirds, but we don’t have our book with us). We also watched the elk that gather in town in the fall for rutting season (we still aren’t sure why they choose this location?!). There were many females and their young. A very large, trumpeting bull showed up just before dark. Signs all over town warn against getting too close to the elk, especially at this time of year. At the Visitor’s Center, we watched video clips that made us believers - bulls chasing people and ramming cars.
Tuesday, 9/9 - Aarriving at Old Faithful
Another warm, sunny day in the low 70’s – perfect. We drove around the Upper Terraces of the Mammoth Hot Springs and attended a Ranger talk about the terraces (a little disappointing – not much information) before heading south toward Old Faithful. En route, we spent a couple of hours walking the Back Basin and Porcelain Basin trails at the Norris Geyser Basin. The colors in the bubbling springs are unbelievable – vivid blues, emerald greens, bright yellows and rusty reds.
We arrived at the Snow Lodge at Old Faithful, our home for the next three nights, in time to see Old Faithful erupt. Before today I hadn’t appreciated how wonderful it is that Old Faithful erupts regularly and predictably every day (about every 90 minutes). It is a lot more fun to see a geyser in action! We viewed the eruption from rocking chairs on the porch at the Old Faithful Lodge (not to be confused with the Old Faithful Inn) while drinking an Old Faithful Ale and visiting with a retired couple from upstate New York who is working for 2 months at the ice cream stand at Mammoth to support their Yellowstone travel habit.
I have been meaning to comment on the demographics of our fellow travelers. As I expected, most of the folks on the road after Labor Day are your basic AARP crowd. (I have come to think of it as the “migraytion”). I have always said that to feel younger, one should hang out with an older crowd. Well, today that strategy was confirmed. As we came across a couple we had previously spoken with on a trail, they said “here are the youngsters”! That made my day. Mixed in with the geezers (as opposed to geysers…) are lots of foreign tourists (especially German, French, Japanese) and two other smaller, but persistent groups: the “home schooling” families (uh, right) and the bikers (hello-o-o, Sturgis was in August). Overall, I would say that the Park is full but not overflowing. There does seem to be a post-Labor Day shortage of staff, and those who are still here are being worked very hard. Much of the seasonal labor here is made up of students from all over the world.
Wednesday, 9/10 – Thursday, 9/11 – Two days and Two Spectacular Geysers!
On Wednesday, we joined a Park Ranger for a tour of Geyser Circle at Old Faithful. It was very exciting as he received word over his radio that Beehive Geyser (this Ranger’s “favorite geyser”) was getting ready to erupt. We hurried over and were there, up close and personal, to witness the eruption. It was very high and powerful and probably lasted for 5 minutes or so (Old Faithful goes off more often, but only 2-4 minutes).
Arthur announced today that he found the total absence of cell phone coverage, Internet access and TV in the Park “disturbing”! Fortunately, he did find a USA Today which seems to have relieved his anxiety somewhat. I am not missing the outside world. Verizon seems to be the only carrier that is commonly found in the park – AT&T is totally useless.
On Thursday morning, we drove around Firehole Lake Circle and stopped by several more geyser basins. We saw a couple more bison herds (I have now learned they are bison, not buffalo), osprey, a bald eagle and a coyote (and, of course, many ground squirrels). After lunch at the historic lunch counter in the General Store at Old Faithful, we walked the Upper Basin Loop and were fortunate to come across Castle Geyser as it was erupting. The eruption lasted 20 to 30 minutes and then roaring blasts of steam continued for another 20 minutes. It was fantastic. It is clear that Old Faithful’s claim to fame is due only to its regularity and predictability. Castle and Beehive only erupt twice per day and the time can be plus or minus 2 hours from the predicted time.
It is easy to get hooked on “chasing” and watching geysers – they are mesmerizing. There actually is a group of what we call “geezer geyser guys”. They are volunteers (mostly retired males) who track the eruptions of 10 -15 geysers around the Park and report the actual eruption times to the Rangers. The Rangers then post the next predicted eruption time in the Visitor Center for all geyser chasers.
After the excitement of Castle Geyser, we felt we needed to sample some of the world famous Yellowstone ice cream. We both had Buffalo Chip, which tasted a lot better than it sounds.
Friday, 9/12 – Saturday, 9/13 The Lake and The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Another picture-perfect blue sky day. We departed the Old Faithful area, drove to Yellowstone Lake and decided to “do” the Canyon. Wow! I had read a Smithsonian magazine article about 20 places to visit before you die, and they included the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. I was glad to think that we would be seeing them, but didn’t expect a lot. I was wrong. We took the Uncle Tom’s Trail down to observe the Falls near the bottom of the Canyon (including 300 plus very steep stairs). We were blown away – the Falls are tremendously powerful (over 37,000 gallons of water per second pouring over them) creating huge amounts of spray with a rainbow as they hit the Canyon floor. They were mesmerizing, much like the geysers, creating beautiful patterns in the water as it fell. Fortunately, the trek back up wasn’t as horrible as we thought it would be.
We took the highly acclaimed Photo Safari from the Lake Hotel with Doug at 6:15 a.m. on Saturday. It was COLD (35 degrees), but not as cold as the day before, according to Doug (thank heavens for small blessings…..). He is a talented photographer and teacher as well as a naturalist full of Yellowstone wildlife stories. We saw two bald eagles, two sand cranes (thanks to Arthur’s good spotting), and many bison, plus Arthur learned (and/or was reminded of) several very useful photo techniques and features of his camera.
We met a nice couple from Knoxville TN on the Safari, Wayne and Kathy, and invited them to join us for dinner. We had reservations at the Lake Hotel at 5:00 p.m., all that was available when I called 3 weeks ago. They were happy to join us as they had not been able to get in at all. We had a lovely dinner and enjoyed their company very much.
Speaking of food, I need to chronicle our wild animal tastings. We had Buffalo Stew in the Badlands (not good, though not the fault of the buffalo); Arthur had a Buffalo steak at Mammoth that he deemed pretty good (I had pecan encrusted trout that may be the best meal of the trip for me); we both had Buffalo Short Ribs at the Snow Lodge that were delicious; and a Buffalo burger at the Lake Hotel was also very tasty.
We woke up to a beautiful clear, blue sky – finally - and to the promise of temperatures in the 70’s. We headed out early on the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway toward the NE entrance of Yellowstone. The scenery along the Chief Joseph Highway was spectacular, especially at Dead Indian Pass. New snow had fallen the night before at high elevations, which made the mountain scenery picture-perfect.
At the end of Chief Joseph Highway, we took a detour up to Beartooth Pass. Charles Kuralt called the Beartooth Highway America’s most scenic drive, so we had to see it. The highway goes all of the way to Red Lodge, MT, which would have added 3-4 hours to our trip. When we were in Cody we asked our clothing salesman/tour guide about the route, and he said the WY side (the pass is on the border between WY and MT) is the prettiest part of the drive and the least “cliffy”. That convinced us to drive just to the summit on the border and turn around, thereby saving ourselves a couple of hours and miles of terror.
The drive was gorgeous. The Pass is a tad shy of 11,000 feet in elevation, the highest paved road in WY and MT. There was quite a bit of snow at the top and it was cold - only 38 degrees. There were several mountain lakes along the way and the whole Absaroka Mountain range in the distance. And not very cliffy at all! Arthur drove all of the way up, and I drove down without too much wear and tear on either of us.
We thoroughly enjoyed the drive from the NE entrance of Yellowstone across the La Mar Valley on our way to the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. On the drive we saw several herds of buffalo and a few deer.
After checking into the hotel, we strolled around Mammoth and up onto the travertine terraces created by the hot springs. We saw the brightest blue bluebirds I have ever seen (they might be mountain bluebirds, but we don’t have our book with us). We also watched the elk that gather in town in the fall for rutting season (we still aren’t sure why they choose this location?!). There were many females and their young. A very large, trumpeting bull showed up just before dark. Signs all over town warn against getting too close to the elk, especially at this time of year. At the Visitor’s Center, we watched video clips that made us believers - bulls chasing people and ramming cars.
Tuesday, 9/9 - Aarriving at Old Faithful
Another warm, sunny day in the low 70’s – perfect. We drove around the Upper Terraces of the Mammoth Hot Springs and attended a Ranger talk about the terraces (a little disappointing – not much information) before heading south toward Old Faithful. En route, we spent a couple of hours walking the Back Basin and Porcelain Basin trails at the Norris Geyser Basin. The colors in the bubbling springs are unbelievable – vivid blues, emerald greens, bright yellows and rusty reds.
We arrived at the Snow Lodge at Old Faithful, our home for the next three nights, in time to see Old Faithful erupt. Before today I hadn’t appreciated how wonderful it is that Old Faithful erupts regularly and predictably every day (about every 90 minutes). It is a lot more fun to see a geyser in action! We viewed the eruption from rocking chairs on the porch at the Old Faithful Lodge (not to be confused with the Old Faithful Inn) while drinking an Old Faithful Ale and visiting with a retired couple from upstate New York who is working for 2 months at the ice cream stand at Mammoth to support their Yellowstone travel habit.
I have been meaning to comment on the demographics of our fellow travelers. As I expected, most of the folks on the road after Labor Day are your basic AARP crowd. (I have come to think of it as the “migraytion”). I have always said that to feel younger, one should hang out with an older crowd. Well, today that strategy was confirmed. As we came across a couple we had previously spoken with on a trail, they said “here are the youngsters”! That made my day. Mixed in with the geezers (as opposed to geysers…) are lots of foreign tourists (especially German, French, Japanese) and two other smaller, but persistent groups: the “home schooling” families (uh, right) and the bikers (hello-o-o, Sturgis was in August). Overall, I would say that the Park is full but not overflowing. There does seem to be a post-Labor Day shortage of staff, and those who are still here are being worked very hard. Much of the seasonal labor here is made up of students from all over the world.
Wednesday, 9/10 – Thursday, 9/11 – Two days and Two Spectacular Geysers!
On Wednesday, we joined a Park Ranger for a tour of Geyser Circle at Old Faithful. It was very exciting as he received word over his radio that Beehive Geyser (this Ranger’s “favorite geyser”) was getting ready to erupt. We hurried over and were there, up close and personal, to witness the eruption. It was very high and powerful and probably lasted for 5 minutes or so (Old Faithful goes off more often, but only 2-4 minutes).
Arthur announced today that he found the total absence of cell phone coverage, Internet access and TV in the Park “disturbing”! Fortunately, he did find a USA Today which seems to have relieved his anxiety somewhat. I am not missing the outside world. Verizon seems to be the only carrier that is commonly found in the park – AT&T is totally useless.
On Thursday morning, we drove around Firehole Lake Circle and stopped by several more geyser basins. We saw a couple more bison herds (I have now learned they are bison, not buffalo), osprey, a bald eagle and a coyote (and, of course, many ground squirrels). After lunch at the historic lunch counter in the General Store at Old Faithful, we walked the Upper Basin Loop and were fortunate to come across Castle Geyser as it was erupting. The eruption lasted 20 to 30 minutes and then roaring blasts of steam continued for another 20 minutes. It was fantastic. It is clear that Old Faithful’s claim to fame is due only to its regularity and predictability. Castle and Beehive only erupt twice per day and the time can be plus or minus 2 hours from the predicted time.
It is easy to get hooked on “chasing” and watching geysers – they are mesmerizing. There actually is a group of what we call “geezer geyser guys”. They are volunteers (mostly retired males) who track the eruptions of 10 -15 geysers around the Park and report the actual eruption times to the Rangers. The Rangers then post the next predicted eruption time in the Visitor Center for all geyser chasers.
After the excitement of Castle Geyser, we felt we needed to sample some of the world famous Yellowstone ice cream. We both had Buffalo Chip, which tasted a lot better than it sounds.
Friday, 9/12 – Saturday, 9/13 The Lake and The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Another picture-perfect blue sky day. We departed the Old Faithful area, drove to Yellowstone Lake and decided to “do” the Canyon. Wow! I had read a Smithsonian magazine article about 20 places to visit before you die, and they included the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. I was glad to think that we would be seeing them, but didn’t expect a lot. I was wrong. We took the Uncle Tom’s Trail down to observe the Falls near the bottom of the Canyon (including 300 plus very steep stairs). We were blown away – the Falls are tremendously powerful (over 37,000 gallons of water per second pouring over them) creating huge amounts of spray with a rainbow as they hit the Canyon floor. They were mesmerizing, much like the geysers, creating beautiful patterns in the water as it fell. Fortunately, the trek back up wasn’t as horrible as we thought it would be.
We took the highly acclaimed Photo Safari from the Lake Hotel with Doug at 6:15 a.m. on Saturday. It was COLD (35 degrees), but not as cold as the day before, according to Doug (thank heavens for small blessings…..). He is a talented photographer and teacher as well as a naturalist full of Yellowstone wildlife stories. We saw two bald eagles, two sand cranes (thanks to Arthur’s good spotting), and many bison, plus Arthur learned (and/or was reminded of) several very useful photo techniques and features of his camera.
We met a nice couple from Knoxville TN on the Safari, Wayne and Kathy, and invited them to join us for dinner. We had reservations at the Lake Hotel at 5:00 p.m., all that was available when I called 3 weeks ago. They were happy to join us as they had not been able to get in at all. We had a lovely dinner and enjoyed their company very much.
Speaking of food, I need to chronicle our wild animal tastings. We had Buffalo Stew in the Badlands (not good, though not the fault of the buffalo); Arthur had a Buffalo steak at Mammoth that he deemed pretty good (I had pecan encrusted trout that may be the best meal of the trip for me); we both had Buffalo Short Ribs at the Snow Lodge that were delicious; and a Buffalo burger at the Lake Hotel was also very tasty.
posted by arthurandjane at 7:53 PM
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